Symbols Broken (in the best possible way) Jenny Lawson

The Magpie and Button Collection: Memory, Legacy, and Brokenness in Broken

What Is the Magpie and Button Collection?

In Broken, Jenny Lawson introduces herself as a collector of “shiny, strange things,” likening herself to a magpie. Her most treasured objects are buttons—old, often worn, and bought from thrift stores, antique shops, and estate sales. She begins with jars for white, pearl, and black buttons, then graduates to fishbowls as her collection swells. Unlike a connoisseur seeking rare specimens, Lawson values buttons for their ordinariness and history. She runs her hands through them, listening to the “soft clink” that transports her back to childhood memories of her mother sewing dresses. The collection is not about monetary worth; it is about tactile connection to the past and to the unknown women who owned these buttons before her.

Lawson describes sorting through sewing boxes from estate sales, snipping away old thread and finding strands of hair that chart a woman’s aging. She uncovers tiny surprises: a carved horse, a foreign coin, a porcelain baby, a faded photograph. These items were likely tucked in by children or kept as mementos. The buttons themselves trace decades—from pastel Easter colors of children’s clothes to the neon plastics of the 1980s. The collection physically embodies the passage of time and the lives of women who sewed, saved, and eventually left their treasures behind.

Recurrence and Evolving Meaning

The button collection appears most fully in Chapter 33, “I Am a Magpie,” but the magpie identity recurs throughout Lawson’s memoir. In Chapter 30, she explores the idea that “something is only real if it’s damaged,” recalling how teenagers would intentionally chew their gold add-a-bead necklaces to prove authenticity. The buttons are similarly “damaged goods”—some cracked, some missing backings—yet Lawson cherishes them precisely because of their wear. This aligns with the book’s central tension between brokenness and beauty.

The meaning of the collection shifts over the course of Broken. Initially, it is a nostalgic link to Lawson’s mother and grandmother, who sewed. Later, it becomes a way of honoring women whose stories would otherwise be lost. When Lawson buys an estate-sale sewing box, she “chart[s] the life of a woman growing older” by the tools inside. The buttons become a silent archive. Finally, the collection takes on a meditative quality: Lawson imagines her own buttons being sold after her death, and she hopes that one person will “shove their hands deep into the cool, candy-colored buttons” and feel transported. This vision ties the collection to the theme of legacy—the buttons outlive both their original owners and Lawson herself, carrying memories forward.

Connections to Characters and Themes

The button collection weaves together several threads of Broken:

  • Jenny Lawson: The magpie identity is a playful self-portrait, but it also reflects her serious need to find meaning in objects. Like the buttons, Lawson herself is “broken” in ways she details throughout the book—anxiety, depression, memory loss. The collection mirrors her own fragmented sense of self, yet she finds beauty in that fragmentation.

  • Mother and Grandmother: Lawson’s mother sewed, and the button collection recalls that intimate act of creation. In Chapter 25, a broken dove reminds her of the hollowed-out Easter eggs her mother made. Both the buttons and the dove are “broken things” that can be transformed into art. The grandmother is mentioned as part of a generation where every woman sewed; now that skill is fading, and the buttons remain as dusty artifacts.

  • Victor: In Chapter 25, Victor suggests repairing the broken dove with kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending with gold. This philosophy aligns with the button collection: buttons are kept even when cracked, and their damage becomes part of their story. Victor’s practical support contrasts with Lawson’s sentimentality, yet together they honor brokenness.

  • Themes: The collection directly supports the themes of memory and identity—buttons hold the stories of forgotten women. It also speaks to vulnerability and community: by sharing her collection, Lawson connects readers to a shared human history of sewing, saving, and losing. The magpie self-description is also a form of humor as coping, as Lawson cheerfully admits her hoarding tendency while using it to explore deeper pain.

Four Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Jenny Lawson call herself a magpie?
She collects shiny, strange objects such as marbles, glass animals, Scrabble tiles, and especially buttons. Like magpies, she is drawn to small, glittering things and surrounds herself with them. The epithet conveys both self-mockery and pride in her eccentric collection.

2. What do the buttons reveal about the women who owned them?
The progression of buttons and tools in a sewing box—from smaller needles and pastel colors at the bottom to magnifying glasses and neon plastics at the top—charts a woman’s life from youth to old age. Strands of hair in the compartments indicate different stages. The buttons themselves show changing fashions and the owner’s habits, such as snipping buttons off old clothes for reuse.

3. How does the button collection relate to the theme of brokenness?
Many buttons are old, cracked, or worn; Lawson values them because they carry signs of use. This echoes the book’s message that brokenness is universal and can be beautiful. In Chapter 38, Lawson describes souls as glass spheres that crack; buttons are the literal cracked objects that she collects and cherishes, just as she learns to cherish her own cracks.

4. What does Lawson imagine will happen to her button collection after she dies?
She envisions her buttons being sold at a yard sale in giant bowls. Most people will overlook them, but one person will pause, run their hands through the buttons, and be transported by the “tinkling tintinnabulation” to a half-forgotten memory. That person will take the collection home, and Lawson’s story—and the stories of the women before her—will continue through that new owner. She concludes, “The buttons will outlive us all.”

Conclusion

The magpie and button collection is one of the most poignant symbols in Broken. It literalizes the book’s central paradox: that what is broken, old, and ordinary can hold extraordinary meaning. Through her collection, Lawson bridges generations, connects with her own past, and offers readers a tangible way to think about memory, legacy, and the quiet beauty of imperfection. Just as the buttons pass from hand to hand, so the stories they hold continue to travel—a broken line of light that never quite goes dark.