Stargirl Themes

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Stargirl Themes

Identity crisis / feeling of belonging

"Walking with her after school that day, I said, “I guess you’re giving up, huh?” She looked at me. “Giving up? On what?” “On being popular. On being...” How could I say it? She smiled. “Normal?” I shrugged. “Yes,” she said firmly. “Yes?” “I’m answering your question. The answer is yes. I’m giving up on trying to be popular and normal.” Her face and body language did not seem to match her words. She looked cheery, perky. So did Cinnamon, perched on her shoulder."

Stargirl realizes that she does not need to change herself. It was a hard thing for her to realize but she finally recognized it. It got to the point where she didn't even know what was considered normal and OK . Deep down She just wanted to be herself again, Stargirl. She finally realized that she does not need to change for anyone and she can do as she pleases.

"Susan seemed in a trance. She sat beside me, staring vacantly at the sign through the windshield. Her hand was no longer holding mine. I groped for words but could not find them. When her parents came, she allowed herself to be led away. "

Susan was hoping that people would like her now since she completely changed herself for them. Unfortunately, she was let down. The theme of identity crisis is really strong in this storyline. It showed how Stargirl got hurt and re invented herself to make others like her. She started to become insecure.

"Why? she said. Because, I said. Tell me, she said. It’s hard, I said. Say it, she said. Because nobody likes you, I said. That’s why. Nobody likes you. Nobody? she said. Her eyes covered me like the sky. Nobody?"

Leo finally admitted that nobody at school likes Stargirl. He really hurt her feelings, she vanished and completely changed herself. Now she became Susan. Susan was your normal teenager who did whatever any normal teenager would do. He liked that she did it , he was so happy and was positive that people would like her again but he was wrong. This shows Stargirl's identity crisis in the final chapters.

Self- awareness

“I understood why this was happening to me. In the eyes of the student body, she was part of my identity. I was “her boyfriend.” I was Mr. Stargirl.”

“Unlike Stargirl, I was aware of the constant anger of our schoolmates, seething like snakes under a porch. In fact, I was not only aware of it, but at times I also understood their point of view. There were even moments when something small and huddled within me agreed with it. But then I would see her smile and take a swan dive into her eyes, and the bad moment would be gone.”

It’s safe to say that Leo has been self-aware the entire novel. He has been aware of things concerning Stargirl but chooses to stay quiet for the sake of keeping her happy. He also sympathizes with the students and sometimes even agrees with their actions, and he also justifies them. Since the shunning Leo has chosen to stick by Stargirl but its slowly killing him. Its shown that his emotions have been piling up throughout the chapters. Leo wanted to be part of the school community but he also wanted Stargirl , he knew he couldn’t have both. He can’t decide what he wants and who he wants to please. . The three quotes above convey Leo's hidden emotions from Stargirl that he just can't keep hidden anymore . These emotions have been eating him up all through the novel.

“I became angry. I resented having to choose. I refused to choose. I imagined my life without her and without them, and I didn’t like it either way.”

Coming of age / growing up

here is much talk of Stargirl and curiosity as to her whereabouts. He says the most common question these days is “Were you on the bunny hop?” At the last reunion several classmates, for a lark, lined up, hands to waists, and hopped around the putting green for a few minutes, but it wasn’t the same.

During the reunions people talked about Stargirl they still remembered her. It seems like they learned a lot from her while growing up. It doesn't matter if it was something positive or negative, people still remembered her. She changed them in good ways.

Whatever the reason, by the time we returned from Thanksgiving break, it was clear that the change had occurred. Suddenly Stargirl was not dangerous, and we rushed to embrace her. Calls of “Stargirl!” flew down the hallways. We couldn’t say her name often enough. It tickled us to mention her name to strangers and watch the expressions on their faces.

Once Stargirl settled in at MAHS she started influencing students. She completely changed the energy and school spirit. Students started to get involved more in school whether it was in class sport or even after school clubs, she changed the environment.

"Mica Area High School-MAHS-was not exactly a hotbed of nonconformity. There were individual variants here and there, of course, but within pretty narrow limits we all wore the same clothes, talked the same way, ate the same food, listened to the same music. Even our dorks and nerds had a MAHS stamp on them. If we happened to somehow distinguish ourselves, we quickly snapped back into place, like rubber bands."

Students at MAHS we're all clones of one another. They were many versions of themselves All over school. nobody really minded that they were all the same. They liked it that way. This is how they grew up . They grew up to be "normal".

