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Symbols
The silver button symbolizes chosen loyalty and earned trust. It is a decorative badge engraved with a Jacobite emblem, once worn by Alan Breck Stewart and later given to David as a sign of their bond. Though David does not share Alan’s political cause, he accepts the button and wears it openly, marking himself as a friend to the Jacobites. Later, it allows him safe passage across the Highlands, where strangers recognize its meaning and offer shelter. The button bridges cultural and political divides, granting David an identity rooted in personal loyalty rather than inherited status. When Alan briefly loses it, his strained reaction demonstrates its emotional weight. By the end, the button comes to represent the risks and rewards of standing by another person, especially in a politically fractured and dangerous world.
The Silver Button Quotes in Kidnapped
The Kidnapped quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Silver Button. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 11
Quotes
We made good company for each other. Alan, indeed, expressed himself most lovingly; and taking a knife from the table, cut me off one of the silver buttons from his coat.
“I had them,” says he, “from my father, Duncan Stewart; and now give ye one of them to be a keepsake for last night’s work. And wherever ye go and show that button, the friends of Alan Breck will come around you.”
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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The Silver Button Symbol Timeline in Kidnapped
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Silver Button appears in Kidnapped. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 11
...drink while the surviving officers are stuck with nothing but water. Alan gives David a silver button as a token of friendship, and they are soon hailed by Riach, who proposes a...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...gentleman in breeches—Alan—passed through the day before. Alan left word for “the lad with the silver button ” to follow him to his country via Torosay. The household feeds David well, warms...
(full context)
Chapter 16
...Alan and offers him a shilling, which offends Neil deeply. Only when David shows Alan’s silver button does Neil recognize him as the “lad with the silver button” and agree to guide...
(full context)
Chapter 21
...of symbolic message—a blackened wooden cross tied with birch and pine branches, marked with the silver button David returned to him. Alan explains that the cross resembles a fiery cross, the clan’s...
(full context)
...escape—but out of loyalty, he says nothing. When John momentarily pretends to have lost the silver button , Alan threatens him playfully until it is returned. Alan gives the button back to...
(full context)
