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51 pages 1 hour read

Stephen King, Richard Chizmar

Gwendy's Button Box

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Character Analysis

Gwendy Peterson

Gwendy Peterson is the protagonist and the guardian of the button box for the majority of the novella. Her parents named their only child Gwendy because her “father wanted a Gwendolyn—that was his granny’s name—and [her] mom wanted a Wendy, like in Peter Pan. So they compromised” (4). Her life completely changes when she takes on guardianship of the button box. Before the button box comes into her life, she feels overweight and insecure. Frankie Stone bullies her by calling her “Goodyear”—a nickname that haunts her into adulthood. After receiving the button box from Mr. Farris in the novella’s inciting incident, Gwendy transforms into an extremely beautiful, athletically talented, and popular version of herself.

Mr. Farris chooses Gwendy to take care of the button box because she’s “the best choice of those in this place at this time” and she seemed responsible (15). As guardian of the button box, Gwendy goes to great lengths to protect it. She’s rarely greedy in taking advantage of its benefits or consequences and only pushes the buttons three times—once as an experiment, and twice to avenge her loved ones’ deaths (Olive and Harry). Throughout the narrative, Gwendy holds a conflicted view of the button box, both blaming it for the harm in her life and also feeling dependent on it. She is upset when Mr. Farris comes to retrieve the button box, telling him to go get it from her room alone because she’s afraid she will want to keep it.

Once free of the box, Gwendy goes on to attend Brown University for college and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a prestigious creative writing program before launching a successful career as a writer—a life trajectory Mr. Farris suggests reinforces the strength of her character and ambition that led him to choose her to guard the button box in the first place, pointing to the novella’s engagement with the theme of Fate Versus Free Will. Gwendy describes her typewriter as her new “button box,” indicating that she will use her writing to influence her future in the same way she once used the box. Mr. Farris tells her that she

will die surrounded by friends, in a pretty nightgown with blue flowers on the hem. There will be sun shining in your window, and before you pass you will look out and see a squadron of birds flying south. A final image of the world’s beauty (155).

The novella positions this positive image as a reward for shouldering The Weight of Isolation and Secrets while in possession of the button box.

Richard Farris

Despite only appearing at the very beginning and end of the novella, Richard Farris plays a major role in Gwendy’s life. When Gwendy first meets him, she notices,

[A] man in black jeans, a black coat like for a suit, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small neat black hat […] about her father’s age, which would make him thirty-eight or so, and not bad looking, but wearing a black suit coat on a hot August morning makes him a potential weirdo (2-3).

Despite her initial distrust of Mr. Farris, she eventually views him as a benevolent, patient, and kind man.

As the person who determines who will hold the button box, Mr. Farris acts as a guide or mentor figure throughout the narrative. The fact that Gwendy notes Mr. Farris’s presence primarily in fleeting glimpses of his hat reinforces his mystical ethos. Gwendy begins relying less and less on the button box after she begins a relationship with Harry. The appearances of Mr. Farris’s hat serve as a reminder of the button box’s power and influence in her life, especially in moments of contentment or happiness when she’s almost forgotten about it. In this way, King and Chizmar use the motif of Mr. Farris’s hat to represent The Weight and Isolation of Secrets as well as a harbinger of tragedy foreshadowing misfortune to come as a result of the box. For example, when she flies a kite with Harry, she sees Mr. Farris’s hat:

[Harry] doesn’t notice the black hat coming in their direction, not moving with the wind but against it. He doesn’t notice the hat slow down as it approaches, then suddenly change direction and swoop a complete circle around his horrorstruck girlfriend—almost as if kissing her hello, so nice to see you again—before it skitters off and disappears behind the bleachers that run alongside the third base line (133).

In this scene, Mr. Farris’s hat foreshadows the impending doom of Gwendy and Harry’s relationship as a result of Harry’s murder.

In Gwendy’s final conversation with Mr. Farris, King and Chizmar reinforce their characterization of him as a guide to Gwendy in her guardianship of the box. His warmth and fondness as he tells her that he’s kept an eye on her for the entirety of her guardianship of the button box, his praise of her restraint, and the hopeful glimpse he gives of her bright future all speak to his role as a benevolent mentor figure. At the end of the novella, he retrieves the button box from Gwendy with the intent of giving it to a boy in California—the box’s next young guardian.

Frankie Stone

Frankie Stone is the main antagonist throughout the novella. His opinion of Gwendy changes drastically throughout the story. During middle school, he bullies Gwendy by taunting her for her weight and calling her “Goodyear.” Additionally, he is known for chanting, “I’m Frankie Stoner! Got a two-foot boner” (6), highlighting his immaturity and crass nature. However, when the button box transforms Gwendy’s life and appearance, Frankie becomes obsessed with her. In a full reversal, Gwendy now finds Frankie’s appearance unappealing:

Frankie Stone has grown up, but not in a good way. He sports greasy brown hair, a shotgun pattern of acne scattered across his face, and a homemade AC/DC tattoo on one arm. He also suffers from the worst case of body odor Gwendy has ever come across. There are whispers that he fed a hippie girl roofies at a concert and then raped her. Probably not true, she knows about the vicious rumors kids start, but he sure looks like someone who’d slip roofies into a girl’s wine cooler (53-4).

