ABSTRACT
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” as movie adaptations can be categorized as an adaptation that is not faithful to the so-called the original text. Fincher as a director seems to have a different way to expose the story in the film industry by adding a character of Queenie. Queenie is a black female character that is depicted as a mother figure for Benjamin, the main character, in the adaptation. The analysis of this research examines how the character of Queenie is being constructed as mammy stereotype and the accounts of her presence in the adaptation. By applying the semiotic theory of Roland Barthes, this research analyzes mise-en-scene examination to find the mammy stereotype that is constructed in the character Queenie by looking at the history of slavery in America. Then, adaptation theory of Linda Hutcheon is used to see the account of Queenie’s presence in the adaptation. Thus, this research finds that the movie constructed mammy stereotype, that has been ingrained in the history of slavery in America, in the character Queenie through mise-en-scene, specifically the figure behavior of Queenie. Moreover, the presence of Queenie in the movie challenges the stereotype by showing the significant role of mammy in a parent's abandonment of a white child. Thus this movie is a process and a product based on the Hutcheon adaptation theory. As her presence told the story in variation and to pay tribute to the short story, the movie represents Queenie to contest the short story point of view towards black, especially a black woman.
