Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Bralee Somyarak

Quarter Project ID: 5961069

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2004) Movie Analysis

Section 1: Nature & Nurture

Benjamin Button, as the main character in this movie, was born in the special
circumstances or could be said as different from other people. His nature and nurture created him
and explains how he was odd. Even though he was different from other in nature, contrastingly,
he was raised up just like other normal kid. Benjamin Button, the boy whose nature was
absolutely unlike with other human beings that born as a young child and grow old, instead, his
nature given was that he was an age-reverse, he began with an old appearance and slowly gets
younger and younger in look. At the first stage of his life, he was born with a monster-
appearance because as since he was an infant, he already had an old people face that appeared
like an 80 and above years old. His father abandoned him because of his appearance as a
monster, and when he was born, his mother passed away, so the main reason his father casted
him is because he looked like an evil creature that killed his mother. Benjamins case was
impossible to be called a feral child. Despite the fact that his real mother died during his birth
and his father dumped him, he did not grow up all by himself, he grew up with good care and
love that Queenie and Tizzy who was his adoptive father and mother gave him. Luckily, with
good raising environment, his attitudes, characteristics, abilities, and personalities seemed
nothing alike the feral child whom they are abandoned and no cares was given that leads to the
cause for the child to have various disabilities in certain areas; such as, eating habits, body
postures, body movements, and more.

The innocent Benjamin was raised by Queenie, a woman who picked him up from in
front of the door of the nursing home, in an authoritative parenting style. From the movie, it
showed clearly that he grew up as an old people with young age, but with Queenies role as his
mother, she took care of him as if he was just like the other normal children just with an old
beard-appearance. She taught him what to do and what not to. Take for example, in the scene
that Benjamin went out with someone who visits the nursing home and followed him to sightsee
the town and that person left him to go back home alone, Benjamin himself arrived home late
night and Queenie found out. Queenie told him that he has to tell her before leaving for
somewhere with other people, but she did not punish him or gets angry. By that, Benjamin then
grew up as a person who understands other people and especially the old people, due to the fact
that he grew up at in the Elderlys nursing home.

Benjamin Button had gone through each stages Jean Piagets Principle of Gradual
Development. His maturation stage from the early stage of his life, after a few weeks, he looked
like an old person that is about to die, the age that he should appear as a toddler, he was
paralyzed and he was a full-time wheelchair and later he was able to support himself by using a
walking stick. One scene that showed his gaining experience stage is when he went out on a road
Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Bralee Somyarak
Quarter Project ID: 5961069

trip with a man who was living in the nursing home, and he was left at nowhere so he has to
figure the way back home by himself. When he arrives home, his adoptive mother was very
upset with him. On his Social transmission stage, it could be the scene that he went downstairs to
have a conversation in the middle of the night with Daisy, and later Daisys auntie/grandma
found out and Queenie came down to teach Benjamin not to stay up late at night especially with
the female. This stage was when he started to listen to what his parents said. On the stage of the
process of equilibrium, it is the stage that a person should be able to judge right/wrong, what to
do and what to not do. This stage could be illustrated by the scene from nearly the falling action
of the movie, it is the scene that Daisy, his wife is pregnant, so when he found out, he decided to
move away after a few moments because he believes this decision will be best for their child and
also best for Daisy as she could never support two kids when he grew old reversely at the same
time.

Section 2: Understanding about Genders and Conformity

In the early stage of Benjamin Buttons life, his perception and opinions were similar to
every other young childrens view that all genders had no differences and both can be treated the
same. There is one scene when he first met Daisy and they started to have a conversation, he
started to fell in love with her blue eyes and started to feel like she is different from other people
he ever met in his whole life. One night he started to know more, that girls and boys were
different when he went to talk to Daisy all by themselves at night and Daisys grandma (or
auntie) caught them at night and she was upset at them. Later when he already has a job, he met
Captain Mike, his friend and when he worked out place, his friend bought him a night out to the
party, he took Benjamin to a place similar to a bawdyhouse and Benjamin experienced first sex
their with the prostitutes there. He later realized that this is cannot make he know love like what
he feels to Daisy. Later when he also met a woman who was the wife of the spy and fell in love
with her as well. This taught him to know his attraction towards opposite gender. As he grows
older, his perception towards other genders has changed.

