Hello humans!
Here's my essay! Enjoy! It may be a spoiler for those who haven't read The Cricket in Times Square.
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Most of the time people doubt whether the friends they have are true friends or not. Sometimes you can tell, but with some people you just aren’t able to. Well, in the book The Cricket in Times Square, Tucker Mouse is just such a friend. Tucker is a friend, but not a true one.
Why is Tucker not a true friend? Well, to begin with, he said Chester’s honorableness was disgusting. No true friend does that! Tucker just said that about Chester because Chester wouldn’t agree to any of Tucker’s ideas about covering up the accident of eating the two-dollar bill. Do true friends do that? No, true friends consider their friends’ opinions and they don’t think they are right all the time. As said in the story:
“Oh you’re so honorable!” said Tucker. “It’s disgusting.”
Tucker said something else about his other friend, Harry Cat. During their dinner party, Harry played some music on the radio. Upon hearing a certain song, Harry said it was his favorite song. Chester urged Harry to sing it, so Harry did. Tucker said, as taken from the story:
“You don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for,” blurted out Tucker Mouse through a mouthful of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
After Harry was done singing, Chester said he thought Harry sang beautifully. Harry told Chester to sing, but Chester was hesitant about it and said it wasn’t really singing. Then Tucker butted in and said:
“Singing, playing - who cares, as long as it doesn’t sound like Harry,” said Tucker Mouse.
Tucker meant it too. Usually in cases like those, true friends are just being sarcastic. It is a surprise that Harry does not become annoyed with Tucker.
Do true friends care about themselves only or do they care about nothing except their friends? It is a well known fact that the answer is the latter. The former completely describes Tucker. Tucker is self-centered and vain. When Harry announced to Chester that Tucker had money, Tucker said, “I have my life’s savings.” in a pathetic voice. He didn’t want to give any of his money to Chester because he would be ‘ruined.’ Chester needed the money so that he could come out of his cage because of the two-dollar bills he ate, but Tucker was in ‘selfish drama-king’ mode. After the incident of the money-eating happened, Tucker complained to Harry that Mama Bellini had caused a bump on his leg after hitting him with a Fortune magazine. He didn’t care that Chester was inside his cage, like a prisoner. At their dinner party, Chester sang and Tucker danced along with it. Tucker thought his dancing was fabulous, but Harry thought otherwise:
Tucker was feeling very lively himself because of all the soda water he had swallowed. The South American tempo began to excite him. He jumped up and started to dance around the shelf.
Harry Cat burst out laughing, but that didn’t bother Tucker. He was a carefree soul. “Chester can play - I can dance,” he panted. “We should go into vaudeville.”
“If you danced as well as he played, you could,” said Harry.
That was when Tucker tried to prove to Harry that he was a good dancer, and admitted he was ‘just learning.’ Then he twirled around to show off, and collided with Papa Bellini’s pipe, which caused him to topple over into a box of matches. After that, a fire flared up, and it was all Tucker’s fault.
That is why Tucker is not a true friend. He thought Chester was so honorable that it was disgusting. He said Harry Cat’s singing was horrible and he meant it, too. The other thing about Tucker is that he cares only about himself - he is self-centered. As a conclusion, Tucker is not a true friend to Chester Cricket and Harry Cat.--
Did you enjoy that? That would be like part of a trailer if this story was made into a movie. Okay, so I gave you a preview. But not the whole thing. Be happy.
When mice are dumb, I can write a two-page rant paragraph in less than ten minutes.
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