The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Plot

In the curious case of Benjamin Button, I almost see the plot as a backwards storyline. This is due to how the main character, Benjamin Button, is born a seventy year old man and then progressively ages younger. In the plot their still exists an exposition, rising action, etc., but those elements of the plot almost seem reversed (but they are not) due to the reversed aging of Benjamin. However, the plot consisting of the reversed aging is what significantly impacts the story and how I was able to compare different ages. By having Benjamin Button being born and "apparently of 70 years old" inevitably causes the reader to compare him to a child during that part of the story, and visa versa towards the end of the story. By this occuring, I was able to spot out how old people are so alike helpless children and how children how like the old. I believe this to be a theme of the work making the plot and essential element to understanding it.



Point of View

The point of view present in this short story can be described as ominiscent point of view. The narrator does not know detail solely on Benjamin, but also on his family around him. The first few pages are about Roger Button alone. By having an ominiscent point of view, the reader can be given more detail about other characters. This helps me compare Benjamin to other characters. For example, on page 50, the author described Roscoe as having "obviously no heartiness in feeling toward [Benjamin]--there was even perceptible a tendency on his son's part to think that Benjamin...was somewhat in the way." By being able to have an all-knowing narrator, we can get descriptions like these. This description about Rosco helped us compare Benjamin to and old man. At this time in the story, Benjamin growing more a child, and as grown children take care of their parents when they get too old, Benjamin needed to be cared for by his son. This is how ominiscent point of view is necessary for this story.



Characterization

The author reveals Benjamin to us through indirect characterization. This, again, is also an effective tool in comparing Benjamin's apparent age to people of his true age. By only being able to figure out Benjamin through his actions, we are given even more detail and experiences that help us compare him. If we were told that, as an old man (when actually he was just born), Benjamin was senile and cranky, I would not compare him to a child because this is not an accurate description of a child's personality. But through action that can both replicate an old man's action and child's action, we can easily compare the two. For example, on page 20, Benjamin's father warns him that doing bad things such as what Benjamin had done earlier could "stunt his growth." Regular children would noramally be told this, but in this case Benjamin is and it resembles that of how a parent would talk to a small child. Also, Benjamin is most certainly a dynamic character throughout the short story.



Setting

Throughout the short story there are multiple settings. For the most part, Benjanin remains at his home in what I believe to be Maryland. The only other major settings that occur in the story is when Benjamin goes off to fight the Spanish-American War and goes to college. This setting also shows how both extremes of age are very similar. When Benjamin is seen as a seventy year old (but really just born) he stays at home with his father who takes care of him. Then as he comes to the middle of his life, he enters the military and then goes to college. Then towards his childhood (but really when he is around 50 or so), he has to go back home and since"Hildegarde was now residing in Italy, Benjamin went to live with his son, Roscoe." This resembles the regular setting of a person who ages normally. Children have to stay at home and be taken care of, and old people also have to be at some consistent place and be taken care of.



Theme

While this story was very interesting, it was very hard to extract a theme from it. The story was very easy to follow and was interesting as well. But when I got to the end, it is difficult to find some sort of theme or lesson learned from reading this short story. Because of this, it is neccessary to dwell deeper into what maybe the author wants the reader to get from reading this short story. So when thinking deeply into what a theme could be, I decided that the story teaches how going in the wrong direction in life can be a very bad thing. For Benjamin, he was going in the opposite direction than everyone else in terms of his age. Because of this, he would not change as the other people changed around him. As his wife got older, he got younger and started to dislike the oldness of his wife. He was become her previous youth while she was becoming his previous old age. This brings conflict between the two. There are also many other examples throughout this story which are representative of the theme.

Brutal Truth

Miss Brill is certainly a dynamic character. At the beginning she is a very static character becuase of how she has this routine of simply going to the park every sunday and doing the same things each time. However, there is an event that causes her to change. We are never directly told this as an audience that she has changed, but the detail at the end is what tells us that she does change. At the end of the short story, a boy and a girl are criticizing Miss Brill for always being there and wearing the fur coat. This is what causes her to change. What represents her seperating herself from her normal tradition is when she does not stop at the bakery to get her normal pastry. She walks past it and this symbolizes how she has changed and is therefore a static character.

Sad!!

