A short story with a big theme.
Benjamin Button ages in reverse, when he is born he is an 80 year old man. Benjamin achieves much in his life-time, marriage, children, and the army and is successful in business but he is not emotionally fulfilled.
When Benjamin is 18 (he looks around 50) he meets a ‘younger woman’ even though she is exactly the same age. Hildegarde is attracted to Benjamin because he appears to be an older man representing stability. As Benjamin ages and looks younger he no longer finds the ‘older’ aging Hildegarde attractive and goes dancing and seeks more stimulating activities. This represents the familiar ‘mid-life crisis’ which Benjamin can get away with because he looks younger.
Although written at the turn of the century, the theme still reflects our attitudes towards age and aging. Very humorous and interesting, but untimately very sad
No comments:
Post a Comment