Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Sasi Ounpiyodom (Minnie)

Quarter Project ID: 5961052

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2004) Movie Analysis

Section 1: Nature & Nurture

Benjamin Buttons nature makes him far different from other children because instead of
growing older over time, he grows younger. He was born on a chaotic night of the end of World
War I. His nature is corrupted because his mother immediately passed away after giving birth. In
addition, his father, Roger Button, could not accept the fact that his baby is abnormal. So, he
took the baby to an elderly nursing home and just left him there. Benjamin was born as an 80
year old, which follows health issues, such as cataracts, arthritis, etc. In contrary, his nurture is
similar to normal children because he is raised and taken care of in an elderly nursing home.
Because both children and elderlies are dependent ages, he gets treated the way an elderly is
treated. He grew up around elderlys attitude, wisdom and care. While he was a baby, his body
and mind certainly resembled an elderly in some way. He did not jump around and play in the
dirt like normal children, instead he sat in a wheelchair, waiting to be fed. Fortunately, looking
like an old man gives him an advantage of getting respect from society, consequently making
him safe and unharmed. The fact that Benjamin was saved from being a feral child was mainly
because he was allowed to socially interact with others. He was also taken care of very well, in
the same manner as an elderly, Queenie taught him things like he is her own child. She taught
him to speak, as he started to read simple objects like a label of a can. Though people in his same
age such as Daisy is more advanced. As seen in the scene where Queenie makes an
announcement but Benjamin does not understand what she means, Daisy has to explain to him
that she is pregnant.

Benjamins fosterers parenting styles reflected how he interact with other people, with
his stepmother being especially influential. As his biological parents left him, he was raised by
his step mother, Queenie. Her parenting style is mostly authoritative, because she usually looked
out for him, warned him not to push his wheelchair over the stairs edge. She took good care of
him because she felt the responsibility over his life. In contrast, his step father was rather
uninvolved. He was not seen much and did not have much impact over Benjamins life. His real
father would later reveal his relationship with Benjamin later when he became an adult, as seen
during the scene where he took Benjamin to his old factory. After the truth was thrown at him, he
had to reevaluate his life and contemplate that if he was not left with Queenie, he would have
probably been abandoned or in the worst case, dead. This impacted him in a way that he realizes
the truth about life, that life is full of surprises. Benjamin was a fast learner in that his bodys age
went backwards. He had to learn to be mature and act his age even though on the inside, he
was still a child. Benjamins capability as a child is unique as stated in the first paragraph,
though he had to mature quite fast. In the scene where Queenie first met Benjamin, she was
Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Sasi Ounpiyodom (Minnie)
Quarter Project ID: 5961052

shocked by his appearance. He seem confused in several parts. For example, when Captain Mike
asked him if he wants to work, he was confused because he never knew what work is like.
Young Benjamin is not given proper education like other kids, therefore he would learn more
through experience rather than being given information. Once his fathers acquaintance took him
out to the city and left him to go home alone. He has no other choice but to figure out how to get
home by himself. Though he took a long time to get back, he still did. Queenie was even mad at
him for coming home late, which further emphasizes the fact that shes an authoritative mother.
He also learned spontaneity through getting out of bed to play with his friend in the middle of the
night. He was taunted by the grandma afterwards, which he did not feel great about. That shows
he experienced pain more than pleasure by doing that action, which taught him to not repeat the
action again in his future. Another sign of his cognitive development is that he is exceptionally
good at the piano after that woman taught him how to play, he still carried that skill later on in
his life. Benjamin is affected by social transmission in that his surroundings was pretty religious.
He was taken to the church to cure his weak legs when he was a child. That shows his
stepmothers care for him. He is perceived from society as an old man, which means people
expect him to be wise and knowledgeable. Throughout his life, Benjamin learns to get
comfortable with his condition, mainly through time, but also balancing what society expects of
him and what he expects for himself.

Section 2: Understanding about Genders and Conformity

Benjamin discovers gender roles by observing his environment and the people around
him. After he was hired by Captain Mike, he was dragged along to the pub. He realizes that
money can buy women. Later in his 20s, he started having affairs with a woman named
Elizabeth, while he was serving the navy in Russia. Meaning he may not give much value to
women at that time. Later on Elizabeth left him because he has to go to war somewhere else for
the navy. He learns to trust and let go of trust. Though he was heartbroken, he did not completely
ignored his duty because of it. Also while he was in the navy, his war-mate trusted him for
keeping his money. He developed his understanding about female gender mainly through Daisy.
As she is a dancer, he probably assumes that women are good at dancing or performing. And
dancing becomes a women thing. There are also a lot of lesbians in the dancing community. This
shows that when women are together in the same position, they develop intimacy and love for
each other.