The short story Once Upon a Time presents an irony that was just very sad. Throughout the story, the parents are afraid of their house being broken into. They make all this security systems and then even put an eccentric bobwire fence that make it impossibe to climb over or get through. If anyone attempted to get through it, they would pretty much die. And this is what happened to the son the couple dearly loved. He was innocently playing a game with himself in which he tried to get through the fence but killed himself. So the security that they put up to protect themselves is what ended up killing their son. Complete irony!! This irony is also what helps contribute to the theme of the novel. I believe the theme of this novel to be that what we do to try to protect ourselves can actually come back to hurt us if we take that protection to the extreme. This theme is irony in itself, so having the situational irony in the story only adds to the effects of the the theme.

Like a child

In the short story A worn path, the main character, Phoenix, is never directly characterized. She seems like an odd character and through her actions and words, the author is able to indirectly characterize her. First of all, we find out that she is African American and is an old lady. She needs a cane to walk and she almost seems misguided leading me to believe that she is fairly old. However, while reading this story and observing Phoenix, it appears as if she acts like a child. For example, she asks someone in the city to tie her shoe for her. Also, on the last page of the short story, when the nurse offers to give her pennies from her purse, Phoenix out of nowhere says that 5 pennies is a nickel. Out of any type of person, I could only see a child saying such a thing. So this whole process of Phoenix's indirect characterization and displaying how she acts leads me to almost believe that Phoenix is a child. Maybe not literally in the story but metaphorically. I don't have any clue to what the theme to this story is, but I think that this comparison between her and a child is significant.

Both types

In the short story Eveline, the main character Eveline seem to be strugging mostly with internal conflict. This conflict appears to be Eveline wanting to escape with her boyfriend Frank. Throughout the whole story, Eveline is sitting at at her window thinking about the whole situation and why she wants to escape. But in thinking about this, she brings about the external conflict that seems to occur as well. She describes her father as being violent towards her and her brothers. Then later on in the short story, we find out that her mother had died from and illness and her father had been a nice person when her mother was alive. From this information given, I can conclude that because of her mother's death, this is what caused him to be violent and maybe and alcoholic. These two conflicts provide a better understanding for why she has a desire to leave and run away from home. But Eveline was told by her mom before she died to keep the home to keep the house in order for as long as she could. I believe that becuase of this promise that Eveline made to her mother, that is what caused her not to leave with Frank at the end.

different

The stories from this unit were much different than the stories from the unit before. There seems to be less of a theme brought on by the plot to theses stories. They focus more on the development of the characters and this is where the theme comes from. But if not looked into enough, the stories just seem very pointless and without meaning. I have had trouble extracting any type of theme from these three short stories. The best one I can guess is for the short story Hunters in the Snow and how the characters represent almost how inhumane society is. But for the other two stories, I can kind of analyze the characters and see if any go through any changes and how they contribute to the story but that's about it. My hardest story to find any meaning in was Bartleby the Svrivener. I have absolutely no idea what Bartleby represented or what this story was supposed to teach me! Let's just say that by the end of this novel I was mad because I felt that I gained absolutely nothing from reading this story. Some stories give meaning...but this story just takes away and hour and a half of your life. I'll probably find out soon exactly what it was about, but for now...I have nothing.

His effect

For this post, I am answering the question on the seperate page on how Bartleby's "I would prefer not to" affects the routine of the lawyer and employees. This phrase is the majority of what Bartleby says throughout the story. He starts off like some normal guy and then we figure out that he not so normal. But after a while of Bartleby repeating this phrase, the people at work around him almost start to inadvertantly say what he ways. For a whole page in the story approximately, the people in the office start to use the word prefer as well. Also, by Bartleby saying this and not participating in anything in the office, his other workers are forced to do the work required of Bartleby. However, he is never fired (during this beginning part) which is peculiar. Bartleby is refusing to do work in a way that the lawyer is not used to he almost has no idea what to do with Bartleby. He goes back and forth of being showing anger and pity. However, the routine of the lawyer is also affected because earlier in the short story, he mentions how he is a man who has never had to worry about to much in his life. But Bartleby comes in and presents him with all this stuff to think about he has absolutely no idea and he is just constantly consumed from trying to figure out what to do.

Makes no sense...yet

In the short story Hunters in the Snow, many events occur in the plot that do not seem to make sense with events that occured earlier in the story. There are many examples of this. For instance, when Kenny shoots the dog, he seems to just do it out of impulse. Before he kills the dog, he expresses how he hates it just as he said he hated the wooden post. But in fact, he shot the dog because the owner had asked him to. After finding this out and going back and re reading the dog shooting scene, it still did not appear as if he was planning on shooting it. He never told his friends about it, which was strange, and makes me begin to question the true relationship between the three. Another part that does not makes sense is when the friends seem all worried that Tub had shot Kenny. But in the final sentence of the story, we figure out that they meant to take the wrong turn to the hospital almost the whole time. They seemed sincere in caring for their friend, but not at the end. It is almost inhumane how they act at the end. So the plot doesn't seem to make sense with what happens later in the story and I'm not sure whether or not this is supposed to represent something....in which I'm sure that it is.

