The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket Yasunari Kawabata The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

Summary of the Plot This story tells a tale, of a university student walking along, when he hears the voice of an insect. He sees a group of children with beautiful lanterns out searching for insects. While the children are hunting insects, a boy finds a ‘grasshopper’, and continues to ask if anyone would like a ‘grasshopper’, until the voice of a certain girl exclaims that, "Yes", she wants the grasshopper. Carefully the boy captures the insect and releases it to the girl. Surprisingly, the ‘grasshopper’ is actually a much sought after ‘bell cricket’. This new discovery delights the little girl, and then the narrator realizes that the little boy must have known all along that he had found a ‘bell cricket’, and was saving it for that particular girl.

Narrator The story is told from the view of an adult narrator watching a group of children with lanterns searching for insects in the night. Kawabata placed himself as the mysterious narrator of this short story. Knowing that he grieved from a lonely existence longing to be loved, one can see how he wished himself across the threshold of youth, as seen in the first paragraph, when the narrator peers "Behind the white board fence..." The grasshopper is a symbol of good luck in the Japanese culture. The bell cricket is a symbol of precious things in the Japanese culture.

The ending depicts the little girl, reaching for the ‘grasshopper’, as the little boy is giving her the prize, and delightful surprise since the ‘grasshopper’ is actually a ‘bell cricket’. Kawabata writes, "She…enclosed the boy’s fist with both hands. The boy quietly opened his fist." Clearly here, the little girl is taking the little boy’s heart into her hands, and further more, he is trusting her with it.

In the final paragraphs of the story, an interesting event occurs to remind us again that the point of the story is simple romance. "Fujio", the little boy’s name, has fallen as a greenish light from his lantern, onto the breast of Kiyoko, the little girl he has given the bell cricket to. Simultaneously, Kiyoko’s name is reflected in red from her lantern, onto Fujio’s waist. In this instance the narrator reflects how neither of the children seem to notice this little miracle of creating a memory that has inscribed itself onto each of them. Much like memories, when the moments are being made, we rarely realize their importance until years later, when experience teaches us better.

Themes Innocence and maturity: The experiences of growing up are often accompanied by the distortion of the way we see the world (perception) where the ability to see what is precious and what is not will disappear. Keeping a clear heart, like a child, will enable us to differentiate precious from mediocrity, in which treasurable moments, events and experiences will forever be attained. Experience: The narrator wants to save the children from heartache. He fails to realize that they must go through the experiences themselves in order to mature. Never take things for granted: Fujio thought he had something ordinary (the grasshopper) and discovered that it was special (the bell cricket). The last words of the narrator are a warning not to take anything for granted, as one may miss opportunities that are in front of them the whole time.

Symbolism In the end, when the story turns to the thoughts of wisdom of the narrator you learn that this story is not just about a childish insect chase, but how it is a metaphor for something much greater in life. As the narrator seems to speak from experience imparting wisdom we learn about love and hope. That  “even is you have the wit to look by yourself in a bush away from the other children, there are not many bell crickets in the world.” And grasshoppers may seem like bell crickets and bell crickets may seem like grasshoppers. However, this story is also about hope, which “should the day come, when it seems to you that the world is full of grasshoppers.” Remember the moments when your beautiful lantern on a girl’s chest writes your name. Kawabata's "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket" reflects many traditional aspects of Japanese culture, including a reverence for the natural world and for crafts.

The narrator saw a group of children on an insect chase with varicolored lanterns. There were crimson, pink, indigo, green, purple, yellow and one that glowed with five colors at once. This implies that there are different kinds of people. This showed the different characteristics of the children carrying the lanterns. The ones who were carrying red lanterns have the tendency to lean towards having intense emotions. Contradicting it is pink, which shows gentle emotions. Yellow shows wisdom and intellect. Green has been known for social stability and even greediness. Indigo is of dignity and high aspirations and violet is of noble spiritual aspirations, honor, spirituality and self-esteem. While the one carrying the lantern that glowed with five colors showed well – roundedness.