Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Age, Development, and Identity
Reputation, Gossip, and Scandal
Expectations and Acceptance
Support and Caretaking
Summary
Analysis
By the time Benjamin is 18, his hair has become thicker, his back straighter, and his voice stronger. He’s accepted to Yale, just like his father hoped he would be—but when he goes to sign up for classes, the registrar refuses to believe that he’s 18. Benjamin tries multiple times to convince him of his real age, but this only outrages the registrar, who calls him a “dangerous lunatic” for trying to enter a freshman class as a grown man.
Again, Benjamin has to deal with his father’s expectations and the ways they conflict with what the rest of society expects of him. In this case, he finally manages to live up to his father’s high standards by going to Yale, but he quickly discovers that this door isn’t actually open to him. While his father sees him as an 18-year-old boy, the registrar (and everyone else) sees him as a strange middle-aged man with suspicious intentions. Given these conflicting expectations, it becomes clear that it’s impossible for Benjamin to satisfy everyone.
Themes
The registrar shouts Benjamin out of the office, attracting the attention of a group of students who follow him through campus and chase him out of town, leering and insulting him by suggesting that he should try this stunt at Harvard. Boarding a train for Baltimore, Benjamin decides that he will go to Harvard someday.
Trying to live up to his father’s expectations has detrimental consequences for Benjamin, as evidenced by the fact that an angry mob chases him off Yale’s campus. This illustrates just how unwilling people are to accept anything that seems out of the ordinary, ultimately making it quite hard for Benjamin to live his life without constantly having to encounter adversity. This jeering mob also shows that people are drawn to scandals—after all, people crowd around Benjamin as if he’s some sort of exotic zoo animal, each one of them clearly relishing the drama of this moment.
Themes
