There Is No Recipe For A Memory

The following is a response to "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket" written by Yasunari Kawabata. 

In the story, Kawabata combines vivid imagery and simple dialogue to convey innocence to the reader while the children are playfully looking for insects. He uses powerful metaphors like the "grasshopper" and "bell cricket" in the story, but I don't believe these are Kawabata's intended focus. He manipulatively draws on my emotions by appealing to my senses and took me back to my own childhood memories. 
In the fourth paragraph of the story, the narrator catches my attention with the double entendre , ". . . had designs drawn onto the paper windows, so that the candle's light seemed to emanate from the form and color of the design itself." Kawabata is referring to the actual light "emanat[ing]" from the lantern and more subtly suggesting the brightest light of all--childhood. 

The end of the story leaves most readers in disappointment, because the boy and girl do not notice the lights reflecting on one another. But, I would argue that their unawareness is what makes the innocence of childhood so magical. To the child, he isn't worried about making memories that last (why would he?), he is focused on the present, showing the girl how significant she is to him. The second he reflects on their magical moment, as we would, will be the moment he misses being a part of it.