26 pages • 52 minutes read
Yasunari KawabataThe Grasshopper and the Bell-Cricket
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1926A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Bell Cricket
The bell cricket symbolizes The Elusiveness of Beauty. It is the sound of the bell cricket that calls to the children and the narrator in the story, a rare and beautiful sound that inspires introspection and, for the adult narrator, nostalgia. Its sound inspires the insect hunt, where the children literally search through darkness, in the form of the bushes and cherry trees, to discover it. Once found, the chorus of children reacts to the wonder of the creature compared to its foil, the grasshopper, a common insect that represents conformity, as opposed to the uniqueness of the bell cricket. Later in the story, the bell cricket represents the gift of love, as it is presented to Kiyoko from Fujio’s hand and later placed in the protection of her small insect cage. This act of true love follows the theme of authenticity and enlightenment.
The Lanterns
The lanterns symbolize authenticity and support the theme of Modernism and the Virtue of Originality. The store-bought lanterns are juxtaposed against the handcrafted lanterns. The narrator appreciates the artistry, color, wisdom, and craftsmanship the children employ as they work to create the most “unusually beautiful” handmade lanterns. The store-bought lanterns, symbols of conformity and transactional capitalism, are thrown away by the children, who prioritize individualism and enlightenment above societal pressure or social standing. The children are not motivated to conform: They are still in touch with their individuality, so much so that they cut their names directly into their lanterns. The children are in a natural state, and this too is reflected in their lanterns as they cut patterns of leaves into them. Finally, it is the lanterns that reflect the feeling of true and authentic love between Fujio and Kiyoko, illuminating each other’s names across their bodies.
Light and Shadow
The interplay of light and shadow functions as a motif symbolizing The Elusiveness of Beauty. The children search for insects at night, among the shadows of trees and bushes. Though the use of colored lanterns becomes a form of artistic expression, it begins in practical necessity: White light would frighten the insects, causing them to flee beyond the children’s reach. The gentle lights they create illuminate the shadows without dispelling them: “The lanterns brought out the shadows of the bushes like dark light” (Paragraph 4). The shadows here represent the privacy and hiddenness of the unconscious mind. The lanterns, which the children have made with great care and intention to express their inner selves, make it possible to search within this hidden world without destroying it.
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By Yasunari Kawabata
