Benjamin Button F. Scott Fitzgerald Is Commonly Essay

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Benjamin Button

F. Scott Fitzgerald is commonly thought of as one the 20th century's greatest writers and is best known for his reflections on the society of the 1920's; named the "Jazz Age" by Fitzgerald himself. But one of his short stories, published in Colliers magazine in 1922 was a purely fictional account of a remarkable man named Benjamin Button. In his The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fitzgerald examines a number of themes including a family's place in society, how individuals refuse to accept reality and live in a state of denial, and even a person's place within the family structure. But the theme that was presented repeatedly by Fitzgerald was the concept of age and how it affects a person's attitudes and relationships in the world.

Benjamin Button is remarkable in so much as he is born in 1860 as a 70-year-old man, and as time progresses forward, Benjamin ages backward. In others words, he was born a 70-year-old man, with the knowledge and attitudes of one, but twenty years later Benjamin was a 50-year-old man. This continues through the next seventy years with a number of interesting situations happening along the way. And as Benjamin ages backwards, his attitudes and relationships change in interesting ways. When Benjamin first comes home from the hospital his parents, humiliated by their son's appearance, react in a strange way; they force him to act like an infant.

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However, Benjamin's most enjoyable relationship is that with his grandfather. Although they were, as Fitzgerald stated, "so far apart in age and experience," they would sit "like old cronies, discuss[ing] with tireless monotony the slow events of the day." (Fitzgerald, 1, III) Even though Benjamin was just born, because he was already a 70-year-old, he could relate better to another old man than to his parents or other children.

When Benjamin reaches the eighteenth year after his birth, he has the appearance of a 50-year-old man and allows people to believe that he is his father's brother. In this guise, Benjamin begins a relationship with a young woman, Hildegarde Moncrief, who is attracted to older men. They soon marry and Benjamin, no longer seeking the company of the elderly, assumes his role as head of his household and an excellent provider. In fact, in the fifteen years after his marriage to Hildegarde, "the family fortune doubled-- and this was due largely to the younger member of the firm [Benjamin]." (Fitzgerald, 1, VII) As Benjamin becomes a middle aged man, he assumes the role of the middle aged….....

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