The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Introduction

F. Scott Fitzgerald is the author of the short-story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Ray Stark held the development rights of the story until 2004 when he died. Later, the rights were purchased and in 2008, a movie was made based on the story, which was directed by David Fincher (Bloom, pp. 102).

Similarity in the Central Theme

The 1 singularity between the book (short-story) and the movie is the central theme. The movie has the same central theme as the short-story. This central theme revolves around the aging of Benjamin Button in reverse order. He was born as an elderly man, and with the passage of time he grew younger until he became an infant. There are a number of differences between the short-story and the book, but the central theme of aging reversely remains the same.

The Book

In the book, the theme of reverse aging revolves as Benjamin is born, who looks as if he is 70 years old, adult man. Benjamin's father calls boys from the neighborhood to give him company and play with him. However, Benjamin obeys his father only to please him. Benjamin could speak since birth. When he was 5 years old, his father sends him to kindergarten. However, his stay at the school was short-lived as he developed a habit of falling asleep at the time of child activities (Yates, pp. 43).

Benjamin's family realized that he was aging in a reverse order when he turned 12. Later, Benjamin goes to a university as he got himself enrolled. Nevertheless, the officials noted Benjamin's fading hair color and decided to cancel his enrollment at the day of registration. Benjamin was 18 years of age then. The officials thought that Benjamin was a 50-year-old crazy person.

As the story further develops, Benjamin decides to hand over his company's control to his son, Roscoe, as he decides to have an enrollment in Harvard University. He looked like 20 years of age and had a great experience in the first year of his university life. Benjamin becomes a leading American football player, who looked to have revenge against Yale due to his unlikable encounter. Nevertheless, Benjamin becomes a feeble 16 year old boy, who could not play football, and found it extremely difficult to deal with his academic burden.

When Benjamin completed his graduation and returned home, he found that his wife left him. He started living with his son Roscoe, who treated him extremely harshly. He even made Benjamin called him as uncle when there were guests in the house. With the passage of time, Benjamin grew younger from his adolescence to a young child. Later, Roscoe sends Benjamin with his child to attend kindergarten. Once kindergarten was over, Benjamin started to lose his memory as he hardly remembered his days from his early life. In the end, Benjamin remembers nothing but his nurse until everything diminishes to darkness (Fitzgerald, pp. 36).

The Movie

The central theme, which the book had, remains the same in the movie ...