Shouldn't be talking

In the short story Everyday Use, the reader uses irony concerning Dee. At the end of the story, Dee addresses how her family, which includes her mother and sister, don't understand their own heritage. However, this is ironic because throughout the story, it is apparent that Dee does not understand her own heritage and even appears to be running away from it by marrying a man of a different culture and even changing her name completely to that of the different culure. She is the one who doesn't understand her own culture. But how does this contribute to the meaning of the text? Well, the title of the story is Everyday Use, and this relates to how the things that Dee wants to take from her mother's house to keep for herself and use as decoration are actually items that are used daily. So taking these items, especially the quilt, kind of relates how she is the one ignorant of her culture. So the use of irony and how it contributes to the text are successful ways of showing her arrogant and ignorant character.

Our first week...

So this is our first week of reading short stories and there are many similarities and differences between the poetry unit and this unit. First of all, this unit is going to require much more time to read the stories, but while we still have to analyze a lot, it will not require the tough analyzation skills that poetry did. But this is only my opinion right now and it could possibly change. I would have to say that I enjoyed reading the short stories more than I did the poetry. I really enjoyed "How I met my husband" and "Interpreter of Maladies". However, "A rose for Emily" was the one I least enjoyed. To me it didn't seem to have much point other than to describe a lunatic woman who killed the man she loved in order to keep him around. Yea...I bet he was real fun to keep around after that. I have to say it was interesting and different, but it just seemed pointless. However, I am guessing that I will learn its value by the end of the week. Overall, my prediction is that I will enjoy this unit far more than I enjoyed the last.

All makes sense

In the story "A Rose for Emily", their are a few details that foreshadow the ending of the story. First of all, the arsenic she bought is one of the biggest indicators that she poisoned the man. When she bought it, she would not give the reason for buying the poison. Also, when people knew she bought it, they thought that she did that so that she could poison herself. But when that doesn't happen, then you begin to wonder why she bought the arsenic, which was for her love. Also, another indicator is that when Homer returned home, he was never seen again. And this is very suspicious as well. A final detail that foreshadows the ending is whenever anybody saw Emily through her downstairs window, there was not one time when people saw Homer as well. So all these details lead to the end of the story when the people find Homer dead on the mattress.

Buildup

The Plot of "Interpreter of Maladies" is what causes the end of the story and Mrs. Das' true feelings towards Mr. Kapasi even more surprising. The story is told in 3rd person, but only focuses on the thoughts of Mr. Kapasi. Because of this, the timeline of events that happen throughout the story are mostly his thoughts and the buildup of how he increasingly becomes attracted towards Mrs. Das. This buildup is what lead me to believe that Mrs. Das actually had the same feelings towards him, but there is no proof of this before she tells him her secret. She is interested when he tells her about his job, and this also lead me to think she was attracted to him as well. But it ended up that she did not. When she spills out her secret to him, Mr. Kapasi and the reader find out that she was only interested in him becasuse she was hoping "[he] could help [her] feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy." This is what really makes me mad is that she was so ignorant to think that even though he was an interpreter for a doctor, that he could "interpret" her problems and suggest what to do for her. When she does this, it crushes Mr. Kapasi and surprised me that she did not really have any affectionate feelings towards him.

Whoa! That came out of nowhere...

Throughout the short story "How I met my husband", Edie seems to have something going on with the pilot who comes to her part of the country to fly people in his plane. In the beginning of the story, it is not certain whether or not the two have a "thing" going on. But this is made certain towards the end when the pilot "sat beside [her] and started thosse little kisses, so soft..." This is what the majority of the story leads up to, and because of this and the title, the reader would expect that Edie and the pilot end up being together by the end of the story. Even on the final page of the story, she is still waiting for the pilot's letter to come in the mail. However, it is not until the last paragraph that the reader finds out that she ends up the mailman from whom she was waiting for to deliver the letter to her. So this is the situational irony of the story, because the reader would not expect the author to have Edie end up marrying the mailman when almost the whole story consisted of her and the pilot. This seemingly abrupt ending really puts the cap on the situational irony and leaves the reader almost dumbfounded at how it ended...or else that is how I was left at the end.