Sandra K. Friday
The last short, short story "The Moth and the Star" by James Thurber is also a fable. A young moth sets his heart on a star, and every night he flies toward it until he is exhausted, and every morning he crawls home. His parents are very disappointed in him that he does not fly around street lamps like his brothers and sisters, getting his wings singed like a proper moth. "You haven't burned your wings in months, boy, . . . A big strapping moth like you without a mark on him!" (Thurber, 261) But the little moth does not heed them and he continues to chase his dream. He is so intent on reaching his star that eventually he actually thinks that he has reached his star, and he is very content in his old age, while his brothers and sisters and parents have all been burned to death flying around street lights. ". . . but he went right on trying, night after night, and when he was a very, very old moth he began to think that he really had reached the star and he went around saying so. This gave him a deep and lasting pleasure, . . ." (Thurber, 261).
This fable is only two paragraphs long, so students will read it a few times out loud before we explore what might have made this little moth different from his family and how difficult it might have been for him to ignore his parents' advice. Also we will consider why his parents did not support him in his dream. This story will open up for my students the topic of having a dream that at first glance seems outrageous and unrealistic to others, even those who love you, and the challenge of hanging onto that dream even when those around you try to discourage you. This will be the basis for a creative writing piece.
All four of these stories are short enough for us to read aloud in class, listening to and experimenting with the voices in them. Students will write their own short, short stories, perhaps based on some of the dilemmas and lessons present in these stories and certainly drawing on their own dilemmas and life-lessons.