Summary Of Star Food By Ethan Canin

Have you ever felt like you’re being controlled, and that you want to start making your own decisions? In the short story, “Star Food”, by Ethan Canin, the main character, Dade, did not feel like he was in control of his own life. Dade realized that catching the mysterious woman was not what he wanted, and that he wanted to start making his own decisions, so he let the woman go.
Dade did not know what he wanted because his parents wanted two different, opposing lifestyles for him. His mother, thinking he was destined for limited fame, taught him to be a dreamer. She wanted him to discover something great. In the story, the author wrote “My mother believed I was on the verge of discovering something atmospheric” (Canin 2). For her, it was in Dade’s best interest to sit and think until he discovers something that will change his life. His father, on the other hand, taught him to be a realist. He wanted his son to work for his success instead of wait for it. This completely conflicts with what his mother tells him to do. In the story, it says “He and my mother always argued about what I did on the roof” (Canin 2). Dade’s mother always encouraged him to on the roof to think, however,

In the book, Dade asks the woman, “Do you want to go out of the back?” (Canin 16). Realizing that he didn’t want to catch the woman, Dade let her go. He realized, while he was walking the woman to the back of the store, that he wanted to change how he was living. When Dade was walking the woman back, the author wrote, “This flushed me with remorse. Dont spend your life looking backwards and forwards, I said to myself. Know what you want” (Canin 16). At that moment, Dade recognized that something was off, and he determined what he wanted. Dade wanted to live his life his own way, and he understood that catching the woman was not what he desired, but what his father wanted. Dade wanted to start making decisions for