The fantasy story, “The Cricket in Times Square”, written by George Selden talks about a rural cricket, Chester, making friends with an urban mouse and cat, Tucker and Harry, respectively. Chester Cricket and Tucker Mouse meet each other for the first time in the Time Square Subway Station in New York City. They briefly introduce themselves to each other. Chester explains to Tucker how he gets here from his hometown Connecticut. When Chester is explaining his journey, he seems scared and nervous because everything in New York is so unfamiliar to him. So Tucker pauses him and offers Chester liverwurst as a snack, which is his favorite, to make Chester feel good. Just when Chester finishes telling his story, he sees Harry Cat. Chester is shocked and feels frantic because in his knowledge cats catch mice and eat them. But surprisingly, Harry Cat is actually a good friend of Tucker Mouse. Harry makes Chester feel warm by offering encouraging compliments, saying he sings well and he gets talents in music. Later Harry carries Tucker and Chester outside. Chester sees a star in the sky. The star he sees in New York is the same star he sees in Connecticut. The star reminds Chester of his hometown. Three themes are presented in this story: homesickness, friendship, and using a star as an extended metaphor.
Homesickness makes people have the feelings of loneliness, sadness, anxiety, or depression because they lose the sense of belonging, comfort, or security they used to have. Homesickness is a common emotional result that many people experience and it appears when people are in a new or foreign place. Staying in a matchbox in New York Time Square Subway Station, Chester feels very homesick and lonely because there is no familiar friend, food, things, or a place around him. When Chester goes outside and sees a “star”, the same star he used to see at hometown in Connecticut, this star works as a consolation to Chester. When people move to a new place, no matter willingly or unwillingly, initially people feel lonely, uncomfortable, overwhelmed because everything is so unfamiliar with them, plus no friends or family around. Those kinds of feelings make people even more homesick. For Chester, the significant contrast between the busy city full of strange things and the quiet country of natural scenes makes him homesick. When Chester heads up and sees the star in New York City, the same star he sees back in Connecticut, he feels less anxious, scared, or lonely because he finally finds one thing that he feels familiar with. The star provides Chester the emotional directions and eases his homesickness and loneliness. The word “star” mentioned in the story functions as an extended metaphor, which is very much like symbolism. The extended metaphor, “star”, enriches the story with extensive meaning and connects other ideas of homesickness, a sense of comfort, and the search for belongings. People can’t put themselves in the mood of homesickness for too long because it is not healthy or helpful to start a new life in a new community. Instead, people should open their minds to adjust to an unknown place, make new friends, and try new things. Although the feeling of homesickness is unpleasant, it will diminish over time as people become more familiar with the new surroundings and build new friendships with others.
Friendship, particularly in an unfamiliar environment, is essential to help people adapt and navigate a completely unknown place while easing their homesickness. Such friendship is made of kindness, support, encouragement, and shared moments to comfort people’s homesickness through having positive conversations and doing interesting things. Chester is nervous and scared because New York Time Square Subway Station is totally unfamiliar to him. Tucker immediately befriends Chester. He makes Chester feel good by offering him his favorite food, liverwurst. Introduced by Tucker, Harry also makes good friends with Chester. He makes Chester feel warm and welcomed by giving him encouraging compliments. When seeing Chester, Tucker is very friendly and makes friends with Chester right away. Tucker sits beside Chester, listens to Chester’s story, and offers Chester food. This helps Chester get rid of his feelings of being lonely, scared, and nervous. Similarly, Harry gives warmhearted compliments about Chester’s signing, prizing him as talented in music. This makes Chester feel welcomed and belonging during this difficult time. The friendship with Tucker and Harry is to help Chester make the transition smoother and less stressful. Friends could provide people emotional support to comfort the feeling of disconnectedness and create a sense of belonging, especially for people who experience homesickness and loneliness because of relocating from a familiar place to an unfamiliar place. Having friendship with others could help people reduce the stress of adjusting themselves into a new environment. Friendship acts like a secret map for people in an unfamiliar area to give emotional support, reduce the feelings of homesickness, or provide guidance and information.
People, too often, are constrained by their stereotypes and judge things by their traditional dynamics or external appearance but things are not always what people are seeing. These thoughts promote the ideas of openness to others regardless of the differences, and invites people to think beyond the superficial surface. In the story, Tucker is a mouse and Harry is a cat. When Harry shows up in front of Chester the cricket, Chester buries his head in Kleenex because he does not want to see his friend Tucker mouse get killed by Harry cat. But in fact, Tucker introduces Harry to Chester saying they are good friends. Naturally, the relationship between a mouse and a cat is described as a prey and a predator respectively. People can see this kind of dynamic interactions in tales, comics, TV, or even in real life. But interestingly, in the story, the author presents Tucker mouse and Harry cat as close friends. Isn’t this weird? The author tries to convey a message to the readers that things are not always what they are seeing originally. Sometimes people should break down their traditional stereotype. By presenting readers the weird bond between Tucker mouse and Harry cat, readers not only engage in a delightful story but also learn a lesson on the value of looking beyond the surface to discover the possibilities. People should try to see things beyond traditional views and challenge their own perceptions because things are not always as they usually are.
The story “The Cricket in Times Square” is a warmhearted but a little sad story. I can kind of relate to Chester Cricket’s homesick feeling just like once when I was forced to be placed in my grandparents house which is across the pacific ocean, being separated from my parents for one month. I have to admit the feeling of homesickness makes me unhappy, nervous, and lonely. Although homesickness is an unpleasant feeling, it is also an opportunity for people to grow by learning new things, or making new friends, or building a new routine in a new environment. Just try to make oneself from being unfamiliar to familiar. Having new friendships is like a secret map to help people to explore the new area while decreasing the feeling of homesickness and providing emotional support. As time goes by, people can start to see something familiar. Slowly, people might begin to realize that home never goes away; home always exists in their minds.
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