I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere novellen "Buttony" af Fiona McFarlane, som har været brugt til en skriftlig eksamen i Engelsk A på STX den 22. maj 2019. Udover analysehjælpen kan du finde et summary af teksten samt idéer til din fortolkning.
Eksamensspørgsmål
Write an analytical essay (900-1200 words) in which you analyse and interpret Fiona McFarlane’s short story “Buttony”.
Part of your essay must focus on the structure of the story and on the use of contrasts.
Præsentation af teksten
Titel: “Buttony” (2016)
Forfatter: Fiona McFarlane
Genre: Short story
Fiona McFarlane (f. 1978) er en australsk forfatter. Hun er kendt for både romaner og noveller og har vundet flere litteraturpriser for sit arbejde.
McFarlanes novelle "Buttony" blev oprindeligt udgivet i tidsskriftet The New Yorker.
Mere hjælp
Har du brug for yderligere hjælp, kan du læse Studienets vejledning til at skrive analytical essays:
Vejledning til analytical essay
Få hjælp til at skrive et analytical essay i Engelsk med Studienets trin-for-trin vejledning. Vejledningen kan både bruges til opgaver inden for fiction og non-fiction.
Uddrag
Nedenfor kan du læse et uddrag fra vores study guide til novellen:
Title
The title of the short story “Buttony” by Fiona McFarlane refers directly to a central element of the story, as the game the children play is called Buttony and involves a small button: “ ‘We’ll play. Joseph, get the button’ ” (l. 5).
The game in the short story is based on the real-life game typically called ‘Button, button, who’s got the button’, which is played as described in the story. Players form a circle, close their eyes and hold their hands out with palms open. At the start of the game, a child is selected to be ‘the leader’ and is the first to handle the button. The leader goes around the circle and places the button in another child’s hands. Then the children open their eyes and try to guess where the button is. When they find the receiver of the button, that child will now become the leader and a new round will begin. The game itself is fairly simple, but in the short story it is described as almost a ritual, an act that the children view with unusual seriousness: “All the children handled the button with reverence” (l. 17). Therefore, the title becomes much more than a simple game. It implies the ritual and routine that the group of children goes through together.