An Essay About Benjamin Button

An Essay about Benjamin Button

"My name is Benjamin Button, and I was born under unusual circumstances. While everyone else was aging, I was gettin' younger... all alone."1 That is how the curious case of Benjamin Button begins. We are all different, but it is never too late or in Benjamin's case, too early to choose whoever we want to be as we grow up. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules. These transformations are a way for us to learn more about ourselves and become independent but, are there parts of us that doesn't change as we get older? There are points in all of our lives when we feel alone, but of course there is different ways of being lonely. So what are the aspects of being the only one born old and ages backwards?

The curious case of Benjamin Buttons begins with Daisy on her deathbed in New Orleans Hospital, with her daughter Caroline. Caroline is about to read aloud from Benjamin Buttons diary.

Benjamin Button was not like any other newborn baby. He was born in November 1918 with an appearance as an old man. His mother died quickly after giving birth to him, and his dad left him as an infant at nursing home. A worker at the nursing home, Queenie, decides to take care of him as her own, although his odd psychical appearance. Benjamin grows up at the nursing home. Growing up in those surroundings makes Benjamin experience death in a chronologically young age. An old lady named Mrs. Marple tells Benjamin that we are meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us?

At first, nobody has faith in Benjamin and they believe he is about to die. Even though, Benjamin shows them differently as he learns to walk and declares it a miracle.

Benjamin Button: Momma? Momma? Some days, I feel different than the day before.

Queenie: Everyone feels different about themselves one way or another, but we all goin' the same way.2

On thanksgiving 1930 Benjamin meets six-year-old Daisy, whose grandmother stays at the nursing home too. Benjamin and Daisy quickly bond. She cannot understand his odd physical appearance, and therefore she asks if he is sick. He replies that he was told he was going to die soon but, he didn't believe in that. He is aware that he ages backward. Benjamin also meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father.

Benjamin ends up leaving New Orleans for work for long period of time. Meanwhile, Daisy enters a dance school in New York. In 1941 Benjamin begins having an affair with Elizabeth Abbott whose husband is the British Trade Minister. After a couple of months Abbott decides to end their affair. Soon Benjamin decides to volunteer work on a tugboat. During a patrol, the tugboat finds a sunken U.S. submarine and the bodies of 1300 American troops. Captain