Psychology

Movie Analysis Essay

Ravisara Karnjanolarn Preme

5761121
Submission Date: Sep 26, 2016
Benjamins Stages of Development

To be born elderly and dying as an infant seems to be impossible, but for Benjamin Button,
he experienced itgrowing inversely to others. Despite his image that looks like an old man at first,
his psychological development is as normal as other children. His behaviors, thinking processes,
and emotions develop over time as his age grows older whereas his physical appearance changes
inverselyhe was getting younger over time. Put simply, the only thing that makes Benjamin
different from other was his appearance. In Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,"
Benjamins lifetime is categorized into 4 main phases: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and
adulthood.
In Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Benjamins development firstly
starts with the infancy phase. After Benjamin was born under unusual circumstances, his arrival was
not normal as other children because of his wrinkled physical appearance like an old person. The
doctor said, his skin has lost all elasticity . . . his hands and feet are ossified . . . he shows all the
deterioration . . . the infirmities, in order to emphasize that Benjamins lifespan will not last any
longer as his body operations start to fail his own functionalities. However, in the story, Benjamin
grew up normally; his actions and behaviors reveal that his abilities are what he was given at birth,
his abilities were developing just like other infants. Despite the fact that he was born old, he starts
showing a newborn development and sensorimotor in Piagets stages of cognitive development.
Benjamin had an ability at birth to see, hear, smell, and respond to the surrounding environment. He
was able to notice the touches at his body and able to make a sound when he wants attention.
Generally, exploration happens through direct sensory and motor contact. Moreover, because he
was raised up by his stepmother, Queenie, Benjamin was very reliant and trustful towards her, as
same as other children that are dependent on their parents for their basic needs. Infants are normally
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Psychology
Movie Analysis Essay

Ravisara Karnjanolarn Preme

5761121
Submission Date: Sep 26, 2016

dependent upon their caregivers, so Queenie who are responsive to Benjamins needs helped him
developing a feeling of trust, as stated in the first stage of trust vs. mistrust by Eriksons theory of
psychological development. Nevertheless, even if he developed as same as a newborn, he did not
yet complete the development relating to movement due to his physical inability; regarding
restriction of a wheelchair, Benjamin was not able to fully develop his newborn development.
Based on the theory, infants should be able to walk by 12 months after birth, but Benjamin could
not. Following this, it leads Benjamin to problems of social difficulties and isolations of himself and
others of the same age during his childhood.
In Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Benjamins development continues
with the 2nd phase: childhood. By spending many years in the hospice institute, surrounding with
elder people, it makes Benjamin thought that he was as old as others in the nursing home; he,
however, always had curiosities just like a child. During that time period, it was so important for
Benjamin as his mind is wider by his open perspective. The main cause that greatly brings about a
change in Benjamins life is his curiosities. He banged things when he was bored, played with the
fork when trying to figure out a new sound, read and pronounced the words on the cans banner, and
walked on his own as he was developing his skills in term of cognitive development, language
acquisition, and object permanence. Particularly, Benjamin tends to seek for independence; he tried
to step out from his comfort zone without acknowledging by Queenie, a person he trusted the most.
But because of his strong desire to learn and experience new things, curiosity outweighs the safety
rule Queenie used to say. Benjamin, for the first time, went outside, and later that he fell in love
with Daisy. Daisy plays an important role in Benjamins life, she challenged Benjamin to
experience new things such as lighting matches. All of the examples mention earlier are relating to
Vygotskys zone of proximal development, Benjamin learned through helps and advises of others
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Psychology
Movie Analysis Essay

Ravisara Karnjanolarn Preme

5761121
Submission Date: Sep 26, 2016

for an accomplishment. Specifically, Mrs. Mapleanother of the residents of the hospicetaught

him instrumental skills in Piano, it implies that his social interactions with others were expanding,
he trusted other people more and he let other people became part of his life. In effect, Benjamin is
transitioning into adolescence phase.
In Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Benjamins development continues
with the 3rd phase: adolescence. At first, because of his aged appearance, his society was limited
only in the hospice, however, his world was wider after he had passed his childhood where his selfesteem was improved. Following by the onset of puberty, Benjamin continued in developing his
sense of individuality and expanding his experiences. At that time, he met Captain Mike Clark when
working on a tugboat. Consequently, Benjamin decided to live separately from his parents, and
went for a journey on the sea when he was 17; Captain Clark is considered as a person who had
crucial roles in Benjamins life in terms of social development since he brought Benjamin to the
state of socialization. The advantages of Benjamins physical appearance are that he got to socialize
like adults by drinking alcohols, smoking, and having sexual relationships; thus, that was a period
when Benjamins sexual development was begun. While he was working as a crew on a tugboat, he
had a first nonpermanent affair with Elizabeth. Benjamin started growing relationship with
Elizabeth; sadly, their relationship didnt last long, Elizabeth left him and it led to a huge impact on
Benjamin as this relation was his first relationship. According to Ericksons stages of psychosocial
development, Benjamin was facing with intimacy and isolation stage; the theory states that after
ones have fully developed self-confidence, they want to further develop an intimate relationship
with others, but if the relationship does not go very well, a person may feel lonely and isolated. Just
like Benjamin case, he was facing isolation and loneliness, so he made a decision to escape
problems by joining the army. After he was back safely from the war, he met Daisy again and they
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Psychology
Movie Analysis Essay

Ravisara Karnjanolarn Preme

5761121
Submission Date: Sep 26, 2016

started forming an intimate relationship. While Benjamin was getting younger and Daisy was
getting older, their appearances were at around the same age. After a few years, they built a family
together and had a child.
In Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Benjamins development comes to
the last phase: adulthood. Throughout this phase, Levinsons theory of male development is
adopted; stagnation starts occurring as he was worried about his daughter whether she would end up
being like him in the past or not. Also, he was concerned about his age as he knew that he was
getting younger overtime, and Benjamin did not want to be burdensome for Daisy to take care of
him in the future; therefore, he made a decision on his own and left his family. By doing this, it
shows that he was totally independent and self-directed, as stated in Levinsons seasons of
adulthood. Particularly, his thinking process made he had a thought of leaving his family, it
represents his acceptance towards dying process. According to Kubler-Rosss stages of dying, it
indicates that someone is preparing for that timedeathto come. In Benjamins case, he already
sold his familys business to get money for Daisy for raising their child alone, Benjamin knew that
he would not be able to raise his daughter. As the time passes, Benjamins appearance was alike to a
young boy, on the other hand, Daisy was very old. Since Benjamin was still aging, his body was
getting smaller and younger, but his perspective was as same as an old man. Because of suffering
from losing memories, he was not able to remember Daisy or recognize other people, he became
scared of others; nevertheless, he was able to remember how to play Piano. Remembrance of skill is
a long-term memory that reflects and give a conclusion that he had a disorder affecting ability to
memorize. Eventually, as Benjamin aged younger and younger, he died in an appearance of a boy.
F. Scott Fitzgerald divides stages in life throughout the movie into infancy, childhood,
adolescence, and adulthood phase respectively. Even though his development in term of physical
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Psychology
Movie Analysis Essay

Ravisara Karnjanolarn Preme

5761121
Submission Date: Sep 26, 2016

appearance were unusual, his actions and emotion were slowly developing over time like other
children at birth. I personally think that his appearance was not a huge problem for him to become
fully developed in every aspects because humans, in general, are able to adapt very quickly
primarily through an environment like people Benjamin surrounded himself with, the society he put
himself into, or even activities he decided to be a part of. In short, although Benjamin's physical
appearance is reversed, it was changing only on the outside.

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