Lenny's Little Frogs In A Ditch

“Little Frogs in a Ditch is a story about a self-concerned character named Lenny. Lenny loses his job at the laundry place, and instead of admitting to his mistakes he starts blaming his boss for him being fired. After being fired Lenny told his grandfather that he was going to become a salesman, and he starts selling wild pigeons. As crazy as it sounds, people actually fell for his false ad stating that they were homing pigeons. One of his customers, Mr. Lejeune, was trying to find a pet for his crippled grandson, Alvin; however, at this point we are all unaware that he is crippled. Lenny suckers him into buying one of his pigeons, and he tries to tell him how to train it to always come back to his yard. Lenny’s girlfriend, Annie, eventually

comes to find out that Alvin is crippled, and she tries to convince Lenny to give them their money. Lenny wouldn’t listen to Annie or his grandfather, and keeps the money for himself. Eventually Annie and Lenny end up getting into a big argument over Lenny’s behavior, and she tell him “…there’s a big piece of you missing that’ll never turn up.” What she said was true because there are several indicators throughout the story that shows Lenny has no intentions of changing his ways.
One of the biggest indicators is the argument between Lenny and Annie.

Annie was yelling at Lenny because she was very distraught with the way he gypped Mr. Lejeune and Alvin. Everyone but Lenny knows that what he did was very heartless, but Lenny failed to care about anyone but himself. He told Annie that she needs to get use to him doing things the way he likes; even if that means ripping off the elderly and the handicapped. At that point Annie finally understood why his parents left him in the street. She finally realized that there was a piece to him that was missing and was never going to be found. After Lenny heard her say that; he turned around and slapped her across the face, but she came back and punched him off his feet. This argument shows that Lenny will never care because he would rather do what he wants no matter what anyone else says. The fact that he would slap his girlfriend also shows that he doesn’t care about anyone but

himself.
The next indicator happened when Mr. Lejeune and Alvin showed up at Lenny’s door; he told Lenny that he had let the bird go, but still hasn’t come back after hours of waiting. He tries using an excuse to comfort Mr. Lejeune, but he knew that Mr. Lejeune wasn’t falling for it this time. Lenny asked if he wanted his money refunded. He even put his hand in his pocket acting like he was reaching around for the money, but he never actually gave Mr. Lejeune his money back. Lenny is too selfish; he seems to believe that since Mr. Lejeune fell for his trap he shouldn’t be held responsible. This proves that Lenny is never going to change because he would rather keep the money for himself than to give innocent people their money back.
One final indicator is the fact that Lenny knew his “training” would fail.

Lenny, Annie, and Lenny’s grandfather went to visit Mr. Lejeune, and watching him painfully train the bird to make Alvin happy seemed to almost make Lenny feel guilty. Lenny ended up tell Mr. Lejeune that he will give him a refund if he was unhappy. Mr. Lejeune turned down the offer. Annie starts talking to Lenny about what would happen if the bird doesn’t come back. Lenny said that if the bird spots the grain elevators, he definitely won’t return. Then he eventually says “Am I responsible for everything those birds do until they die?” He says all them things because he knew from the start that his training was all a lie; he already knew that his training was going to fail, and the birds are never going to return. This shows that Lenny isn’t going to change because he would rather charge people money for a wild pigeon with false training instructions than to admit to everyone that his training will fail. He would rather hurt a crippled kids feelings that to admit that his training would

fail.
In the end of the story we find out that Mr. Lejeune knew all along that Lenny was just a used car salesman. He only pretended to fall for his trick in order to teach Alvin a lesson. Even though we find out that Mr. Lejeune was pretending to fall for Lenny’s tricks, it still makes it obvious that Lenny is never going to change his ways. Lenny is always going to be a self-absorbed person who cares about nothing but himself. The argument with Annie, acting like he would give a refund, and knowing his training would fail are all reasons why it seems like Lenny will never change. He will never find that piece of him that Annie claims to be missing.