In the scene where Benjamin was sent to the church, it shows three distinct characteristics
of groupthink. In scene, Benjamin is sent up stage to let the pastor make him able to walk by
relying on Christianity. There is the illusion of invulnerability in this scene in which everyone in
the church including the pastor, Queenie and the audience strongly believes that he will be able
to walk no matter his poor physical abilities. Benjamin and everyone else believe that he is
strong enough and has got nothing to lose. With the power of trust, he is able to walk for the first
Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Sasi Ounpiyodom (Minnie)
Quarter Project ID: 5961052

time and that moment was very valuable to him. In contrast to most actions caused by illusion of
invulnerability, this action results in Benjamin being able to walk which is a positive instead of
negative result. Direct pressure is also another type of groupthink presented in that scene. By
using Christianity as a tool to cure Benjamins sickness, the church is automatically pressuring
him to believe in the power of god. If he is able to walk, it is because of god who cures him. In
this scene, Benjamin hesitates to walk at first. He might not be a strong believer of Christianity
since birth, but because he is raised in the environment. He chooses not to argue with the
majority who are the Christians in the church because it is better to follow along than to show
disbelief in that circumstance. That illustrates a characteristic of self-censorship.

Section 3: Adulthood, Old Age, and Death

The stages of adulthood is shown very vividly throughout Benjamins life. Though he
may not live the life like ours in the 21st century, he still experiences the same waves of emotions
and development of individuality. Benjamin started his early adulthood with leaving his birth
home, his family and the elderlies who raised him as a child. This showed his longing for
independence. Later during his early-middle adulthood, he searches for different jobs and
received any opportunity to find out what he likes. At first, he joins Captain Mike to work on his
tugboat. After he is trusted by him, captain Mike invited him to join the navy which shows that
he now has more responsibility than before he has a job. As he is young when he first started out,
he needs to gain respect from captain, but captain is very accepting of him, it was easy for him to
gain his respect. As he was starting to have a stable job working in the navy, he finds a new
lover. But the problem was she already has a husband. He had several affairs with her regardless.
Sometime after, Daisy was in a bad accident which made her unable to dance again. Benjamin
goes to visit her but she is acts very resentful to him because she does not like her appearance.
After a while, he came back to Daisy, his first lover. In his middle adulthood, he settles to marry
Daisy, sells his dead fathers house, buys a new apartment and moves in with her. That is the
time where both of their ages meet in the middle and also the point where they are the happiest.
Then, in his late adulthood he goes out to seek solitude in traveling, detaching himself from his
past life, including from Daisy. That was also the time when his body is strongest. As a teenager,
he is strong enough to go anywhere. Towards the end of his life, in his old age, he gets carried
back to his birth home. He suffers from elderly health illnesses, such as dementia, while his body
is getting younger every day. However, he is still able to play the piano because his skills are
buried in his long-term memory since he was a child. Daisy also came back as an old lady and he
was taken care of like a baby once again.

As different as Benjamin is from other people, he is the same in that he still has to face
humans biggest fear, death. Throughout his life, he has lost many people he loved dearly; his
mom, his childhood piano teacher, his step father, Captain Mike, Queenie, his real father, but the
Social Psychology 2017-2018 Name: Sasi Ounpiyodom (Minnie)
Quarter Project ID: 5961052

most important person to die is possibly himself. He was taught about death since he was young,
as his former piano teacher says, Benjamin, were meant to lose the people we love. How else
would we know how important they are to us? This teaching makes him immune to the
realization of death. As he was born prematurely old and ages like no other, his life is always on
the line. He experiences the Kubler-Rosss stages of grief theory just like everyone else. When
Daisy first told Benjamin that she is pregnant and happy, he reacts by denying. He does not want
to become a father yet. When he first knew that his decreasing age will not allow him to take
care of his daughter, he quickly pulled away from Daisy, leaving her to take care of their child
alone, although he is angry at himself for not being capable of being a father. By doing this, he is
also repeating history in which his father also felt the same way as him when he decided to
abandon him. Then Benjamin starts bargaining by selling his fathers house, hoarding his life
savings and sending a card to his daughter to remind her of his existence. He cope with the
situation by reaching the depression stage during the time he spent traveling alone, he slightly
regrets his decision but eventually come to terms with it. As he says earlier in the movie, While
everybody is ageing, Im getting younger, all alone. This line represents his sadness and
loneliness that is the consequences of his unique condition. One interesting thing to point out is
that he still remembers how to play the piano, despite his illness. So, once he reaches the age
where he loses memory due to Alzheimers and dementia, he can no longer remember his pain.
For his acceptance stage, he has been able to accept the inevitability of death all along, but just
does not want to deal with the pain that comes with it.