The shape of a star | Analyse

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The beginning of the story does not immediately reveal what the text is going to be about. Still, the introduction lets readers know that the action takes place in an automobile repair shop and that the narrator is a young woman:

I can see the outline of his rectangular glasses and short beard through the tinted glass. He seems to be looking my way but doesn’t move, so I add a little more oomph to my wave and point to the green GO light.

It isn’t until I stop waving and put my palms up that he taps the gas. His Dodge crawls toward me until the light above switches to STOP.

You look like someone,” he says. I wait, stare at his beard.
Keys.”

My old art teacher. I mean, you’re young, but you look just like her. Your Mom used to teach painting at the rec center?”
Used to, yeah.”

This surprise meeting makes the young woman recollect memories and try to explain the way in which her mother has influenced her life.

The middle of the short story consists of flashbacks regarding Estelle, the young woman’s mother. As it turns out, Estelle was a very strict person both when it came to her teaching and to raising her daughter. The young woman’s various memories show that Estelle never understood the girl’s passion for science:

Her name was Estelle, which means star. A star is a big ball of gas that gets its energy from thermonuclear reactions. I enjoyed telling her this, just as I enjoyed showing her all my A and A+s in science and math – the very subjects that her own mind couldn’t grasp.