The grandmother, the phone and the buttons: is the text nostalgic?
Text analysis task, 90 minutes. Candidates receive the following original micro-prose and a German translation:
«Η γιαγιά μου κρατούσε το τηλέφωνο σαν κουτάλι. “Πάτα εδώ”, της είπα. Εκείνη κοίταξε την οθόνη, μετά το παράθυρο, μετά πάλι την οθόνη. “Στο χωριό”, είπε, “τα νέα τα φέρναμε με τα πόδια.” Δεν χαμογέλασε. Έβαλε το τηλέφωνο στην ποδιά της, δίπλα στα κουμπιά που είχε ράψει. Η οθόνη έσβησε. Εκείνη άρχισε να μετράει τα κουμπιά.»
Translation: My grandmother held the phone like a spoon. “Press here,” I said. She looked at the screen, then the window, then the screen again. “In the village,” she said, “we brought the news on foot.” She did not smile. She put the phone on her apron, next to the buttons she had sewn. The screen went dark. She began to count the buttons.
A candidate writes: “The text is nostalgic: it shows that the old woman rejects technology and prefers village life.” The task asks for an analysis of narrative perspective and a judgement on that claim.
1. Analyse how the narrative perspective and the detail of the buttons shape the reader’s judgement of the grandmother.
Read the worked answer
Narrative perspective: first-person retrospective narrator («Η γιαγιά μου», «της είπα»). The reader sees the grandmother only from outside: screen, window, screen; no access to her thoughts. This restriction matters because the text refuses to explain her. The simile «σαν κουτάλι» defamiliarises the phone: it is a tool held by habit, not a symbol of progress. The triple look (screen–window–screen) creates a pause; the window is the non-digital outside, but it is not idealised.
Buttons: the buttons are tactile, countable, sewn by her, and they sit «δίπλα» the phone. The phone goes dark; the buttons do not. Counting them is a small, repeated, manual act that replaces the failed interface. It is not a speech about tradition; it is behaviour. The detail also links to the earlier «κουτάλι»: both are familiar objects handled with a lifetime of motor memory. The narrator’s «Δεν χαμογέλασε» blocks a sentimental reading: the text does not ask us to find her cute.
Effect: the reader is placed in the grandchild’s position - observing, slightly guilty, unable to translate the grandmother into a message. The text is about a gap in translation, not simply about a generational clash.
2. Evaluate the candidate’s claim that the text is nostalgic and shows the grandmother rejecting technology. Give two textual counterarguments and a more precise formulation.
Read the worked answer
The claim is partly defensible but too strong. Two counterarguments:
- Nostalgia requires idealisation; the text withholds it. The village is mentioned only in reported speech («Στο χωριό… τα νέα τα φέρναμε με τα πόδια»), and the narrator does not endorse it. «Δεν χαμογέλασε» and the dark screen prevent a warm, golden-memory mood. If the text were nostalgic, the buttons would likely be a symbol of a lost authentic world; here they are just objects she counts.
- The grandmother does not “reject technology” verbally. She looks at the screen, tries the instruction, then puts the phone down. Rejection would require a refusal; the text shows a failed interaction and a shift of attention. The phone is not demonised; it is compared to a spoon - ordinary. The stronger reading is that the text stages untranslatability between the narrator’s interface and the grandmother’s embodied routine.
Better formulation: «Το κείμενο χρησιμοποιεί τη σιωπή της γιαγιάς και το μέτρημα των κουμπιών για να αμφισβητήσει την εύκολη ιστορία προόδου της εγγονής, αλλά αποφεύγει τη νοσταλγία, επειδή δεν παρουσιάζει το χωριό ως χαμένο παράδεισο. Η ανάγνωση του υποψηφίου εντοπίζει την αντίθεση, αλλά την υπερερμηνεύει ως συνειδητή απόρριψη της τεχνολογίας.»