F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for The Great Gatsby, a novel that has traveled far beyond its original readership.

In Gatsby, Fitzgerald gave readers a character driven by longing. He also wrote shorter works in quite different registers. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button uses an extraordinary premise to satirize everyday life.

From the Page to the Screen

Fitzgerald’s fiction has been adapted for film many times. Benjamin Button became familiar to a wider audience through the film adaptation.

The film carried over the central idea of a man who is born old and dies an infant. That reversal gave the adaptation much of its initial appeal.

An Old Man at the Beginning of His Life

Benjamin is born looking like an old man and grows younger until he dies as an infant. Fitzgerald attributed the idea to an observation by Mark Twain.

• “It was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end.”

The people around Benjamin are astonished to find an old man where they expected a baby. His father is appalled, but decides he has to accept what has happened. That is where the story begins.

One of the first surprises is what Benjamin says when he meets his father.

• He asks if the man is his father, then wants to know whether he can take him away or at least bring him a more comfortable place to sleep.

From there, Fitzgerald imagines the increasingly absurd consequences of a life lived in reverse. Benjamin grows younger year by year until he reaches infancy.

A Satire of a Familiar Life

Benjamin’s body runs backward, but much of the life around him follows a recognizable course.

A marriage cools, father and son struggle to understand each other, and other people judge what they see. The same tensions remain even when Benjamin’s appearance becomes younger with every year.

The story starts with a question about what would happen if the beginning and end of life were reversed. Fitzgerald’s invention keeps the question interesting by showing how much would stay familiar.

Book Information

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Korean edition publication date

4 February 2008

ISBN13

9788995637166

View book on YES24

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