Fran\cois Venne -- Life

  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."    

  Apart from the fact that I think you're taking Twain 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 also 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.   I think there is one other key issue that you are
  "dancing around" -- you clearly understand this, but never really state explicitly 
  so you can't really capitalize on it in the other things you are saying.  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*.  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.  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 physically 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 
  around you that really matters for how things play out in this story. 

  A few small comments:

  1)  I think it would be more accurate to say that Queenie was Benjamin's 
  foster-mother.  She was not his biological mother, but she served as a   
  mother in raising him.   

  2) In "... one’s later years allows time for reflection ... " (page 4)
  "allows" should be "allow" (plural) 
  

  Content -- A

  Structure/Mechanics -- A