Star Food By Ethan Canin Summary

Have you ever been befuddled to the point where you feel trapped and not able to move on with your life? In the short story, “Star Food,” by Ethan Canin, a boy named Dade lets an old woman steal from the family business and catches her, but only to let her go in the end. Dade sees a part of himself in the old woman’s lifestyle by not knowing which direction to follow in life, and lets her go because he does not want to feel stuck, such as how the woman would have felt if she was put in jail for stealing from Star Food.
Even though Dade is a hard worker and a strong believer, he is alone in the process of figuring out his life, which confuses him about what he is capable of doing. Dade constantly changes his mind in “Star Food,” unable to decide what to do with his life. There are brief moments in the story when Dade “felt the world dictating its course and tried to make himself aware of the spinning of the Earth” (Canin 14, 17). He realizes this moment when he finally decides to catch the old woman, after she stole from the store multiple times before, and feels as if he finally found a path in his life to follow. However, Dade felt a connection with the old woman over how they are both still trying to discover their paths in life, thus letting her go after he thought he had his life planned out. As the old woman left, Dade lost the only person he related to, which left him to wonder about what to do with his life. When Dade was walking back to Star …show more content…
Dade is alone in the world and his indecisiveness only hurts him in the long run. Dade is trapped in a world where he cannot move on with his life, and not letting the woman go was his one chance to figure out who he is. However, he let her go, thus losing a part of himself and returning to question his life decisions that keep him from moving