The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Roth, 2008)
Aging in reverse? Is it possible? For Benjamin Button this is exactly what he is experiencing. Born at an old age, his lives his life backwards. After being abandoned at the front steps of a New Orleans old-aged home, Queenie takes on the responsibility of raising him. As he grows younger physically, Benjamin starts to ponder the meaning of life and desires to travel the world and experience what it has to offer. After returning from his travels, Benjamin is reunited with a girl from his ‘childhood’, Daisy to whom he is closer in age to. They strengthen their bond only to part once again. After a series of events Benjamin is again reunited with Daisy, and they have an affair and fall in love and fathers a baby. But because of the complications of his ‘aging’, Daisy begins to worry about her own age and whether or not Benjamin will still be attracted to her. Benjamin, on the other hand, doubts his ability to be a proper dad to his son, and reluctantly disappears from his families lives. After being found by child services living in an abandoned building, they are able to trace Daisy where Benjamin ends up living his last days as an infant in the now elderly Daisy’s arms.
What is the meaning of life? Is it the experiences that we have? What about the types of experiences we have- negative AND positive? Or is it our accomplishments- family? Fortune? I believe Mill, a Utilitarianist, has formulated the very core of the meaning of life…being happy. Better known as ‘The Happiness Principle’. He says the right action is the one that produces the pleasure with the absence of pain (Sedgwick, 2001). There are some problems with taking this utilitarian approach to life. We don’t exactly experience happiness all of the time. We suffer; we have pain and heartache- the death of a friend, the divorce, the family fallout. How are we to ever know happiness if we have nothing to measure it by? Happiness is indefinable (Sedgwick, 2001, p. 165). One persons happiness may not equate to another’s. Happiness is relative. Aristotle however, does not tell us what happiness is, he tells us what it isn’t. Take for example eating a whole bar of chocolate to yourself. If you were a chocoholic you would regard this as one of the greatest pleasures in life. But if you were a chocoholic on a diet and you eat that whole bar of chocolate to yourself, you may experience the feeling of guilt associated with that pleasure. Aristotle argues that happiness is simple, it’s the ratio of pleasure to pain’, a life of satisfaction (Alder, n.d.)
With regard to what happiness is (men) differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. For the former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honor. They differ, however, from one another — and often even the same man identifies it with different things, with health when he is ill, with wealth when he is poor’
Benjamin Button lived a life of both pleasure and pain, losing the woman he loves, unselfishly giving up his only child so it can lead a better life, experiences the joys of travelling and obtaining knowledge and becoming an independent person, love, friendships. Could you say, from his experiences, Benjamin’s life was meaningful? What about our own lives? Have you made a difference to the world? Does it matter? Or does it really matter that you have shared love and pain, and only those close to you will remember you?
What is life really about anyway?
References
Alder, M. J. (n.d.). Aristotle’s Ethics: The theory of happiness. Retrieved from https://www.utpa.edu/dept/curr_ins/faculty_folders/tevis_m/docs/TheoryOfHappiness.pdf
Roth, E. (Screenplay/Novel), Swicord, R. (Novel), Fitzgerald (Short Story), & Fincher, D. (Director). (2008). The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [DVD]. United States of America: Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures.
Sedgwick, P. (2001). Descartes to Derrida: An introduction to European philosophy. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
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