Stargirl

“I had to admit, the more I saw of her, the easier it was to believe she was a plant, a joke, anything but real.” 

Stargirl’s appearance and behavior are so far outside Leo’s box that he and the rest of the student body have trouble believing she is genuine. This foreshadows the othering directed at Stargirl later in the book. It is easier for the students to view her as something less than a real human than to engage with how she exposes the student body’s total conformity and groupthink.

“So I turned from her.”

Even before their relationship, Leo is both fascinated by Stargirl and terrified of being singled out by her. This quote shows Leo’s shyness and his fear of being embarrassed in front of the rest of his peers. It reveals early on his dependence on the group. Leo turns away from Stargirl literally, in this instance, and later figuratively when she stops trying to be the normal girlfriend he wants.

“How long do you think somebody who’s really like that is going to last around here?” 

Kevin foreshadows Stargirl’s ultimate ostracization. He and Leo both know the school is set in its culture and that nonconformity is not accepted. The boys predict that Stargirl must change to become more like everybody else order to survive there socially. 

“In that moonlit hour, I acquired a sense of the otherness of things.” 

Leo feels like the moonlight is the “private” side of the daytime when he can allow his imagination and feelings free reign (12). During the day, Leo puts on his public face. Leo recognizes that Stargirl is real when he is alone in the moonlight and can be himself.

“She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school.” 

Stargirl breaks with group behavior, puzzling but intriguing the Mica High students. They observe Stargirl with amusement, but do not readily become her friends. Stargirl is secure enough in her identity to express her positive, joyful nature regardless of negative opinion. 

“She is us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were.” 

Archie believes that Stargirl is what humans were meant to be before humanity encumbered itself with social restrictions and became reliant on others’ opinions. Stargirl is more connected to life than regular people, living unselfconsciously with joy and intensity. Her presence also speaks volumes about the rest of the student body by offering a counterpoint to their conformity.

“Maybe that’s how names ought to be, heh? Why be stuck with just one your whole life?”

Names are important in Stargirl. Archie agrees with Stargirl that as people grow and change, it makes sense to take on new names that match how one feels about oneself. Names express different stages of becoming, reflecting the novel’s theme of identity discovery.

“Suddenly Stargirl was not dangerous, and we rushed to embrace her.” 

Initially, the students at Mica High are wary of Stargirl because she is different from them. Stargirl’s otherness threatens their group structure. When they do include Stargirl, their group changes: people imitate Stargirl and express their own individuality. 

“All of her feelings, all of her attentions flowed outward. She had no ego.” 

She spends her time doing altruistic acts without seeking credit for her works. She rarely acknowledges her own feelings but takes on the sadness of others. Christlike, Stargirl is devoted to spreading happiness and kindness. 

“You don’t like us, do you? Do you?” 

The Hot Seat jury reveals their belief that Stargirl has betrayed the group. They think that because she flaunts the group’s norms, she is critical of those norms and therefore perceives herself to be superior to the group. Here, the students show how herd mentality and othering operate in a society, albeit on a microcosmic scale. 

“She laughed, and the desert sang.” 

Leo shows his admiration and near awe of Stargirl. He suggests that even nature is sympathetic to Stargirl’s feelings, responding in kind to her joy. Leo’s description has a wistful sense: older now, Leo realizes how wonderful Stargirl was and acutely feels her loss.

“The earth is speaking to us, but we can’t hear because of all the racket our senses are making. Sometimes we need to erase them, erase our senses. Then—maybe—the earth will touch us. The universe will speak. The stars will whisper.” 

Stargirl reveals a mature sense of awareness of her spiritual connection to the universe. Through a form of meditation, Stargirl can lose herself and become one with nature. Leo, notably, is unable to achieve the same detachment from his thoughts and conscious self. 

“I had an urge to look down at myself, to make sure I was there.” 

Leo intensely feels the spillover from the silent treatment the Mica students impose on Stargirl. He feels isolated and invisible. Leo needs to feel included by the group to validate his identity. Leo shows that he is not self-confident enough to oppose the group’s norms. 

