Selfishness and Its Consequences: A Comparative Study

Both “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson and “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver portray that a person with selfishness is only hurting themselves. In “Button, Button”, Norma and Arthur, an average couple living in New York, recieve a button on their doorstep. They are eventually told that if they press the button, they will receive $50,000 with only one catch, someone they did not know would die. Arthur completely disregarded this and would not even consider pressing the button, while Norma kept considering it because she wanted the money. Norma’s selfishness stems from the unhappiness she has with her current living situation, and makes her become impulsive, lose her morals, and ruin the relationship she had with Arthur. “Popular Mechanics”

As one is unhappy and uncomfortable with their current situation, they become driven to better their circumstances, which ultimately results in selfish behavior. That is why when in “Button, Button”, Norma would overlook the death of a person for the $50,000. Although she was not poor, she was not happy with her current situation and when trying to explain her reasoning to her husband she mentioned about how she would “ like for [them] to go to Europe… to have a cottage on the island… to have a nicer apartment, nicer furniture, nicer clothes, [and] a car” (Matheson 7). With her selfish need for material possessions, she was able to press the button that could kill anyone. In “Popular Mechanics”, a similar situation arises. As the man is packing up to leave and the woman is crying while saying that “[she’s] so glad [he’s] leaving” (Carver 1).The couple's unhappiness with their relationship lead them to try to make their own situations better and their partners situation worse. In their attempt to do so, they end up violently fighting over the baby and killing it. With this unhappiness, the unfulfilled characters resorted to selfishness which came with consequences and even more

In “Button, Button”, Norma and Arthur seemed to have a healthy relationship, but when the button came into the picture, Norma’s selfishness put a rift in their relationship. With her acceptance of the button, Arthur got scared, he could not bear the thought of pressing the button and when Norma would actually consider pressing it “his face was white”, and reacted by saying, “‘Norma, no’” and (Matheson 6). He showed signs of how much he was scared and horrified of how much Norma was for the idea. It seemed as if he could not trust her as much anymore and shortly after these conversations, he would leave, creating a rift in their relationship. In “Popular Mechanics”, the relationship between the two main characters was already unhealthy, but their selfishness created an even bigger disagreement and also ruined any future relationship they could have with their baby. Both the parents are very attached to the baby so when the man said that ““[he] want[ed] the baby”, the woman responded with, “Get out of here’(Carver 1). They already do not have the best relationship and with their selfishness for the baby, it created an even larger rift in their relationship. They got into a huge fight and killed the baby in the process, ruining both their chances of having a good relationship with their child. Humans are very social animals, and if a relationship