70 pages • 2 hours read
Jerry SpinelliStargirl
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 29-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
Susan handily wins the speech competition, receiving a shiny silver plate as a trophy. As she, Leo, and Mr. McShane drive home to Mica, Susan anticipates that crowds of teachers, students, and townsfolk will be assembled at the school to honor her. When they arrive, however, the school is empty. In the far parking lot, only two teachers and Dori Dilson wait to welcome Susan home. Dori holds a giant congratulations sign, but Leo can see that she is crying.
Chapter 30 Summary
Susan is stunned at the absence of an adoring mob. By Monday, Susan is gone, and Stargirl is back with her ukulele, long dresses, and happy face cookies for everyone. Leo angrily accuses Stargirl of giving up on being popular and normal. Stargirl, looking happier than she has in a while, agrees. She tells Leo that she knows he will not ask her to the spring dance. When Stargirl and Dori start a musical duo, they are ignored and mocked. Leo knows he should support Stargirl but finds her antics too embarrassing and painful.
Chapter 31 Summary
The Ocotillo Ball takes place outdoors at the Mica Country Club. Leo does not ask Stargirl to go with him, nor does he go to the ball himself. Instead, he rides his bike around and watches the dance from afar. Stargirl arrives at the dance in a bicycle sidecar pedaled by Dori. The bike is festooned with flowers, and Cinnamon rides in the basket. Stargirl looks stunning. Parents call her “Beautiful. Unusual. Interesting. Different. Regal” (169). Stargirl makes eye contact with everyone and dances by herself until one ordinary boy asks her to dance. Later, Stargirl approaches the band leader and requests the bunny hop, a dance from the 1950s. She enraptures the crowd and leads a huge dance line off onto the dark golf course, enraging Hillari. When the dancers return, Hillari slaps Stargirl. Stargirl kisses her on the cheek. Dori pedals Stargirl away, and no one in school ever sees Stargirl again.
Chapter 32 Summary
The summer after the ball, Leo discovers that Stargirl’s house is empty and for sale. Archie explains that her family moved to Minnesota. Leo wonders if it was all a dream. Archie assures him that Stargirl was real. Archie tells Leo that Stargirl “gave up her self” (178) and became Susan out of love of Leo. Someday, Archie adds, Leo will understand how lucky he was to know a person like her. Before Leo leaves for college, Archie reveals that Stargirl’s office was in his old toolshed. There, she kept files on everyone in town. She had a map of Mica and a calendar listing everyone’s birthday. Only Leo’s is marked with a red heart.
Chapter 33 Summary
On trips home from college, and even after Leo gets a job in the East as a set designer, Leo visits Archie. On his last visit, Leo notes that Archie looks old and frail. As they drive into the foothills of the Maricopa mountains, they talk about Stargirl. Archie describes her in cryptic epigrams. They walk into the desert, and Archie opens a paper bag to reveal Barney’s skull. Archie digs a hole and buries Barney along with a single scrap of paper. He tells Leo only that there is a single word on the paper. Archie cements the hole so it is undetectable from the rock around it. The next time Leo visits, Archie is gone, and someone else lives in his house.
Epilogue Summary: “More Than Stars”
Leo describes his life 15 years later. He has no family but remains friends with Kevin who still lives in Mica. Kevin attends the class reunion every five years and reports that everybody still talks and wonders about Stargirl. Stargirl’s influence is still felt in the high school. Members of the Sunflowers Club commit to doing a daily random act of kindness. The marching band has a ukulele. MAHS basketball fans now cheer for the first basket made by the opposing team. Hillari and Wayne Parr broke up after graduation, but nobody knows any more about them. Leo devotes himself to working and remembering. He wonders what Stargirl looks like now, and what she calls herself. Leo hopes that he will see her again because he received a porcupine necktie in the mail on his most recent birthday.
Chapter 29-Epilogue Analysis
Stargirl makes a mature decision to be true to herself even though it means sacrificing her love for Leo. By giving up Susan, Stargirl chooses to embrace her individuality rather than conform to the group’s norms.
The decision angers Leo because it is effectively a rebuke against his own decision to choose group approval over Stargirl. Leo does not want to change: He wants Stargirl to change. Leo again reveals his selfishness when he accuses Stargirl of giving up on what he sees as a valuable goal: fitting in to the “world of them” (162). Even worse, Leo’s choice gives the student body permission to continue its campaign of othering against Stargirl.
When Stargirl gently forgives him for not planning to ask her to the ball, Leo “hates” (162) her. He resents Stargirl’s martyr-like self-sacrifice which makes him, like some of the other students, feels inferior. Her forgiveness embitters Leo because it highlights his flaws. He is not as magnanimous as she is, he is dependent on the group, and he is uncomfortable knowing his actions are hurtful.
Leo possesses enough self-awareness to know that his actions allow others to badmouth Stargirl. The thought “stings” (164) because Leo does not want to be like “the rest of them” (165). Yet Leo already demonstrated that he is like the rest of them, and Stargirl knows it. She understands that Leo does not have the same level of security in his identity and recognizes that their relationship is impossible until he does.
Stargirl’s characterization as a Christ figure is especially evident in these final chapters. She overcomes the temptation to change—and lose—her true self. At the ball, Stargirl displays a magnetizing power and meets the eyes of every person. Her gaze inspires both guilt and wonder, leaving some people uncomfortable and others feeling empty when her eyes leave them. She leads a group of followers in a joyous dance. Those who do not follow feel anxious and left out. Stargirl epitomizes the teaching of Luke 6:27 to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” This is particularly true when she returns Hillari’s slap with a kiss. Stargirl disappears mysteriously, leaving behind a lasting positive impact on the people of Mica. Casting Stargirl as a Christ figure emphasizes the importance of the novel’s theme of empathy and kindness.
Years later, Leo embraces the teachings of both Archie and Stargirl. He attains the maturity to understand fully the value of what he lost. He now practices some of Stargirl’s kindnesses and celebrations, like leaving change on the sidewalk and appreciating the joy of walking in the rain without an umbrella. He prepares himself for Stargirl’s return, never giving in to despair.
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