The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-movie version

Plot

     Benjamin's life was the storyline of the movie.  It told how his life began, what happened during it, and how it ended.  The events that happened during his life were different than the movie.  Benjamin drank and had sex before he was 21.  During his life he never lived with his real parents or lived with his child when he was growing into a baby.  His many adventures were different as well.  The army and work life were not the same.  He only fought once and not try for a second time.  He worked on a tugboat not in his father's shop.

Point of View

     This was the opposite of the book.  The book was mainly told in third person.  The movie was told in first person with Benjamin telling the story.  There were a few times where it was in third person.  His daughter started telling the story that lead into Benjamin finishing the story.  The story came from Benjamin's diary entries.  Benjamin was never telling the story in the book.  He was always being talked about.

Characterization

     Benjamin always talked about himself.  He described how he looked and the events that happened in his life.  His girl referred to herself as looking too old.  Every time Benjamin came back looking younger, she tried to make an excuse that she was too old for him.  He reminded her that they were just about the same age.  He was always mistaken because of his age.  People believed that many things had happened to him when he looked old.  For example, his captain.  When Benjamin first met him, he believed that Benjamin had a woman at one point.

Setting

      This was the same.  The setting was based upon Benjamin's life.  The details about his life were different though.  He began and ended as a baby that knew nothing.  He began looking like an old man and ended looking like a newborn baby.  Benjamin joined the war differently and never tried to rejoin.  He never got married in the movie, but his child was a girl and not a boy.  He never lived with his family or knew them until later in his life.

Theme

     The theme stayed the same as well.  Everyone ages, grows old, and dies.  For Benjamin that was a little bit of the opposite.  He started out looking like an old person in baby form.  When he grew older, he finally looked like a newborn baby when he died.  Regular people look like a newborn when they are born and look old when they are soon going to die.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-story version

Plot

  

     The story is based upon Benjamin's life.  It begins when he's age is a baby, but he looks like an old man.  "Wrapped in a voluminous white blanket, and partly crammed into one of the cribs, there sat an old man apparently about seventy years of age" (9).  He moves through life by aging backwards.  Since he's aging backwards, he has problems arise.  "The registrar frowned and glanced at a card before him.  'Why, I have Mr. Benjamin Button's age down here as eighteen'" (27).  He was unable to attend college at Yale.  When he tried to get married, Hildegarde Momcrief's father did not believe Benjamin's real age because at the time he looked 50.

Point of View

  

     The point of view is set in first and third person.  He starts out telling the story in first person.  He uses the word I many times.  "I shall tell you what occurred, and let you judge for yourself" (5).  Once the story begins, he moves into third person.  "When he was approximately a hundred yards from the Maryland Private Hospital for Ladies and Gentlemen he saw Doctor Keene..." (6).  Third person is continued until the end of the story.

Characterization

     Throughout the story, Benjamin is described or characterized.  When he is a baby, he is described as an old man.  "The old man untied the package and viewed the contents with a quizzical eye" (16).  This look carried with him for years.  It would not allow him to get into Yale, and he had problems trying to get married.  The paper printed stories about him, and "[h]e became known, journalistically, as the Mystery Man of Maryland" (37).  When he grew up, looking too young also became a problem.  When he was called back to war, he was unable to help.  "'Whose little boy are you?' he demanded kindly" (55).

Setting

     The setting revolves around Benjamin Button's life.  It first starts out with him in the hospital looking like an old man.  "With a malicious crackle the old man held up a small white swaddling garment" (13).  It moves on to his years in school.  "His father sent him up to Connecticut to take examinations for entrance to Yale College" (25).  He eventually gets married and joins the military.  " At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 his home had for him so little charm that he decided to join the army" (40).  Towards the end of his life, his son was taking care of him.  "With a harsh look at his father, Roscoe turned away..." (51).

