ages in reverse.

Set near the time of the Civil War, when Benjamin is born, his father and mother have a hard

time accepting his condition, forcing Benjamin to act his literal age. However, Benjamin

acts and thinks like an older man, wanting to dress in a suit and smoke a cigar.

After failing to integrate into school, eventually Benjamin begins to notice that he is looking

younger. His skin is tightening up and his energy level is increasing.

Soon, Benjamin and his father, almost similar in appearance in terms of age, attend a party

and he is introduced to a young woman named Hildegarde. The couple soon marries despite

Benjamin looking nearly twenty years older than Hildegarde.

After fathering a child, Benjamin continues to grow younger. He begins to notice that

his interests in the party lifestyle are growing, while his interest in his wife is decreasing.

After serving in the army, Benjamin enters college and graduates from Harvard. Meanwhile,

his son, Roscoe, has inherited the family hardware business. However, even Roscoe is

embarrassed to be seen with Benjamin because of how young he looks.

And in the end, after Benjamin attends kindergarten with his own grandchild, he continues to become

younger and younger until his mind starts to blank out, resetting back to an infantile

status.

This story takes an interesting look at a life in reverse, but really magnifies the

similarities between the polar ends of a life - the elder and infant years. In both extremes,

individuals are highly dependent on extra care.

Behind all of the fantasy, this story also comments on the loneliness of being in a family.

Benjamin is surrounded by a "family", albeit a distant and apathetic family, yet the narrator

of this story tends to place Benjamin alone. He is often the only one looking out for himself.

Even in relationships when we would expect some support, like from his parents, wife,

or child, he is still the primary source for his own well-being.

The ending scene, where Benjamin's mind begins to lose consciousness, is quite sad. He loses

memory of his entire life and his world becomes only his crib and nurse.

This juxtaposition of life's most polar extremes, birth and death, works wonders at the end.

We are left with a child, who represents birth and new beginnings, while also being left

with a literal 70-year-old man who is losing his memories and entering death.

And so it seems that in the course of a natural life, we enter and leave with nothing, no

memories at all.