The Peculiar Ageing of Benjamin Button “For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.” ― Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay In the short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1922, …show more content…
Since this symbol sets at the beginning, it serves as a guideline and introduction of the whole story so that the audiences are more aware of in which way the story will be told and how to understand the story. This event by adding symbols also adds more favors as well as provides foreshadowing: it adds meanings of repenting guilt, wars, family issues and remorse, all of which happened later in the story. Another Symbolic reference of time going backwards is the humming bird. In the film there is two parts where a hummingbird, the only bird that is capable of flying backwards. Seen at the time where Benjamin was at sea and at war with his crew members and they died tragically, and at the end where the bird showed up at the window seal of Daisy’s hospital room when she dies. This bird symbolizes the presents of those who past. However, the process of death contains double meanings in this particular story: one is that the one goes from young to old like Daisy; the other is from the old to young like Benjamin. The film indicates that the hummingbird is the symbol of “infinity” since it always draws the gesture of “8”; it suggests that death does not bring the end to the story but opens up a new start, just like Benjamin dies as a baby but his death signifies newness in life. Benjamin says: “I’d never seen a hummingbird that far out to sea, before or since. “(Fincher 2008) It creates
Each symbol is used to build a way of foreshadowing the journey from the once overruled society of technology and the lack of independent thought to the rebirth and reflection into a positive human-focused society. There are numerous symbols used in this novel, some tie into each other as well.
In literature, symbolism is used to suggest an underlying meaning in a story. In the story of “Godfather Death,” a quite ironic title, the Grimm brothers used a multitude of symbols to convey the story’s moral value. The Grimm brothers used seven symbols in this story. All of them play a part in conveying the message that death cannot be defied, death is constant, and death is fair.
Symbolism is used in many ways and writers use symbolism to “enhance their writing.” It can give their work “more richness and color and can make the meaning of the work deeper.” In literary work the actions of the characters, words, action, place, or event has a deeper meaning in the context of the whole story. The reader needs to look see the little things like a dove symbolizes peace, or like the red rose stands for romance. Mostly everything can have a symbolism meaning to it. For instance the flag symbolizes freedom and the stars represent the states. Even some signs are symbols like when a beaker has a skull with a bones placed like an ‘x’ behind it symbolizes that it’s toxic or bad. When people see the red light when driving that’s
E.E. Cummings explained “It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”
Using symbolism can take your story to a whole new level by showing us how each character feels in additional it can make a person or even an objects stand out a whole lot more. In Eudora Welty they used symbolism in many different ways that you can even notice them right away.
symbolism and foreshadowing are both used to clue the reader into the eventual fate of the
Another symbol to acknowledge in the story is the serpent. The serpent came in the story in a stick figure way. “This is a dull pace for the beginning of a journey”. The sneaky serpent confided this saying to
Throughout the book many symbols were shown, the main symbol being the Scarlet Letter forced upon Hester Prynne for committing adultery. When the scarlet letter was forced onto Hester Prynne the community thought she deserved more than just having to wear a cloth on her. Though she tried to hide the gold embroidered A, the community began gossiping loudly and even said that she deserved to be stoned. Hester Prynne kept her adultery a secret and in the end the sin back fired and hurt her more than she expected it to.
Symbols are important in each story to define the theme. Close observation of the symbols within each story proves to one their
Symbolism is very important in a novel because it can be based of an object, person or situation that have a deeper meaning in context. There are many clues in the 12 stories of The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes that are symbols. In pg.50, Julia Stoner’s dying words are, “It was the band! The speckled band!” One would believe that there is some hidden meaning that could symbolize family or trust since they
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” written by Eric Roth and based on a short novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story of an interesting man who lives his life backwards. The movie takes place in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and is told in a flashback perspective from the love of Benjamin’s life, Daisy and their daughter, Caroline. I heard many times throughout my life and nursing career, including from myself, “If I could only go back and know what I know now.” Benjamin Button lived this theory, a theory that seems very similar to the Gerotranscedence theory (Touhy & Jett, 2016, p. 37). Scheidt (2017) states in regards to his own aging “I am dealing with
This explanation of the clock also resembles Mark Twain’s affirmation that, the best part of life comes at the beginning while the worst comes at the end. Keeping this in mind, Fincher then presents the audience with the character of Benjamin Button, a child who is born with all the physical characteristics of an elderly person and who is thereby doomed to age backwards in the same way as Monsieur Gateau’s clock.
Before I get to the main story line, let me explain the symbolism behind the
Symbols in literary works can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Symbols can appear in a novel as an event, action, or object. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Neale Hurston, uses the symbols of the gate to show Janie’s transitions to womanhood, independence from oppression, and realization of what love is to Janie.
Set apart from the parameters of normal human society, Benjamin Button, a man who was born to age backwards, falls in love with a young girl, Daisy, who ages forwards. Benjamin’s story is read aloud to Daisy by Caroline, her daughter, as she lay on her deathbed. In scenes set with peculiar curiosity and subtle fantasy, Benjamin embarks on an unusual journey to grasp the meaning of life and find his own sense of identity. Benjamin and Daisy’s paths cross many times before their unorthodox romance reaches fate and picks up in the middle. As he grows younger and Daisy slows with age, Benjamin discovers the rich futility of love as time causes the two to fall out of sync once again. Although its final plot ends like any other love story, David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is arguably the next great cinematic breakthrough with its unique emotional paradoxes, ingenuitive digital effects, and complex subplots. This movie was challenging to evaluate because never before has a film combined subplot ingenuity so seamlessly with the delicate techniques of innovative film making and traditional cinematic endings.