"star Food" by Ethan Canin Essay

Jenny Lee

English 2 honors/Pre-AP Period 6

10/20/17

CAP: Star Food

Parents are like street signs, guiding you through life's arduous paths with devotion and with tremendous amount of patience. But sometimes there can be two opposing street signs- the two signs are like two parents with different advices, advising you to make a decision based on their opinions. Most teenagers, one point in life will find themselves in the midst of their parents’ opinions, trapped- not being able to make decisions for themselves. In Ethan Canin’s story, “Star Food”, the author states common teenagers’ struggle with parental conflicts when it comes to decisions for their future.

In Ethan Canin’s short story, Dade, an extremely introspective eighteen-year-old boy has parents with two completely different expectations for his future. When the author mentions Dade and his father on their store’s roof, Dade’s father illustrates the businesslike expectations for his son, “For years my father had been trying to teach me competence and industry.”(Canin 1). A father is trying to put a teenager’s mind at his own desirable goal for the future, so that he will turn out to be just like him who is in his work ethic at all times. Dade’s father represents any other teenager’s parent they have expectations for their own child, this make teenagers feel the pressure to make the right decision that will satisfy their parents.

In contrast to his father’s professional viewpoint, Dade’s mother is an optimist who is constantly hopeful for her child’s future. “This was her theory. My mother felt that men like Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison has simply stared long enough at regular objects until they saw new things, thus my looking into the sky might someday make me a great man.” (Canin 1). The author displays her positive thoughts about him dreaming until he sees different things, so that he will soon become someone unique or out of the ordinary. As if it wasn’t enough stress from one parent’s expectations for a teenager, Dade has two parents with different views and opinions, like most teenagers. Teenagers are suffering the ongoing