"Popular Mechanics"

I'll go with question four for this one. The reader never learns in the story why the couple is splitting up, but I assume that he cheated on her. When she says "You can't even look me in the face, can you?" it seems like he should be feeling guilt. It really doesn't matter why he's leaving, though, because the focus of the story is on the way the couple treats the baby. The reason for the split has no impact on the treatment of their child. They act like little kids fighting over a toy. It's like they're too concerned with being angry with each other to notice that they're fighting over a human being that they could easily injure if they're not careful. Based on their reactions, it wouldn't matter if the problem or reason was different. They'd still be fighting over the baby because they're irresponsible parents.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Sadly, Without Brad Pitt.

Plot

The plot of the story emphasizes the eccentricity of the storyline. The climax which takes place when he discovers "baby of threescore and ten" seems out of place because a climax typically occurs at the end. This odd strategy emphasizes the oddity of a seventy-year-old baby being born. Also, there is very little conflict during what would be Benjamin's teenage years. Normally, conflicts would be rampant in a story about a young adult, but his life seems to have very little conflict, especially with his parents. The typical rocky relationship between a parent and a young adult does not exist between Benjamin and his father; they're described as "companionable."

Point of View

The narrator is third person omniscient. The narrator explains in the beginning that Roger hopes the baby will be a boy so that he can go to Yale (chapter one, paragraph three). The reader is also informed of the fact that Benjamin feels "more at ease in his grandfather's presence than in his parents'" which could not be known by a limited narrator. This serves to create an emotional connection between the reader and Benjamin. By knowing his feelings, the reader feels the awkwardness of aging backwards and becomes more engaged in the story. It makes the story both more understandable and more interesting for the reader. Personally, once I started to understand Benjamin, I was much more interested in the story and finishing it than when I started.

Characterization

Fitzgerald uses direct characterization to give the reader an immediate sense of what each character is like. Roger Button is characterized as a coward from the beginning. When the doctor blows him off and implies that something is wrong with the baby, Roger loses "all desire to go into" the hospital because he doesn't want to face the circumstances. By presenting the reader with an immediate picture of each character, Fitzgerald is sure to evoke the reactions he wants. He doesn't give the reader the time or the reasons to doubt his evaluations of each character. The reader has almost no choice but to agree and see the characters as they're meant to be seen because there is no room for interpretation.

Setting

The narrator tells us on page 5 that the story is set in 1860. The setting makes the story somewhat more believable because a birth defect seems more likely. The time period also makes the family's disappointment more realistic. Roger Button would have hoped to pass his wholesale hardware business on to his son, but having a son with some sort of defect would ruin the possibility of that. Socially, the Buttons could be ruined by the fact that they had an odd son, and in the pre-Civil War era in the South, social status was important. Because of the setting, Benjamin's situation is exacerbated, and it becomes a huge issue in every aspect of his and his family's lives.

Theme

The theme of the story is that life is about perception. When Benjamin looks fifty, he's happy. He's not experiencing a mid-life crisis, and Hildegarde even says he's at "the romantic age." Most men at fifty perceive their lives as half over, and have a much less cheerful demeanor than Benjamin does at fifty. At the same time, he feels like he's missing out on the activities of a normal twenty-year-old's life. He perceives certain ages differently than everyone else does. He proves that a person's attitude about life is based mostly on his or her perception of life's events.

Once upon a Time

Once upon a Time is a satire of children's stories. The story begins "Someone has written to ask me to contribute to an anthology of stories for children." The setting of the story is not one of a typical children's story, which indicates satire, but the final paragraph is what solidifies the satirical tone. I mean, seriously? The kid hears a bedtime story and then gets shredded trying to reenact it? It's definitely a good satire. It's almost funny how ironic it is, in a weird, gruesome way. The narrator's point is that a children's story is usually pictured as a fantasy, but the true story of a child is never a fantasy.

A Worn Path

(Question 6) The child who wrote to the author questioned the grandson's death because Phoenix's grandson is still alive to her. She picks up medications for him because she is trying to keep him alive in her mind and in her reality. Phoenix tells a nurse "My little grandson, he sit up there in the house all wrapped up, waiting by himself." She believes that her grandson is still alive although the medicine she picks up is just a soothing medicine. A soothing medicine would not be necessary for that long. It seems that everyone else knows that her grandson is dead. Based on the way people regard her, she seems like the town crazy lady/everyone's grandma. Her grandson is alive in her mind, but that is the only place where he is alive.

Eveline

(Question 1) In the first short paragraph, Eveline sits by a window staring out at the twilight. The first sentence is in active voice, but the second and third are in passive voice. This represents Eveline's shift from a desire to leave her current life to her rejection of Frank and return to normalcy. Active voice is a stronger voice similar to the strength required to make the decision to leave one's family. It makes sense for Eveline to start out that way. The fact that there are two sentences in passive voice shows that Eveline is more comfortable there. It's as if she tries the active voice and then doesn't like it. It's the same with her life. She tries to escape and then prefers her comfort zone. The word "invade" is used to emphasize the discomfort which accompanies the active voice and the discomfort that affects Eveline's life.

Miss Brill

Miss Brill is an English woman living in France. She teaches English in a French school. In the story, Brill is portrayed as a naive character intent on observing others. The French setting sets her apart from those she observes. It distances her from everyone else and makes the reader sympathize with her. When the teenagers make fun of her on the bench and refer to her as "that stupid old thing," the reader can see that she is out of place, and her reaction shows that this feeling makes her feel ashamed and self-conscious. The contrast of the setting with Brill's nationality characterizes her as a vulnerable woman who copes by pretending she's an actress. She is convinced that she is an actress on a stage, so why wouldn't she believe that the people around her were just actors playing a role, not people who look down on her?

Maggie

I like Maggie's character a lot. She's quiet and shy and timid, but she seems strong to me. She's a million times more conscious of her heritage than Dee is, and she loves it. Although she wouldn't say she wanted the quilts, she got her opinion in too when she said "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts." This was a sort of jab at Dee for her initial rejection of their heritage and then her need to have African things because that was the only reminder she had since she distanced herself from it. Maggie doesn't expect anything at all. She is almost a foil of Dee because she loves her heritage and is quiet and shy, and this makes her even more likable. She's content with a simple life and the fact that she's black. She sees no reason to be ashamed when she can embrace it and enjoy it.