The Cricket in Times Square — Chapter 5

About This Passage

This passage is a small masterpiece of recognition refusing to become possession. A music teacher, presented with a creature whose talent he could plausibly claim to develop and charge for, instead refuses any role of master and reassigns the credit to Nature. The move is generous, but it is also philosophically precise: it locates Chester's gift in the structural design of the cricket species (wings designed to rub together) rather than in any acquired skill that could be improved. Mr. Smedley then escalates the recognition by invoking Orpheus — the foundational figure of Western musical mythology — and applying the name to a small black insect in a subway newsstand. The borrowing is not condescending. It is treating the cricket with the highest possible level of seriousness available within the Western literary tradition. Copying this passage trains a writer to notice how recognition can be an act of love, how the refusal of credit can be the highest praise, and how the smallest creature can be honored by being placed in the longest lineage.

Narration Prompt

Summarize this chapter, then explain what you think the author most wanted the reader to notice or feel. What techniques did the author use?

Discussion Questions

1. Selden has been carefully managing the slow expansion of Chester's audience: in Chapter 1 only Tucker heard the chirp; by Chapter 5 the audience includes Tucker, Harry, Mario, Mickey the counter man, and Mr. Smedley the music teacher. Why is Selden so careful about pacing this expansion? What would have been lost if he had introduced a larger audience all at once, or what is being gained by the slow accretion?
2. Mr. Smedley refuses to give Chester music lessons, saying 'I could add nothing to the genius of this little black Orpheus.' Construct the strongest defense of this refusal as wisdom (recognizing the limits of training when faced with innate genius), and the strongest case against it as a kind of false modesty (a music teacher could surely refine even a great gift). Which reading does the chapter better support? What is at stake in the choice between them?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide