Alex Clark -- The Timeless Art of Aging

  In thinking about the Mark Twain quotation that was part of the prompt
  for this assignment, I think it's necessary to recall that Twain was first
  and foremost a "humorist" and a satirist -- his first goal in almost everything 
  he said and wrote was *to make people laugh* (at others and at themselves) 
  and then to get them to think about how silly a lot of their preconceptions 
  and actions are.   So it seems to me that his idea that aging in reverse 
  would lead to an "infinitely happier life" is not a serious proposal. It's 
  a way to get us to laugh about the indignities of aging.  He wants us to think 
  about whether being young is really any better than being old and whether life 
  really would be any better "in reverse."    

  Your essay relating this idea from the film "The Curious Case of Benjamin 
  Button"  has some good points.  You do a pretty good job of pointing out 
  ways that Benjamin's story essentially shows that what Twain is saying is 
  not true at all on the literal level.  (And in fact, the Fitzgerald story
  is even more clearly a sort of "thought experiment" to refute Twain's literal
  claim.)

  But there are some questionable aspects of what you are saying too.  You say, 
  for instance, that the idea of aging in reverse "makes sense" because 
  Benjamin can have many of the same experiences as others would have at the same 
  chronological age.  (The fact that he can have a lot of those experiences
  is essentially due to the ingenuity of the writer of the screenplay of course!)
  But it's probably physically impossible for any organism live this way, so 
  it's not clear how to take what you are saying.  

  There's also a key issue that you have not addressed.  If *everyone* was aging 
  "in reverse" then that would be normal and there wouldn't be any story.  But an 
  individual living "in reverse" in a world of people aging in the normal direction 
  faces extreme obstacles at almost every step of the way.  Even though he or she 
  might have many of the same physical-age-appropriate experiences as others along 
  the way (as you point out several times), his or her physical appearance and condition
  will always be out of step with his or her mental age *from the point of view
  of those other people*.  Think of Benjamin and Daisy's early encounter in the 
  old-age home.  No one (with the exception of Daisy herself) can see past the fact 
  that he looks like an old man molesting a young girl.  As you try to say on your 
  page 2, Benjamin encounters the reality of death much earlier than normal 
  children, but it's really because he seems to others to belong in that old age home
  because of his appearance.  (By the way, did you think about how he would have
  gotten an education or even if Benjamin went to school at all?)  Except for
  one brief window, Benjamin and Daisy are always out of step because he seems
  like an older man trying to court a high-spirited younger woman.  And then at the other 
  end of his life, Benjamin feels that he has to leave Daisy and Caroline because 
  he will be too young to be Caroline's father.  So it's not just the direction of aging
  by itself that is the really important point.  It's how that direction of aging
  makes you in step or out of step with everyone else that really matters for how 
  things play out in this story.  

  Your writing is generally good, but the structure of the paper as a whole
  is somewhat repetitive.  Also where did the quotation you use near the end 
  come from?  Did you transcribe that speech while you were watching the 
  film, or did you find the quotation written out somewhere?  It would be
  good to document the source more clearly.

  Content -- B

  Structure/Mechanics -- B+