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Benjamin is Born (Age 70)
Benjamin is born in Baltimore, Maryland and is remarkably a seventy-year-old man. Benjamin was not well recieved by neither the hospital nor his family. His family refuses to accpet his true identity. He insists that he is a tired old man by saying, "With all this yelling and howling, I haven't been able to get a wink of sleep" (63). -
Benjamin Goes to Kindergarten (Age 65)
Benjamin finally gets to go to school, but he leaves shortly there after because he sleeps too much in class and the teacher complained. He also makes an effort to play with the other children, but it does not merit success. "Football shook him up too much" (68). -
Benjamin Discovers That He is Getting Younger (Age 58)
Benjamin looks in the mirror one day, and makes the discovery that he is getting younger in his appearance. The wrinkles on his face were becoming less pronounced and his skin appeared to be healthier and firmer. However, Benjamin didn't really believe that reverse aging was happening. "'Can it be ----?' he thought to himself" (68). -
Benjamin Gets Denied by Yale (Age 52)
21 years after the Benjamin's birth, Benjamin tried to enroll at Yale. However, the admissions officer there believed he was the father of a prospective student because of his older looks and refused to believe that he himself wanted to be a student. All of the other students at Yale laughed at him because of his hilarious looks for a college student. "'The idea!' he shouted. 'A man of your age trying to enter here as a freshman,' said Mr. Hart [the registrar]" (70). -
Benjamin Meets Hildegarde Moncrief (Age 50)
Benjamin, now a handsome man with looks as if he was 50, meets the young and attractive Hildegarde. She likes older men. "I'd rather marry a man of fifty and be taken care of than marry a man of thirty and take care of him" (73). -
Benjamin Improves the Family Business (Age 50-35)
Benjamin doubles the value of the family business because of his smart business moves. "In 1890 he executed his famous business coup: he brought up the suggestion that all nails used in nailing up the boxes in which nails are shipped are the property of the shippee” (75). -
Benjamin Goes to War (Age 32)
Benjamin starts to find living with Hildegarde annoying, so he registers for the Spanish-American War. "[Benjamin was] a lieutenant-colonel just in time to participate in the celebrated charge up San Juan Hill" (76). -
HIldegarde "Demands" Benjamin to Stop Reverse Aging (Age 30)
Hildegarde becomes so aggravated that she demands, "You can [stop] too. You're simply too stubborn. You think you don't want to be like any one else" (77). -
HIldegarde and Roscoe Look Too Old For Benjamin (Age 21)
Benjamin begins too look absurd with his wife HIldegarde, now almost 50, and his son who is college age also begins to look much too old for him. "He hated to appear in piblic with his wife. Hildegarde was almost fifty, and the sight of her made him feel absurd..." (78). -
Benjamin Becomes a Star on Harvard Football (Age 20)
"He played so brilliantly... with such a cold, remorseless, anger that he score seven touchdowns and fourteen field goals for Harvard." This anger comes from the fact the Yale denied him 30 years earlier, and this is why Fitzgerald says that Yale "made the biggest mistake' (78) -
Roscoe Becomes Benjamin's "Father" (Age 16)
Roscoe beomes very aggravated by the fact that Benjamin needs Roscoe's help for everything at this point. He is embarrased by the situation. "When visitors are in the house I want you to call me 'Uncle' -- not 'Roscoe', but 'Uncle" (79) -
Benjamin Becomes the Same Age as His Grandson (Age 5)
Benjamin ridiculously becomes of equal age as Roscoe's son. "Five years later Roscoe's little boy had grown old enough to play childish games with little Benjamin" (82). -
Benjamin Becomes a Baby
Benjamin becomes a baby until the reader assumes he hits zero and ceases to exist. "Through the noons and nights he breathed and over him there were soft mumblings and murmurings that he scarcely heard" (83).