Figurative Language And Themes In 'Buttons'

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” In the poem “Buttons” by Matvei Yankelevich, the writer talks about how many people die with their secrets and no one could ever know their secrets again. The writer symbolizes buttons as secrets by using imagery, word choice, and figurative language. As I delve into this analysis, I will get more in depth of why the recurring word, buttons, in this poem refers to people’s secrets. First, the writer uses imagery to emphasize that buttons symbolize secrets. In the poem, it says, “During the war, all the buttons fell off,” and there is a connection to another line in the poem,”Benita Canova can’t read it. Nor can Nietzsche” (53-56). These lines go hand-in-hand
Throughout the whole poem, the writer is intentionally rambling about describing buttons at every angle for a reason. The author is making a point about how buttons are “so close together” that “you can’t even imagine them” (60 - 63). When I correlate buttons to secrets in this situation, it makes sense because like friendships, secrets are what keeps friends closer. This is because when people share intimate information with someone, they feel a connection, and not even their acquaintances and other friends can’t imagine that they would keep a secret something possibly outrageous from them. The speaker wrote, “Buttons have two sides, and two sides only” (33 - 34). This means that figuratively that buttons have two sides; one side that people see, and the other side that people do not see. Just like secrets, they have two sides; one side where the people know the secret, and the other side where people do not acknowledge the secret. At the end of the poem, the tone gets simplified into one word; ominous. The speaker says, “Buttons. The buttons. I’ve never been so afraid of buttons” (73 -75). This signifies how scared the speaker might be if he were to reveal one’s secrets and what the future might hold for him if we were to know what this secret might be because it might make him lose connection to that person or something possibly worse. The writer makes this exaggeration that “nor
The speaker says, “In the necklace of buttons sides don’t matter, every side touches, is in contact” (15 -18). This sentence is a play on words. In this context, instead of using “size doesn’t matter”, he states that “sides don’t matter”. This whole stanza that this line is in, emphasizes the sides that buttons have, just like secrets; and is in contact like the bond people have when they share a secret. The writer says, “My friends can’t read the buttons and you— I don’t even know my friends, because on one side they are my friends and on another they’re somebody else’s friend” (64 - 70). The writer is not talking to the audience but he’s possibly talking to someone in this poem. This line is true about how people are perceived and what secrets they might have about someone else. Yankelevich states that “... this text is written only on the inside side— the side which was once in contact with, was touching, the clothing people wore” (19 - 23). What the author means by this line is that the secret will always be with the person that was once shared with and will be with them until the day they die. Yankelevich was able to create this image that buttons were alive in a way that the way he portrayed buttons was certainly