The fabulous button sisters

”The Fabulous Button Sisters” is a short story from 2006 written by Sarah Salway, it’s about a girl named Karen and her best friend Michelle. Michelle is living with her aunt, while her mother is in Hollywood trying to become a star, Michelle is waiting for her mother to become a star so she can come live with her and become one too. Michelle and Karen have a plan to go together, so they both can become stars. Karen and Michelle is going to a party and they have agreed to dress up like chocolate buttons, Karen as a brown one and Michelle as a white one, but when Karen goes to meet up with Michelle, Michelle isn’t dress up as they agreed because she has gotten a letter from her mom saying she can come live with her now and she is sending the tickets this week. To start with Michelle is sending postcards to Karen, but Karen don’t reply and the postcards stop coming.

Karen is a quite and ordinary teenage girl, she lives at home with her parents, but she wants more out of life than being an ordinary girl. When Michelle started at the school and she becomes Karen’s new “best friend” and Karen gets very fascinated by her she even says “I was in love”(p.8 ll.13). Karen is very drawn by Michelle and the way she is taking over the space in all situations, she owns every place she goes and she tells Karen to do the same. It could seem like Karen is so found of Michelle because she herself wants to be noticed and have the feeling of owning every situation. Karen has a friend named Connie, she calls Connie for “my proper best friend”(p.8 ll.12), this can be because Karen knows the thing she have with Michelle not will last forever.

Karen looks up to Michelle and would like to be like her, you can see it by Michelle booked her and Karen in every club so Karen didn’t had to choose between Connie and Michelle and Karen don’t say any thing to it. When Michelle is going to live with her mother Karen don’t know what to do and tries to fix up her relation with Connie, and when Michelle have moved away Karen don’t write back. This makes Karen proud because she is making her own decisions, this is something new for her because before Michelle made all her decisions.

When commenting on Michelle’s behavior you can’t look past the fact she isn’t an ordinary girl, because she always wants to be the center of attention in all situations. You can see this when she says to Karen “own the stage”, “own the track” and “own the pavement”(p.8 ll.24-26) Her attention seeking could have something to do with first her father leaving both her and her mother, then her mother sends her away to live with her aunt, so her mother can go to Hollywood to become a star. So she lacks the attention she normally would get at home and then hoping to get it from others by being the center of attention where ever she goes.

Michelle isn’t a good friend to Karen, this you can see from her booking them in to all the clubs at the school so Karen doesn’t have any time for Connie who was Karen’s best friend before Michelle came to the school. This also shows Michelle wants to have ownership over Karen, and doesn’t want Karen to make up her own mind about the situation. Michelle also takes no consideration to Karen’s feelings when they agree to come as chocolate buttons to the party, by taking another outfit on than she has told to Karen she is going to. To summarize Michelle is a very selfish person who doesn’t think about no one than herself. But the reason for this behavior could be she is used to her parents only thinking on themselves and doesn’t seem to mind about Michelle.

What characterizes friendship?
What characterizes a friendship? Everyone has their own definition on what a friendship is. A friend is someone you always can rely on, and someone who is there for you if you’re having troubles. You don’t have to have the same interest or the same opinion to be friends, you just have to like the other person for who he or she is. A friend isn’t someone who tells anybody the secrets you have shared with them, or is talking about you behind your back. You should be able to trust them, and not have to go and think about if your friend tells anyone the things you have told to him or her. A good friend is also the person there always can make you laugh no matter how bad your day have been. But this is just my opinion on what characterizes a friendship, I’ll let you make up you own mind.