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Short Stories
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Fitzgerald
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Haven't seen the movie or read the story, but I'm a huge Fitzgerald fan. He inspired me to become a writer when I read the The Great Gatsby in the 9th grade.
You should read this short story. It's fantastic.
I loved the movie but haven't gotten to read the story yet. I cried too. I think his message is that we don't appreciate life as much as we should and that it might be different were we to truly see how amazing all of us are. Bejamin is that window.
The ending of the short story is as tender and painful as the movie. Except in the short story he's not cared for by the woman he loved. That is totally different. He's left at home with a nanny and even attends kindergarten with his grandson! Just thinking about this story puts me in a funk, especially when he starts thinking with a child's mind and forgets the people who love him and whom he loved.
Here's a free copy:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3431
Tressa wrote: "The ending of the short story is as tender and painful as the movie. Except in the short story he's not cared for by the woman he loved. That is totally different. He's left at home with a nanny an..."Thanks for the link :)
It really would be worse if we didn't generally die knowing who we are. I think that's one of the big things about death for me the fear of losing who I am and everything I was in life.
Well, that's what happened to little Benjamin Button. He did not remember. He did not remember clearly whether the milk was warm or cool at his last feeding or how the days passed—there was only his crib and Nana's familiar presence. And then he remembered nothing. When he was hungry he cried—that was all. Through the noons and nights he breathed and over him there were soft mumblings and murmurings that he scarcely heard, and faintly differentiated smells, and light and darkness.
Then it was all dark, and his white crib and the dim faces that moved above him, and the warm sweet aroma of the milk, faded out altogether from his mind.
Interesting to note that the story was inspired by a comment of Mark Twain's to the effect that it's a shame that the best part of life came at the beginning, and the worst at the end.
Tressa wrote: "Well, that's what happened to little Benjamin Button. He did not remember. He did not remember clearly whether the milk was warm or cool at his last feeding or how the days passed—there was only ..."
Leave it to old Fitzgerald to want to prove him wrong. I find stories like the fascinating. The meaning or the basis of a story can be an interesting insight into the piece or it can make you scratch your head in confusion.
I cried watching the movie, but the short story is just as sad! Not sure why I read it to begin with.
Saddest part was when he aged backward to around 5 and attended kindergarten with his grandson. As a college student he was a great student, and a great military leader, but to read about him coloring and cutting strips of colorful paper made me so sad. The next year when he was four, he wasn't even sure what the colored strips were for.
I am so depressed now. :-( Why did Fitzgerald ever write this GD story?