What You Eat

One thing that stuck with me was how it's not normal for one to eat every little thing they kill, even an ant. Another thing that was a little weird to me was that song that his father always song. To me, I think that was a hidden meaning or maybe a forshadowing to death. Also, the whole way through the story, I was wondering how come the boy never learned his lesson. He just kept killing, knowing that the consequences would be awful and that he wasn't going to want to face them. And when the boy ran over the dog, I was hoping that the father would have mercy but as you see, he didn't.

I think that Ben Ehrenreich is trying to tell his readers that sometimes we, as humans, enforce overly strict rules or principles. He is saying that sometimes is ok to let things go or to let things slide, depending on the situation such as an accident for example. Sticking strictly to a rule, with no exceptions can really drive a person insane which is not a good thing. This is what happened to the little boy in "What You Eat." His father was so devoted to enforcing his rule that it drove the boy crazy and he actually wanted his father to kill he just to see if his father would still stick to his rule and use it against himself.