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Newborn Baby (Age 70)
Benjamin Button is born. He has a rare condition that makes him old when he is young and young while he is old which frustrates his parents. When Mr. Button first sees his newborn baby he says "Am I mad?"... "Is this some ghastly hospital joke?"(Page 60) -
At age 5 (Age 65)
Benjamin is sent to kindergarten and slept while supposed to be making crafts. Benjamin was removed from kindergarten by his parents. "The Roger Buttons told their friends he was too young." (Page 68) -
At age 12 (58)
Benjamin notices he is growing younger and asks to have long trousers. His father agrees only if they make a compromise. "Benjamin was to continue to dye his hair. He was to make a better attempt to play with boys of his own age. He was not to wear his spectacles or carry a cane in the street." (Page 68) -
At age 18 (Age 50)
Benjamin applies to Yale and is accepted. While having a meeting about his schedule the registrar saysto him, "Get out,"... "Get out of college and get out of town. You are a dangerous lunatic." he is kicked out because they do not believe him to be 18. He decides that later on he will apply to Harvard. (Page 70) -
At age 20 (48)
The engagement of Hildegarde and Benjamin is announced. Everyone thinks it is strange because Hildegarde is pretty and Benjamin is old. People started to tell stories about Benjamin. "It was said that Benjamin was really the father of Roger Button, that he was the brother who had been in prison for forty years, that he was John Wilkes Booth and disguise..." His fiance didn't know what story to believe. (Page 74) -
At age 20 (age 48)
Benjamin is growing older/younger and his father is beginning to accept him more. He starts for his father hardware business. "It was in that same year that he began going out socially- that is, his father insisted on taking him to several fashionable dances." (Page 71) -
At age 20 (48)
Benjamin is first introduced to his future wife, Hildegarde. Hildegarde and Benjamin get along very well. "I like men of your age," she told him. (Page 72) -
At age 30 (38)
Benjamin is no longer attracted to his wife. He finds that as he grows younger and she grows older, he becomes less and less attracted. "But, as the years passed, her honey-colored hair became an unexciting brown, the blue enamel of her eyes assumed the aspect of cheap crockery..." (Page 75) -
At age 38 (32)
Benjamin joins the army and fights in the Spanish-American war which he thoroughly enjoyed. "Benjamin had become so attracted to the activity and excitement of army life that he regretted to give it up..." (Page 76) -
At age 50 (20)
Benjamin enrolls as a Freshman at Harvard University. He became an excellent football player and was also very popular. "He was the most celebrated man in college." As his college years came to an end he grew weaker and scrawnier. He could barely keep up with his school work and didn't even make the football team his senior year. (Page 78) -
At age 54 (16)
Benjamin decides to rejoin the army but leaves after no one believes him to be a General. The colonel said to him "Whose little boy are you?" (Page 81) -
At age 54 (16)
Benjamin graduates college and goes to live with his son, Roscoe, while his wife is living in Italy. Roscoe is a little embarassed by his father and doesn't really want him living with him. "But though he was welcomed in a general way, there was obviously no heartiness in Roscoe's feeling toward him." (Page 79) -
At age 70 (0)
Benjamin disappears. "Then it was all dark, and his white crib and the dim faes of that moved above him, and the warm sweet aroma of the milk, faded out altogether from his mind." (Page 83)