Gwendy’s perception of Frankie as a potential sexual predator foreshadows the many crimes he commits throughout the novella, including Harry’s murder and attempting to rape Gwendy herself.

Gwendy uses the button box several times to seek protection from and revenge against Frankie. Following his verbal abuse of her, she dreams about harming him. In her dream,

[S]he doesn’t stand there helpless in the driveway with her heart in her throat. In the dream, she rushes at Frankie, and before he can peel out, she lunges through the open driver’s window and grabs his left arm. She twists until she hears—and feels—the bones snapping beneath her hands (55).

Soon after, Frankie suffers a car accident while driving drunk. He sustains uncannily similar injuries to the ones he suffered in Gwendy’s dream, providing a direct link between Gwendy’s personal desires and a real-life outcome and underscoring the novella’s thematic interest in Fate Versus Free Will. Later, when Frankie kills Harry, Gwendy uses the button box to kill him by wishing he “rot in hell.” Frankie disintegrates in front of her, and she never tells the police what happened to him. At the end of the novella, many people assume that Frankie is still alive and on the run from the police.

Olive Kepnes

Olive Kepnes is Gwendy’s best friend—a friendship established long before Gwendy becomes guardian of the button box. King and Chizmar characterize Olive as less mature than Gwendy, as the two often participate in more innocent and childish activities together, such as dancing in Olive’s room and biking. The rift in their friendship begins when, under the influence of the button box, Gwendy achieves greater popularity and participates in more mature activities. Olive reacts to Gwendy’s newfound popularity with hurt and jealousy, feeling threatened by the changes in Gwendy that she herself hasn’t experienced. As Gwendy’s popularity increases, Olive’s quality of life and treatment by the other students only worsens, establishing an inverse trajectory to Gwendy’s:

Twenty feet away from [Gwendy], Olive screams as someone bumps her arm, sending a cascade of ice-cold soda all over her face and down the front of her brand-new sweater. Kids point and start to laugh. Olive looks around in embarrassment, her eyes finally settling on Gwendy, and then she storms away and disappears into the public restroom (74).

Gwendy’s friendship with Olive triggers a moral dilemma in her life, causing her to question what role she plays in Olive’s unhappiness. When Olive ultimately dies by suicide after jumping from the Suicide Steps, it catalyzes a crisis of conscience for Gwendy forcing her to confront her relationship with and dependency on the button box.

Olive’s death completely changes both Gwendy’s life and her relationship to the button box. Gwendy blames the button box—primarily its influence on her appearance and popularity—for the rift between her and Olive, believing that the breakdown of their friendship led Olive to take her own life. Ultimately Mr. Farris reveals that Olive died because her stepfather was sexually abusing her. To avenge her best friend’s death, Gwendy uses the button box to destroy the Suicide Steps, ensuring no one else will die at the site again.

Harry Streeter

Harry Streeter is Gwendy’s first boyfriend. Her relationship with him helps her realize that she can be happy without relying on the enhancing powers of the button box. The authors establish an immediate connection between the two as Gwendy falls immediately in love with Harry, saying:

His name is Harry Streeter. He’s eighteen years old, tall and handsome and funny. He’s new to Castle Rock (his family just moved in a couple weeks ago as a result of his father’s job transfer), and if it’s not a genuine case of Love At First Sight, it’s pretty close (121).

Harry is an avid photographer and enjoys taking pictures of Gwendy running.

As a result of her relationship with Harry, Gwendy becomes less reliant on the button box and for the first time, notes changes in her weight and imperfection in her athletic or academic performances without feeling shame. The narrative suggests that Gwendy’s growing maturity facilitates both increased self-confidence and contentment in her relationship with Harry, such that she no longer feels the need to rely on the button box. Harry is ultimately murdered by Frankie Stone, who uses the button box to bludgeon him. Harry’s murder shifts the role of the button box in Gwendy’s life from a tool of self-improvement to a weapon of self-protection and righteous vengeance as she utilizes its power to kill Frankie. Harry’s death represents a loss of innocence for Gwendy—a moment in which she takes control of and responsibility for her choices and actions:

I told the police that Harry kept Frankie from raping me, that they fought, that Harry was killed and Frankie ran away. I suppose they’re still looking for him. I hid the box in my dresser, along with the coins. I thought about dipping one of my high heel shoes in Harry’s blood to explain the…the bludgeoning…but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. In the end it didn’t matter. They just assumed Frankie took the murder weapon with him (152).

For the rest of her time as guardian of the button box, Gwendy refuses to date anyone else, treating the button box as her significant other.

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