For the English class we had to do a writing about ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ so here is mine:
Benjamin Button’s book review
The original book was written by Francis Scott (1896 – 1940) and published on 1922. Francis Scott is considered one of the most importants writers of the XX century of the United States.
They turned the book into film, but there are arguments on the net because the book and the film are just the same on the title, the name of the main character and some facts about his illness. I haven’t watched the film yet but I am wondering what is it going to be like if it is that different from the book.
Well, in fact we haven’t read the original book, I don’t think we are ready to read it, it may be too hard. We’ve read the adaptation from the Burlington Books collection. The book twelve chapters and had about forty pages, between every chapter there were some activities. It was a 4rth ESO recommended book and I think it was around a 3 level of difficulty.
The history begins when Benjamin Button is borned. But he is peculiar because instead of looking like a baby; little, fragile, non haired and with soft skin. He looks like some seventy year old man; he is tall, his hair is white grey, his skin is wrinkled and he knows how to speak, walk, etc. Everyone in the hospital is super confused and scared, they don’t know how to react to the fact even he had just borned he looked like some elderly. In a first moment his parents try to hide that he is a weird baby, they dress him with some huge baby dresses, dyed his white-grey hair and made him go to the kindergarten but it fixed nothing and it just made bigger the fact that he was super strange. In the kindergarten he already knew what they were teaching and found everything boring. He liked doing old people stuff and enjoyed talking to his grandfather, smoking cigars or reading the Encyclopedia. When his teenages started he realized that he was getting younger; his skin looked healthier and he seemed younger than when he was a baby. So by the time their fathers stopped hiding his weird looking and allowed him to dress as a men of his age apparence.
When Benjamin was eighteen and looked fifty he tried to enter to Yale College; his father studied there and he wanted to make him happy graduating there too. When he went to the college the registrare thought he was Benjamin’s father, when he told him he was actually Benjamin Button he refused and even Benjamin showed him off his documentation he didn’t allow him studying there.
So when he became twenty he started to work on his father’s company Wholesale Hardware. He began going out, he made friends and met ladies. Once, in a dance he saw Hildegarde Moncrief, a young and beautiful lady. She was searching for an old man, she didn’t want young boys because she thought they were stupid and did not know how to appreciate a woman. They felt in love. At first her father was not okay about them getting married, but finally they did. His father gave him the business and he doubled the family fortune. Benjamin loved him so much. He was now younger and healthier and became famous when he persuaded the Baltimore senate to pass the Nail Ownership Law. He he doubled the benefits of his company.
On his thirty-five he had for the first time a looking corresponded to his age and wanted to stop his growing but no one could control it.
He was rich but he wasn’t happy, his marriage started going wrong. Hildegarde was getting older as he was getting younger and that worked superbad.
He went to the war of the United States versus Spain, looking for some adventure. Benjamin became a hero, the army made him into an officer and he won a medal. He turned back home as a Brigadier General.
When he arrived home he saw Hildegarde and realized his marriage problem had grown. She was now a forty year old woman and he looked like a thirty man. They were both discontent about the other one appearance and behaviour. They argued, Hildegarde wanted him to stop it, she thought he was up to do it but he wasn’t.
The situation at home was tense so Benjamin went to dances and danced with young and beautiful ladies, they were all impressed about his good looking, he was a handsome man so every women wanted to dance with him.
On 1910 Benjamin gave the company to Roscoe and registered for studies at Harvard University. He finished Harvard at 1914 and by the time her wife couldn’t hold on there anymore so she moved to Italy.
Benjamin was now looking like a 15 year old and Roscoe had to take care of him. He received a letter from the army asking for his help on the Lusitania Sinks. He went to join the army but they laughed of him, they told him he was just a twelve year old and he couldn’t be a Brigadier General.
Roscoe’s wife gave birth to Benjamin’s grandson, when the child growed up and was five Benjamin looked the same age. Roscoe took them to the kindergarten. When Roscoe moved to first grade Benjamin wasn’t comfortable anymore in the kindergarten; he was so tiny compared to his mates. They got him a nurse to look after him, he was now a baby. One day Nana, his nurse, took him to the park for a walk, she asked him to look for the fish in a fishpond. Instead of a fish Benjamin saw his life. He was finally happy, he had a beautiful life. Then he closed his eyes and never opened them again.
Benjamin Button is gray haired when he is younger than fifty and brown haired when he is older. He is an adventure man, he loves fighting in the war. He is also a very intelligent person, even he haves some horrible conditions he tries so hard to make them better and gets to be rich and famous.
Roger Button is a good man, at first he is shocked because of his sons strange appearance but then he tries to make it better for him when he realizes he can not change his son and he just need to accept him. He is also a good comerciant because he haves a very big and famous business.
Hildegarde Moncrief is skinny and, she is blond his hair is the colour of honey. She is super beautiful when she is young but as everyone (except from Benjamin) she gets a worst appearance as time passes. She is a strong woman, she knows what she wants and does not let anyone stop her. We can see that from when she doesn’t listen his father telling her not to marry Benjamin and when she goes away to Italy because she doesn’t want Benjamin in the way he is.
Roscoe Button is always getting angry and very worried about what people thinks about him. In my opinion he is never happy or proud at all of his father because he blames him about his parents break up and thinks that because of him his life had been difficult.
I think that the message that the writer is sending to us is that not being like most of the people is so hard. The book talks about a disease that is not real, but it make us feel close to Benjamin and to feel worried about the discriminations against his problem. That gets me to think that living in this society without being in a certain way is not easy. I wish it would be because it should.
It was a good book to read in english without thinking too much or trying hard to understand the book. It had super easy structures and vocabulary; I just had to check for the words nails and butler. At first I couldn’t see why that book had became so famous, but now, after a while thinking I can see why; it take us to see what is happening to Benjamin next, you can see that something is going wrong and you guess what is happening but then in some events it surprises you. For example you try to guess how will Benjamin die, maybe he will suicide himself because his life is being too hard, maybe they kill him in the war, maybe he does never die, maybe when he is a baby again he start turning again old, like the way back and so on. At the same time you get really close to Benjamin and empathize with his situation. It was a good reading even next time I’ll have to read a harder book to improve my english and not just train it.