The groupthink that I think Benjamin experienced was Direct Pressure. For the Direct
Pressure could be explained in the scene that Captain Mike asks his ship crew to go for joining
the war together, if anyone desires to leave, they could leave at that time, so Benjamin stayed as
a volunteer for this World War II. For the rationalization, Benjamin was raised in the Christian
family, which does not believe in killing to end war, he joined the war without the intention to
kill people. Rationalization is to use good reasons to end the problem. Another rationalization is
when Queenie bring Benjamin to the place that looks like a church and the priest try to influence
him (at a young age) to walk. Also the shared stereotype is when the army that fights in World
War II started to know that they had to kill, it is the repetition of killing the Japanese Army.
Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Bralee Somyarak
Quarter Project ID: 5961069

Section 3: Adulthood, Old Age, and Death

Benjamin, himself had passed through various stages of adulthood according to

Levinsons Seasons of Life theory. In the Early Adulthood, he started to seek for independence
from the scene that he went to the ship port and while he was sitting with a man he came with
(who said he was strike in a lightning seven times), a captain, who later became Benjamins
friend, shouted around if someone wants a job or not so Benjamin volunteered himself and works
on a ship. When it is around his Early-Middle Adulthood, he left the nursing home he usually
lives and went out to live on his own. He enjoyed his career life and found a great woman whom
he fell in love with other than Daisy even though she already has a husband, but sadly they were
separated due to many unavoidable reasons. He met his own father, Mr. Thomas Button, without
knowing that he was his own father and spent time talking to him as well. After he got a chance
to meet Daisy again, she was working as a professional ballet and played in a musical. He
realized that she was not the same Daisy he used to know, so he came out of her life for a while.
One day, they met again in a perfect moment of their life because they both were slightly in the
same age. Daisy and Benjamin spent this Middle Adulthood stage together, had one child, but
before their daughter gets a chance to remember him, he faded out of their lives with the reason
that he is getting younger every day and Daisy could never support two young children including
him all by herself. Daisy met another man to be the father of her daughter when Benjamin started
to go back as a Teenager appearance again with the actual age approximate to the Late
Adulthood and Daisy realized that he was already right at first. Then he was getting younger and
younger every day, until then, Daisy visited him at the house of Queenies daughter (his sister in
law) when Benjamin turns to a young child already, but with his age, he was suffering from
Alzheimers cancer and started to forget her completely. At the last stage of his life, he turn back
to be an infant again and died in Daisys arms as his age was very old too.
Throughout his whole life, since the day he knew he was getting younger and would die
in the young babys state, he was already accepting the truth along the way. This can be related
to the Acceptance stage of Kubler Rosss stage of grief. From this movie, theres no such a scene
that shows Benjamins denial, anger, or bargaining from the truth that he wants to be like normal
people nor none that he complains about his nature. One scene that showed his depression is
when the person in the nursing home who taught him to play piano passed away in a sudden, he
started to know that he has to accept the truth that by living in a reversing age, he has to see
people he loved die one by one. Also, there is one scene that he plays with his daughter when she
was still very young, and he saw other parents do at the same time while he thinks and started to
accept that he should leave before his child realizes how he is naturally. At some point, he was
disappointed and depressed that he cannot remember some part of his memory due to
Alzheimers disease by the time he appears like 12 years old boy, but that time he already forgets
himself and people around.
On the other hand, Daisy, his wife, since she knew that one day Benjamin, her husband will retro
back into a little incapable baby, she tried her best to influence Benjamin to stay with her
Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Bralee Somyarak
Quarter Project ID: 5961069

throughout the rest of her life and said she can manage this, but unluckily, Benjamin did not feel
it that way, this relates to the denial stage that his wife bargains him to stay with her. She was in
the anger and down to the depression stage every time when she hears Benjamin talk about this
truth that he has to leave soon. They both tried their best to value the time they had left together
and made the moment lasts when they both realize the truth, the acceptance stage. His wife found
that he was right that he had left when he went to visit her as a teenage boy when she found
someone that suits the role of their daughters father. Daisy found Benjamin later at the nursing
home they used to live together when he gets young as in childhood stage again, though he
cannot remember her anymore, she took good care of him until the last minute that he turns to an
infant again.