The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button makes many changes to the narrative. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the short story and the film. Do the changes in era and setting alter the meanings and themes of Fitzgerald’s tale? What is the significance of World War I in the film as compared to the short story?

Compare our modern-day craze for anti-aging treatments and cosmetic surgeries to the craze for youthfulness 100 years ago in the Jazz Age.

Benjamin participates in the dance crazes of his time, trends that later helped define the Jazz Age. What are some of the popular culture trends you’ve observed or participated in during your lifetime? Why do you think dancing holds so much cultural and historical meaning?

Old age is sometimes referred to as a “second childhood.” How does the story of Benjamin Button relate to this phrase? Have you ever observed parallels between children and the elderly?

Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby is one of the most widely-read American novels. It encapsulates many of his major themes, including resistance to the passage of time, obsession with wealth and status, and the fantasy of the American dream. Read or reread Gatsby and compare it to “Benjamin Button” or another of Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age tales. How do the narratives complement each other? What do you think are some sources of Fitzgerald’s enduring themes?

Hildegarde Moncrief enchants Benjamin when she is young but interests him less and less as time passes. How does aging affect women and men differently? How does the story parallel real-life experiences of gendered aging in American society?

In 1996, Zelda Fitzgerald’s granddaughter Eleanor Lanahan published an annotated book of her visual art called Zelda: An Illustrated Life. Find this book and write an essay about Zelda’s art and life. Was Zelda misrepresented in her lifetime? What can characters like Hildegarde tell us about Fitzgerald’s perceptions of his wife and of women’s roles?

Racist tropes appear in many Fitzgerald stories, including one of his early favorites, “The Offshore Pirate.” Compare the relatively brief depictions of race and enslaved people in “Benjamin Button” with another Jazz Age fantasy “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” often considered to be one of his best. How should contemporary readers deal with the language and ideas of these stories?