“Like so many of Archie’s words, they seemed not to enter through my ears but to settle on my skin, there to burrow like tiny eggs awaiting the rain of my maturity, when they would hatch and I at last would understand.” 

Looking back from a position of maturity, Leo recognizes that although Archie tried to guide him in his junior year, Leo did not have the wisdom then to understand his advice. Leo’s metaphor also shows his frequent poetic use of figurative language and recalls the imagery he used to describe the awakening of the “mud frogs” at Mica (40). Here, water—the “rain” of Leo’s age, and the advent of Stargirl—gives birth to self-understanding.

“Her eyes went straight to her heart.” 

Stargirl displays empathy for all aspects of life around her: from a lonely old man on a bench to the dramas of tiny ants. These everyday things deeply affect Stargirl emotionally. Leo suggests that Stargirl has no filter: her feelings are authentic and unburdened by thought, debate, or others’ opinions.

“Sometimes she seemed so far from me.” 

Leo has trouble understanding Stargirl’s utter selflessness and her willingness to spend her time helping others. He cannot envision himself doing the same things, and if he did, he would want credit for them. This disconnect shows that Leo is at a different level of becoming: he is not willing to give up so much of himself for others. 

“You can’t just wake up in the morning and say you don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.” 

Stargirl truly does not care what the rest of the world thinks—but Leo does, demonstrating that his allegiance to his peer group is stronger than his commitment to Stargirl. For all the affection he has for Stargirl, it is clear from this quote that he fails to truly understanding her. He is just as puzzled as the rest of the student body by her blithe disregard for what people think of her.

“I’m not connected!” 

Ironically, Leo accuses Stargirl of not being connected to the rest of the world. On the contrary, Stargirl models for Leo how to become more empathetically connected to beings great and small. Leo, in contrast, teaches Stargirl to give up those connections in favor of small-minded opinion.

“I had never been so happy and so proud in my life.”

When Stargirl transforms into Susan, Leo is thrilled. His comment shows his selfishness and a significant lack of understanding and empathy for Stargirl. Leo is happy that he will have a “normal” girlfriend: Stargirl will no longer embarrass him with her eccentric ways, and he will no longer be shunned. His pride reveals he does not support or appreciate Stargirl’s true self. 

“I don’t want to be like nobody.” 

Taking Leo’s counsel to heart, Stargirl endeavors to become like everyone else. Leo has impressed his own fear of being a nobody onto Stargirl. In trying to fit in, Stargirl becomes Susan, sacrificing her own values to win the approval of others. 

“He says when a mockingbird sings, for all we know it’s pitching fossils into the air.” 

Stargirl incorporates Archie’s theory that mockingbirds may be repeating the sounds of long-extinct creatures into her winning speech. She shows again her sense of connection to the earth and the past. Like Barney, things from long ago still have an impact on the present.

“She gave me her smile of infinite kindness and understanding, the smile I had seen her aim at so many other needy souls, and in that moment I hated her.” 

Stargirl’s forgiving smile makes Leo angry because he perceives her as coming from a place of moral superiority; the implication being that he is acting from a less noble position—which he is, having just turned against her). Leo resents being lumped in with everybody else, and at the same time feels a guilty “sting” because he knows he is treating her poorly (164). That “sting” suggests that Leo knows deep down that he is wrong to abandon Stargirl, and his doing so is the result of a deep personal failing—specifically, his lack of courage. Thus, when he looks at Stargirl’s smile, he is reminded only of his own weakness, which makes him hate her.

“Star people are rare. You’ll be lucky to meet another.”

Archie gently reproaches Leo for losing Stargirl. Although neither Archie nor Leo ever fully “figure out” Stargirl (181), they both know that she is a unique and special individual—someone more in tune with humanity’s celestial origins than most. Judging from Leo’s hope at the end of the novel that he will meet Stargirl again, he has still yet to meet another star person.