Crickets

- Robert Olen Butler

I believe the charcoal crickets and fire crickets are symbolisms of Americans and Vietnamese. The charcoal crickets symbolize the Americans because the charcoal crickets are larger in size, and the charcoal crickets are everywhere in the narrator's house, just like Americans are everywhere in the United States. The fire crickets symbolized the Vietnamese, smaller in size and quicker.

Besides, the cricket fighting represents the narrator's childhood as well as the Vietnamese culture. This is because cricket fighting is what the narrator used to play in Vietnam while the narrator was young.

The story is about a father who came from Vietnam and feels the distance between his America-born son. The father tries to introduce the cricket fighting that he enjoyed so much to the son, but the son is not at least interested in the cricket fighting.

I have a special feeling about the story personally. First, I go by the name "Bill", and my friends all call me Bill, which is the name of the son in the story.

I suppose the father in the story is roughly the same age as my father. In fact, my father used to play crickets when he was young too. My father explained that his family was poor when he was young, and there were not much to play with, crickets were surely fun.

However, too bad I don't remember I have played crickets in my life.