This short story was really fun to read. I kept on comparing it to the movie the entire time. I am not totally sure which one I like better because both are practically completely different. While in the movie, Benjamin is born as an old baby who grows older in thought processes but younger in age, in the short story Benjamin grows younger in age and thought processes.
I wonder what people who read this story for the first time without seeing the movie would think and if they could wrap their mind around the subject of this story without visually seeing it. In all honesty it is easy for me to envision an old man who gets younger because I have Brad Pitt in the bag of my mind going from an old looking man to a young one, but I feel that I would have had trouble doing this if I didn't have that visual in my back pocket.
The plots between the movie and short story are completely different too. While the movie includes so many different plot lines and so many different aspects of life, the short story follows a fairly linear model of birth to death with 1 romance, and Benjamin living a "normal" life. Also, the year is much earlier, mainly because Fitzgerald didn't intend there to be a movie made in the 21st century about his short story. The movie begins in basically the late 19th century instead of directly after the Civil War (like the short story does). I also noticed that in the short story, Benjamin is not adopted but rather is taken care of by his actual father while Benjamin in the movie is born and placed on the doorsteps of a retirement home.
Overall I really enjoyed the short story and I was glad in a sense that I had seen the movie before so I could compare it while I read. I really think it is interesting how the writers of the movie could take this short story and weave such a complicated and long adaptation of this story. I think Fitzgerald is one of my favorite writers and I always think his writing is fresh and unique (and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is no exception to this rule).
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