-
Benjamin Button is born: Age 70 (Age 0)
Benjamin Button was born as a man that looks, acts, and thinks like a 70-year-old man. He is aggravated when the nurses bring him milk as food and an itchy blanket as clothing, because "they might at least have given [him] a sheet" (64). He wants to be treated like a 70 year old man would. -
Benjamin Button is Sent to Kindergarten: Age 65 (Age 5)
Although Benjamin didn't look like he should be going to Kindergarten, he went since the real amount of years he had been living was 5. Not too long after he was put in Kindergarten, he was removed. When Benjamin was "initiated to the art of pasting green paper on orange paper, of weaving colored maps" and manufacturing eternal cardboard necklaces," "he was inclined to drowse off to sleep," which "irritated and frightened his young teacher," and kicked him out of school (68). -
Benjamin Button is not allowed in to Yale College: Age 52 (Age 18)
Benjamin Button originally was admitted into Yale College, and when he was going to the registrar’s to figure out his college schedule, the registrar did not believe that he was 18 years old: “‘I’m very glad to meet you, Mr. Button. I’m expecting your son here any minute.’ ‘That’s me!’ burst out Benjamin. ‘I’m a freshman.’ ‘What!’ ‘I’m a freshman.’ ‘Surely you’re joking.’ ‘Not at all.’ . . . ‘Get out of college and get out of town. You are a dangerous lunatic’” (70). -
Benjamin Button Falls in Love: Age 50 (Age 20)
Benjamin Button falls in love with Miss Hildegarde Moncrief at a dance. When Benjamin was at the dance, he noticed a beautiful, slender girl with honey-colored hair: “A lady got out, then an elderly gentleman, then another young lady, beautiful as a sin. Benjamin started; an almost chemical change seemed to dissolve and recompose the elements of his body. A rigor passed over him, blood rose into his cheeks, his forehead, and there was a steady thumping in his ears. It was his first love" (72) -
Benjamin Button Gets Engaged to Miss Hildegarde Moncrief: Age 50 (Age 20)
When Benjamin Button married Hildegarde Moncrief, no believed his true age, so "Mr. Button published his son's birth certificate in large type in the newspaper" (74). Also, there were many rumors about Benjamin, after they remembered his birth: "It was said that Benjamin was really the father of Roger Button, that he was his brother who had been in prison for forty years, that he was John Wilkes Booth in disguise--and, finally, that he had two small conical horns sprouing from his head" (74). -
Benjamin Button Joined the Army: Age 32 (Age 38)
When the Spanish-American War broke out, Benjamin decided to join the army and loved it: "He obtained a commission as captain, and proved so adaptable to the work that he was made a major, and finally a lieutenant-colonel just in time to participate in the celebrated charge up San Juan Hill. He was slightly wounded, and received a medal" (75-76). When he had to give it up, he regretted it greatly because he had been "so attached to the activity and excitement of army life" (76). -
Benjamin Button Loses Interest in His Wife: Age 30 (Age 40)
Benjamin thinks that Hildegarde was starting to get boring, "too settled in her ways," and "too sober in her taste" with her "unexciting brown [hair]" (75). When Benjamin came home from the army, Hildegarde greeted him and kissed him, and "he felt with a sinking of the heart that these three years had taken their toll. She was a woman of forty now, with a faint skirmish line of gray hairs in her head. The sight debressed him" (76) -
People Mixed Benjamin Button and His Son, Roscoe, Up: Age 20 (Age 50)
When Benjamin is truly the age of 50, he is mistaken for his son, who just graduated from Harvard University. The narrator said, "[Benjamin] and his son were, in fact, often mistaken for each other. This pleased Benjamin--he soon forgot the insidious fear which had come over him on his return from the Spanish-American War, and grew to take the naive pleasure in his appearance" (77-78). -
Benjamin Button Attends Harvard University: Age 20 (Age 50)
When Benjamin entered himself as a freshman at Harvard University, he did not make the same mistake as last time--announcing his real age. He also didn't say that his son had been graduated from the same institution ten years before! Benjamin became a prominent member in the class, which was "largely due to the fact that in the football game with Yale he played so brilliantly, with so much dash and with such a cold, remorseless anger . . . He was the most celebrated man in college" (78). -
Roscoe Does not Enjoy Benjamin's Company: Age 16 (Age 54)
Benjamin returned from college, and his son, Roscoe, did not seem to enjoy his company--he even felt embarrased aroud Benjamin: "When visitors are in the house I want you to call me 'Uncle' all the time, so you get used to it" (79). When Benjamin asked Roscoe to take him to prep school, because he has always been interested in it, Roscoe says, "I haven't got time" and "You better turn right around and start back the other way. This has gone too far to be a joke . . . Behave yourself!" (79). -
Benjamin was not Allowed to be a Brigadier-General in the U.S. Army: Age 13 (Age 57)
When Benjamin got a letter from the U.S. Army asking him to come back into service with a higher-rank immediately, he was very excited because that was what he was yearning to do. Then, when he got there, the colonel sent Benjamin away because he looked so young: "[Benjamin's] son Roscoe materialized from Baltimore, hot and cross from a hasty trip, and escorted the weeping general, sans uniform, back to his home" (81). -
Benjamin Goes to Kindergarten (Again) With Roscoe's Son: Age 5 (Age 65)
Roscoe took his son and his father (Benjamin) to Kindergarten together, and Benjamin found that he enjoyed toys that he did not enjoy before: "Benjamin found that playing with little strips of colored paper, making hats and chains and curious and beautiful designs, was the most fascinating game in the world" (82). The next year, Roscoe's son moved up to first grade, while Benjamin repeated kindergarten. The next year he repeated kindergarten AGAIN, and after that he was taken out of school. -
Benjamin Died/Had Not Been Born Yet: Age 0 (Age 70)
Before Benjamin "died," he was getting younger and forgetting everything from his past: "He did not remember clearly whether the milk was warm or cool at his last feeding or how the days passed--there was only his crib and Nana's familiar presence. And then he remembered nothing. When he was hungry he cried--that was all. . . . Then it was all dark, and his white crib and the dim faces that moved above him, and the warm sweet aroma of the milk, faded out altogether from his mind" (83).