Question

Which of the following is a theme in “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket”?

Answer 1

A. People don’t always appreciate what they have until it’s gone.

The short story, “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket,” by Yasunari Kawabata is about a moment in time when a boy gives a girl bell cricket that he assumes is a grasshopper.  During the exchange from the boy’s hand to the girl’s hand, the boy’s name is projected onto the girl by the boy’s lantern because his name was on it, and the girl’s name was projected onto the boy because her name was on her lantern.  It seems that the boy gives away the bug because he thought it was a grasshopper and not a bell cricket, which is a quite rare bug.  Additionally, neither the girl nor boy appreciates the chance instant when their names are projected on the other.  As such, there is a theme that people don’t appreciate what they have until it is gone, mainly because they do not recognize what it is they actually have or what is actually happening at that instant.