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The Lightning Bug

The author, Haru, reflects on feeling like an outsider as a Japanese person living in the United States. In Japan, he was part of the majority culture, but in America he stood out and did not feel like he "fit in." He compares this experience to his sister encountering a lightning bug versus a cockroach in Japan - some differences are seen positively while others negatively. Haru decides that when encountering people different than oneself, one must choose whether to see them as a cockroach or lightning bug. He chooses to see himself and others in a positive light.

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Liliia Pavkovych
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376 views2 pages

The Lightning Bug

The author, Haru, reflects on feeling like an outsider as a Japanese person living in the United States. In Japan, he was part of the majority culture, but in America he stood out and did not feel like he "fit in." He compares this experience to his sister encountering a lightning bug versus a cockroach in Japan - some differences are seen positively while others negatively. Haru decides that when encountering people different than oneself, one must choose whether to see them as a cockroach or lightning bug. He chooses to see himself and others in a positive light.

Uploaded by

Liliia Pavkovych
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Lightning Bug

Japan is homogenous. This is a word I did not learn until many months after
visiting the United States. But I felt the power of this word as soon as I moved
here.

Homogenous means being of the same type or group. It means fitting in. It means
how I did not feel when I came here to the United States. I remember not even
knowing how to order French fries, because the phrase we use in Japan is “fried
potatoes.” Because I knew the phrase was English, I thought that is what
Americans would call them. I remember wondering why the cashier did not
understand me. I saw fried potatoes everywhere, yet when I told her I wanted them,
she just stared at me. Was it my accent? Was it my color?

I was not homogenous anymore.

This is a strange feeling coming from Japan. In Japan, there are very few
minorities. There, I am the majority. People dress like me, they eat like me, they
ARE me. White is exotic. Black is exotic. Only Japanese is normal. And now in
the United States, I was exotic.

Back in Japan, my older sister was at her desk studying for a college entrance
examination, and something flew into her sight. At first she didn’t recognize what
it was. It was a bug that was black, tiny, and moving slowly. She quickly learned
that it was a lightning bug because the bug’s behind lit up. She was so happy to see
it that she kept it as a pet in a glass. The very day after that she was also studying at
her desk when a black, tiny bug flew into her sight. As she reached to grab it, she
realized that the bug on her desk was a cockroach. Upon seeing that, she screamed
very loudly and then, without mercy or a second thought, killed it quickly. What a
difference a lightning bug and a cockroach are for her!

And so I learned there are two kinds of ways to look at people also. I will call it
“good” exotic and “bad” exotic. For example, when I walk into a math class,
immediately students wanted to sit next to me, and at least two people asked for
my number. On the first day. It did not take long to realize that Americans had a
positive stereotype about Asians in science and math classes. On the other hand,
when I went to a dance club, it was almost impossible for me to get the courage to
ask an American girl to dance, although I had my American roommate there to
encourage me. I felt like I was foreign, even ugly. Perhaps this is not true. I do not
mean to offend, and perhaps it is my own fear of feeling different. I simply don’t
look like that so-blue-eyes boy as he glides across the floor. I look like me.
I have to decide if, even though I do not look like him, that I am also something
and someone who these girls will dance with. There are many Japanese stories that
reminded me to be brave, and I decided to be brave. I walked to a group of girls
and said, in my broken English, if anyone would like to dance. One girl turned
away not just with her eyes but with her body. Another looked at her friend and
both began speaking as if I were not there. But the fourth girl said yes. I could not
help smiling.

So I think that, on days that we are not homogenous, we must make a decision.
When we meet those who are different from us: are we the cockroaches, or the
lightning bugs? And, I think, it is our own choice—it is something we must believe
about ourselves.

As for me, I choose to glow.

Questions to Think About

1. In what places or situations do you feel the most different?

2. What does Haru mean that he chooses to glow? How does one do that?

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