The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Essay Example He never had the opportunity to see his mother as she died soon after his birth. His father, Mr. Thomas Button, horrified by his elderly features, abandoned him right away at the doorsteps of a retirement home. A kindhearted black woman, Queenie, then took the responsibility and raised him all along. He soon realized that instead of growing older, he was aging in the opposite direction. He met a beautiful little girl, Daisy, who later becomes the love of his life. At times, several events break them apart. He went to Murmansk where he had an affair with a married woman, Elizabeth Abbott. He also had the opportunity to witness war when on the Chelsea ship crew. Later on, Thomas Button revealed that he was Benjamin’s real father, and left him all his possessions upon death. Growing through age in the opposite directions, Benjamin and Daisy meet up again in their forties. It was then when Daisy gave birth to a girl named Caroline. Soon after her birth, Benjamin realized that she needs a father who would age with her and leaves them. However, he visited them after a long time when he had grown up into a boy. He later dies as an infant in Daisy’s lap. The ending of the film depicts the replacement of the clock at railway station (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). ... He managed to get a decent job on the ship and had an affair with a beautiful woman. He survived war and had a beautiful daughter like other normal people. Another major theme was the desire of man to reverse time without realizing the consequences. The depiction of a backward running clock at the very beginning of the film was a beautiful illustration of this concept. He witnessed more and more deaths, as he grew younger with time. It was not possible for him to share the joys of life with his only daughter, Caroline. Through his narrative, Benjamin also tries to tell that no matter how hard the circumstances, a person can be what he wants to be. The scene portraying abandoning of Benjamin by his father due to ugly appearance reveals the darker side of human nature. Everyone dies eventually. Though he was born different, his aging in the opposite direction never favored him to overcome time. Barsam and Monahan have noted the commonality of a narrative as, â€Å"even those narrative films bearing an overt ideological message or a dark theme are designed to engage an audience with a story† (65). As this film is a narration of a life story, all these themes including many other experiences of joy and sadness succeeded in keeping the audience captured. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a fantasy drama employing a narrative structure. According to Barsam and Monahan, a narrative is, â€Å"structured into acts that establish, develop, and resolve character conflict† (28). Although multifaceted storytelling over limited course of time is quite complicated, the director made an excellent effort to maintain conformity in the story structure. The sequence of events in the movie aimed to keep intrigue and