Essay On Benjamin In The Great Gatsby

In the short story Benjamin is portrayed as a baby born with the body and mind of a 70-year-old. “He was gazing at a man of threescore and ten, a baby whose feet hung over the sides of the crib in which it was reposing”. In contrast Benjamin in the movie is portrayed as a baby with diseases and wrinkly body. “His body’s failing him before his life’s begun” (Doctor). In this version Benjamin is born with the mind of a baby and the size of a baby. The similarities between the two stories is that both Benjamin’s are born in an old body and are aging backwards. In Fitzgerald’s story Benjamin’s mental state ages backwards along with his body. He starts as a knowledgeable old man and regresses back into the mind of a baby towards the end of his life. In Fincher’s portrayal Benjamin’s body and mind age in opposite ways. His body regains its youthfulness as time passes and his mind gets older eventually developing dementia at the end of his life. Fincher’s story version is more

This narrator explains what happens to Benjamin throughout the course of his life. Fitzgerald did this to keep the readers at a distance to stop them forming a connection with Benjamin to have the reader form a more intellectual opinion of Benjamin life “I shall tell you what occurred, and let you judge for yourself” (pg-1). In contrast, Fincher had Benjamin narrate his own life through a series of flashbacks in first person, a technique that instantly connected the audience to Benjamin and his daughter Caroline who was reading his journal to her dying mother in the hospital. Fincher’s use of first person narration allows his audience to connect with the story on a more emotional level, allowing his audience to empathise with Benjamin and see how he views the world. Fincher’s choice of narrative voice was more effective that Fitzgerald’s because it engaged the audience