F Scott Fitzgerald is known for his outstanding work in American Literature. With that comes horrible criticism but also great praise. Some believe that his works has shaped literature as It Is today and others obviously think the complete opposite. HIS book, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has received both sides of the spectrum and will continue as long as It Is recognized for American Literature. F Scott Fitzgerald has Identified the American Dream with downfalls and misconceptions In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with many scholars and universities proving it s well.
In the sass the true American Dream consisted of a working husband, stay at home wife who will eventually bear children and still stay home. The women’s roles increased by controlling finances but also wanting new appliances to keep up with the technological advances. Balancing kids, a whole household and finances made the so called “American Dream” change and vary throughout America as a whole. Family sizes decreases but wanting children and a family never truly changed. So having this Idea of a perfect American family and Its complete downfall Is truly hon. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
It turns out that Benjamin Button ages In reverse. He was born at 70 and gets younger while everyone else gets older. HIS parents are filled with shame at their abnormal child and force him to act like a baby, even though Benjamin has the body and mind of a much older man. This frightened the newly acclaimed parents because this did not happen at all. One does not simply give birth to what looks like a 70 year old man and this affects the Button’s dream of a perfect family and their family name with it.
He ends up being great friends with his grandfather. Most people blame Benjamin for his peculiarity but he takes the whole thing in stride. There’s the charged place where Roger Button wishes that his horrible son should have been black, that might signal a minus to some people. This is also because later we assume that more than Just wishing the son was black because he thinks the son horrible, he wishes he could have used that occasion to let people know his son was more of a slave or worse, sell his son Into slavery.
Flung this Interpretation In the injection that brings the above stated quotation: they would plod on, past the bustling stores, the slave market – for a dark instant Mr.. Button wished passionately that his son was black… ‘ (Fitzgerald 10). Mr.. Button pictures the two of them walking past the slave market. The slave market triggers a sudden thought in his mind. Severely emotionally distraught, Mr.. Button hits the ultimate low point when he yearns for what would have been a preferable alternative, a black child. Here, Mr.. Button’s obtuseness regarding slavery and racism is exposed. But this response is all too expected now because of Mr..
Button’s characterization which has been established through his interaction with Benjamin: this Is a man who can ignore the shocking ontological deviation of his son, so his additional refusal to acknowledge the blatant ethical deviation of racism and slavery comes as no surprise. By invoking the slave market, a Southern socio-economic institution, the narrative Mr.. Button embraces whatever illusions buttress his individual socio-economic standing, the Southern elite enact a similar blindness towards the crimes of racism/ leaver in order to develop their corporate socio-economic standing.
That these matters are only fleetingly referenced in the narrative does not reflect the degree of import they hold, for it is the issues of racism along with familial neglect, issues connected to the realist code of this magical realist tale, to which the magical phenomenon of Benjamin draws attention. When Benjamin appears fifty but actually has been alive for 20 years, he meets and falls in love with the beautiful young Hildebrand Mnemonic. Luckily for Benjamin, Hildebrand has a thing for older men, and he two marry and have a son, Rose.
As expected Hildebrand gets older, Benjamin gets younger and he quickly loses interest in his wife. Benjamin heads off to the Spanish-American War, getting younger every year. By the time he returns, he and his son are pretty close in age, much to his son’s dismay. A sort of doubles occurs after he returns home from the war and catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. While the mirror is an object which often symbolizes the issues of appearance and illusion, in this narrative moment it offers Benjamin the truth, though he refuses to chive it.
Benjamin is momentarily horrified to see that he is becoming younger, a regression intimating the macabre “destiny’ which awaits him. Yet, “he soon forgot the insidious fear and grew to take a naive pleasure in his appearance. Benjamin continues to grow younger and finally enrolls at Harvard when he looks about eighteen. By the time he graduates, he’s young enough to go to prep school. Rose is increasingly dismayed with his father, especially since Rococo’s own son is approaching Benjamin apparent age. The two of them – Benjamin and his random – end up playing together as children.
The story shows how several people look at things centered round their viewpoint alone and find this in the lives of Mr.. Roger Button, the general society and even Benjamin Button himself. Discovering that everyone seems to put existence around themselves. It is the way society views Benjamin at different points that gets you thinking. At some point, they see the weirdness of him and despise him. As he progresses, those same people that disdained him love him, then later repeat the cycle. He seems to also point out that n the end, we Just phase out.
In all, Fitzgerald creates in his short story, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ a strangely fantastic realistic world that criticisms the vanity of life. He gives another thought to the oft quoted Solomon wisdom. So to say, he shows also the passing vanities of people and society. He shows the futility of most of our actions and gives hope too emphasizing that nothing lasts forever. Of this final lesson, he shows things in two light: nothing lasts forever whether pleasant or unpleasant. Enjoy things as they are.
