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Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Decent Essays

Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1922) and David Fincher’s film of the same title (2008) tell the curious story of a man who is born old and ages backwards until his death as an infant. Fitzgerald and Fincher use different themes and techniques to tell their version of the story meaning the outcome is completely different. Fincher’s version includes a slightly different narrative and includes an important character in Daisy. Whilst the stories of the two texts are similar, they have a couple of significant differences. Both Fitzgerald and Fincher use different narrative voices to tell the story of Benjamin Button, thus making the audience response completely different. Fitzgerald uses first person narration to the reader what occurred in the story of Benjamin Button but allows the audience “judge for yourself” (pg.1) that unfold throughout the story. The story is told chronologically whilst keeping the reader emotionally detached from Benjamin and his family. Similarly, Fincher tells the story in first person through flashbacks of diary entries being read to Daisy in the …show more content…

Fitzgerald’s version of the story is set in “anti-bellum Baltimore” (pg.1). Fitzgerald’s version is aimed at people in that era particularly upper class people. His story is written to show the upper class nature of people in the era and how they are more worried about their reputation than far more important things, such as their children in the case of Benjamin Button. Benjamin’s family are of an upper class nature and were instantly worried about their reputation with Benjamin’s father quickly wondering “what will people say” (Pg.4). Contrastingly, Fincher’s version of the story is based in more modern day setting and is appealing to most audiences. Fincher’s proves that age doesn’t matter and life is what you make of it. “Life can only be understood backward. It must be lived

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