Theme

     The theme is the fact that everyone ages.  Normal people age by beginning as a baby and grow into an old person.  They grow up learning how to speak.  Benjamin did the opposite.  When he was born he was an old man and was able to speak.  "The old man turned wearily to the nurse" (11).  When he got older he turned into a baby unable to speak.  "[A]ll these had faded like unsubstantial dreams from his mind as though they had never been" (62).

Fall Relates to Death

In Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare talks about fall and death.  It is easy to tell its fall because he writes "When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang/ Upon those boughs which shake against the cold..." (line 2-3).  This is telling the reader that the leaves have changed colors.  It also allows them to know that not many are hanging from the tree.  This makes the reader lean towards the fall season.  Death comes into effect in line 7-8.  It says, "Which by and by black night doth take away,/ Death's second self, that seals up all in rest."  The black night represents the death of a person.  Death relates to fall because plants and animals in nature are dying or preparing for the cold winter ahead.

This message/ theme of Sonnet 73 is true.  A real life example is the best way of showing this.  During the fall season in the northern part of the northern hemisphere, the leaves are changing and fall off the trees.  Right now, any person can tell this because the trees look pretty, and there are leaves all over the grass, and some are in the street.  Another good example would be watching TV.  Any Halloween show or movie that is shown shows the leaves on the ground and a few hanging on a tree.  This shows that Halloween does happen in the fall.  Some movie examples would be Halloween Town and Halloween Town High.

Modern Ballad

I chose the song "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.  This song follows under the topic of jealous sweethearts and unrequited love.  It follows some, but not all of the characteristics.  It is of a single incident, tells a story, repeated refrain, and it could be an event that would/could happen to someone.  It's a single incident and tells a story because the song tells how she got her man in the end.  It has a repeated refrain, but the beginning of it is changed every time.  The rest of the refrain stays the same.  The song talks about a modern event because almost any girl has a guy in mind that she wants to go out with and thinks that the girl he is with is not right for him.

You Belong With Me Music Video

Lyrics to You Belong With Me :
You're on the phone with your girlfriend, She's upset
She's going off about something that you said
She doesnt get your humour like I do

I'm in the room, its a typical Tuesday night
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesnt like
And she'll never know your story like I do

But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're lookin for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me
You belong with me

Walkin the streets with you in your worn out jeans
I cant help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on the park bench thinkin to myself
Hey isnt this easy?

And you've got a smile that could light up this whole town
I havent seen it in awhile, since she brought you down
You say you find I know you better than that
Hey, Whatcha doing with a girl like that?

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Standin by, waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that?
You belong with me
You belong with me

Oh I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night
I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're about to cry
I know your favorite songs and you tell me about your dreams
I think I know where you belong. I think I know it's with me.

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you?
Been here all along so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Standing by or waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know that
You belong with me
You belong with me

Have you ever thought just maybe
You belong with me
You belong with me

My Heros

My literary hero would have to be Phoebe Kendall from Generation Dead and Kiss of Life.  Phoebe reaches out of her and most people's comfort zone.  She interacts with living dead people.  She is a great friend to so many people, especially her next door neighbor, Adam.  Phoebe helps Adam out once he was killed and he then became a living dead person.  She helps restore him to the way he use to be, more human like.  Phoebe is the best friend that I wish to have.

My personal hero would have to be my dad.  He is always there for me.  He helps out at St. Vincent de Paul every six weeks.  Someday I hope to be a manger like him.  My dad also helps out with my sister and I with school activities.  During grade school he would help us with our homework, and he went on some of the field trips with us.  He would also take us to our sporting events that we were and are apart of.

My popular hero would have to be Taylor Swift.  She helped out at the Nashville Benefit Concert.  In the past year, Nashville had a flood.  It destroyed many buildings and homes throughout the city.  There was a concert to raise money to help rebuild some of the historic buildings that got water damage.  Taylor was one of the singers that sang at the concert.  She is a person who cares about her home community.  Some day I hope I can give back to my community like she did.