Difficult Decisions In 'Butle, Button' By Richard Matheson

Imagine having a great life with lots of money and opportunities but also imagine what it would be like to take someone's life away. In “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson a magical button appears that gave them the opportunity to get $50,000, but it came with a catch: if a person presses the button, someone will die. In this short story the characters are faced with that difficult decision. Norma, Arthur, and Mr Steward all respond to the button in different ways. Mr Steward gives them the button and persuades them to press it, Arthur tells Norma not to press the button and Norma decides to press the button. Mr Steward is the character that gives them the button and the one that tries to convince them to press the button. Mr Steward
left this box at Mr. and Mrs. Lewis’ door. He left a note that told them to that he would call them at 8:00pm. Then Mr Steward knocked on their door and Norma answered. Norma let him in and he pulled out an envelope from his pocket. Inside the envelope was a key to the button unit dome. Mr Steward explained that the button was in the box and if they press that button somewhere in the world someone will die, but they wouldn't know the person dying. On the other hand, if they did press the button they will receive a payment of $50,000. Mr and Mrs Lewis tried to decline the offer but Mr Steward insisted the kept the button. He left his business car incase they needed to contact him. During the whole time this was happening the button was sitting there waiting to be presses. The Next character is Arthur Lewis, he tells Norma not to press the button. Arthur knows that this button is too mysterious and shouldn't be messed with. He didn't care or wasn't at all curious about it. As the day went on Norma got more and more interested in the button. She constantly asked Arthur if she could press the button, but every time he said the same answer, No. It seemed like he new sometime bad was gonna happen. Even though it was $50,000 Arthur knew that risking someone else's life was selfish and that's not how he wanted to go through life feeling the guilt. Through the story Arthur told Norma not to press the button. The final character is Norma. The whole time Norma wanted to press that button. The only thing she could think about was all the things she could do if she had that money. She imagined herself on a trip to Europe, a cottage on an island, with nicer apartment, nicer furniture, nicer clothes, nicer car, and she even said that she could finally be able to support a child. Norma did not believe that someone would actually die, the whole time she thought they were tricking her or it was some sort of experiment. Throughout the next few days she kept asking questions about the button. She still was unsure if she should press it or not but after a long time of staring at it she finally decided to press the button. Nothing happened, she thought the button was stupid and meaningless but then she got a call from the Lenox Hill Hperspectives about the button. In this short story “Button, Button” Norma learned that this button was not what she expected and because of her own selfishness she lost someone she loves most.ospital. They told her that her husband, Arthur had gotten into a subway accident. At this moment she fell to the ground in shock, she was trembling and her words wouldn't come out of her mouth. Mr Lewis then called her and asked her. “Do you really think you knew your husband?” In this short story the characters were faced with the difficult decision of whether or not should they press the mysterious button. Mr Steward, Norma, and Arthur all had different