Star Food Ethan Cain Summary

The fictional short story “Star Food” by Ethan Cain is about a teenage boy named Dade who has difficulties with understanding his parent’s reasonings along with even more problems as a woman begins to influence him unpurposefully. As he is growing up, he has moments with his parents where some things would please the mother or the father. It is revealed that the mother is someone that loves to dream of possibilities and discoveries where his father is disciplinary and is more serious. The summer he turns eighteen he meets a quiet woman who steals from the shop and as more time passes on, the more paranoid he becomes. The reason why Dade let the woman go in “Star Food” is due to his conflicted feelings of intimidation and fear from the woman

and how his parents ideals had influenced his actions.
The first reason as to why this is true is due to how he had gotten attached to the woman on an emotional and mental level.

Dade feels intimidated and becomes “afraid [that] the woman was coming back” as his “heart went dizzy”, believing that “the woman knew something about [him]”(11). Dade beings to get paranoid and fears the woman, depicting her as wise or insightful, over emphasizing things such as her stare or smell. As a result of such he begins to get his own ideals confused which eventually leads to making regretful decisions. When Dade grabs hold of the woman and is taking her to the stockroom, he “felt as if [he] were leading her to the dance floor, [flushing him] with remorse”(16) and guilt. Dade feels wrong and sad because of how the mysterious woman had seemed slender with bones showing on top of how she had to steal food in order to provide for herself, making Dade reluctant and eventually change his course of actions. Although Dade believed he had found what he was truly waiting for, it was actually a product of his delusions from all the stress and pressure that was forced upon him as some moments he feels anxious, disappointed, joy, and surprise from interacting and thinking about the woman. It is due to all this confusion and guilt that Dade becomes influenced and molded from someone full of hope and kindness to someone who can only believe he knows what he is doing is

right.
The second reason is how his parents had constantly pushed their ideals and personalities on to him, consequently affecting his decisions and thoughts.When Dade’s mother begins to wait for him and leaves snacks in shapes, it begins to scare him, so he “tried not coming down for entire afternoons” to avoid her which “only made her look more expectant”(11) until it came to a point where he disliked seeing her. Dade had chosen to dream like his mother at first, but he later gets the wrong idea as he starts to get lost and walks down a path that is completely different than what he was taught resulting in his “discovery” that he was to capture the woman. It’s because of how his mother had started these strange acts and talks about him being closer to discovering something that startles him and makes him lose confidence and belief that he will find something by doing nothing which later leaves a void to be filled by tainted ideals. After Dade’s father’s constant talks of more disciplinary actions, he then puts pressure on Dade when he said “it’s okay to let the gal go” and that he had “hired a guard”(13) to catch the woman in his stead. When his parents both tried to force themselves on Dade, he eventually chooses his mother as it seemed nicer than the father’s path, but when the mother’s ideals begin to crumble, the fathers quickly takes over and transforms him into someone more serious. Although it seemed as if Dade disliked punishing people, he interprets the “signs” as a reason to take action and help capture the woman as a result of the recent shortcomings with his mother. Due to how Dade’s parents had constantly pushed their ideals on him, it had brought stress and pressure that acted as the catalysts to how and who Dade becomes, making decisions that combined both of his parents ideals.
As Dade adopts certain traits from both of his parents and exercises them, he chances upon a woman with a peculiar vibe who unpurposefully attaches herself to him, making him confused and intimidated. Consequently, it leads to many difficulties along the way, hurting his mother and potentially his father as well, and it is due to these conflicting feelings that he ends up letting the woman go.