Facing reality

I saw. I heard. I understood. I suffered. But whose sake was I suffering for? I kept thinking of Señor Saguaro’s question: Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others’?

“Stargirl, you just can’t do things the way you do. If you weren’t stuck in a homeschool all your life, you’d understand. You can’t just wake up in the morning and say you don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.”

Leo is just keeping all his feelings to himself . He is avoiding the shunning as much as he can while still understanding why it is happening. If it was any other student he would be would be silent and shun them but since its Stargirl its hard. He acknowledges what is happening and is facing the reality of it in silence because he does not want to hurt Stargirl's feelings. He just wants her to acknowledge the problem and change . He despratly wants her to change and make people like her. Leo finally bursted all the emotions out after holding on to them for so long. He couldn't do it anymore. He wanted Stargirl to open her eyes and see what she has done.

"I pulled back. I was tempted to say, Well, I hope you’re satisfied, because they hate you for what you did, but I didn’t have the heart."

Passing judgments / prejudice

"“Renshaw!” I called. There was no other voice but mine. “Renshaw!” He never turned, never wavered, never slowed down. He kept walking away from me, opened a door, and was gone. So what? I kept telling myself. What do you care? You never speak to each other. What’s Renshaw to you? But I did care."

<----------- analysis

“I thought for a moment. I nodded sharply. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I do know. I’m in touch with everybody. I’m one of them. How could I not know?”

Leo finally admitted to Stargirl that he cares . He cares a lot and he is finally not ashamed of it. Leo is a insecure teenager who follows others and never does anything he wants . He is also a people pleaser. Since he is a people pleaser he feels this need to make sure that everyone likes him and nobody talks bad about him . He always made sure he was staying in his on lane, so he doesn’t have conflict with anyone. When he was calling Renshaw, he felt like his heart stopped. He got this realization that no one likes him anymore and that completely shattered him .

"We did not wake up in the morning and ask ourselves, “What will Wayne Parr wear today?” or “How will Wayne Parr act today?” At least, not consciously. But on some level below awareness, that is exactly what we did. Wayne Parr did not go to football and basketball games, and by and large, neither did we. Wayne Parr did not ask questions in class or get worked up over teachers or pep rallies, and neither did we. Wayne Parr did not much care. Neither did we. Did Parr create us, or was he simply a reflection of us? I didn’t know."

In MAHS students usually just followed each other which resulted in everyone be the same. Students saw Wayne Parr as their “role model” whatever Parr did they all did it , whatever Parr didn’t do nobody did it. Nobody even thought of changing , they all just kept quiet and followed Parr . He and his girlfriend Hilary Kimble were the “rulers” of the school . Hilary enjoyed making sure that things go her way and that nobody gets to change things up. So when this new student arrived and ruined things for Hilary , she had to make sure she would make Stargirl’s life miserable.

Indvidiual Vs Society

"Students said things. Not to me, not directly, but tuned for me to overhear even as they pretended I was nowhere near. They said she was a self-centered spotlight hogger."

They were so mad at her to the point they started to make things up. She was shunned. They wanted her to feel guilty for what she did and most of all they wanted her to pay . Students are not used to this behavior that they didn't even know how to analyze it or even comprehend it.

"She wore an off-white dress so long it covered her shoes. It had ruffles around the neck and cuffs and looked like it could have been her great-grandmother’s wedding gown. Her hair was the color of sand. It fell to her shoulders. Something was strapped across her back, but it wasn’t a book bag. At first I thought it was a miniature guitar. I found out later it was a ukulele."

Students at MAHS have never seen a student dress the way she did or act the way she did, it was all foreign to them. On her first day of school they judged her they even thought she was a hoax. Her appearance was strange (grandmother like clothing) the ukulele and most of all her pet rat was the strangest thing about her.This is considered abnormal to students because they were all "normal".

"They said she thought she was some kind of saint-I cringed at that-and that she was better than the rest of us. They said she wanted everyone else to feel guilty for not being as nice and wonderful as she was. They said she was a phony."

We can see the theme of society versus the individual play out here. At first they all liked her, even be friended her. They started to do similar things she did and all was good for Stargirl until she cheered for another team. Stargirl cheering for another team made her peers jealous, jealous why? They became jealous and angry because this is not normal behavior, they did not like it when she cheered for other teams because nobody cheers for the other team , you cheer for your own people .It infuriated them to the point where they stopped talking to her. The students thought that she wanted to show them that she was better than them, so they stopped talking to her.