Callan Hendershott -- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  In thinking about the Mark Twain quotation that was part of the prompt
  for this assignment, I would say 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 really 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." 

  Apart from the fact that I think you're taking Twain a bit too seriously, your essay 
  relating to this idea from the film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is 
  excellent.  You have thought deeply about the movie and you have developed a 
  very strong and detailed understanding of how it works and what it tries to say.  
  You do a 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.  You 
  also do a very good job of discussing the other key issue.  If *everyone* was 
  aging "in reverse" together, 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 other people, 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*.  

  Content -- A

  Structure/Mechanics -- A