Stargirl

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Why is society so afraid of "different"? And why are we so afraid of each other? I feel like these were the questions that kept coming up for me as I read Stargirl. Stargirl's popularity goes from low to high and then back down, but in the end we see that she is celebrated. I felt like it wasn't that they just "didn't like" her differences, but that they were scared of them. Stargirl did things that were unheard of, but they weren't bad things. She didn't do anything that harmed anyone else (although the basketball team might disagree with that) and she didn't do anything that put anyone else down or tried to make them feel inferior. Why is it that when she tried to show friendship and support she was shut down? Why were these things looked down upon?

The two most prominent instances of this were the funeral she attended for the one girls grandfather and the bike that she bought for the little boy (43-47). She wanted to show friendship. She wanted to support people. It wasn't as though she had to be really snoopy about it to find out these things either. She didn't sneak around people's houses and read through their mail to find out what was going on in their lives and what she might be able to do for them, she simply paid attention. Not only did she watch people (like at the mall) but she paid attention to the newspaper. Almost everyone has some kind of access to the newspaper at least weekly if not daily, but how many people take the time to read the filler stories, the stories that give us just a little insight into someone else's life? How do we read the paper when we read it? I know for me I go for the comics first, and then I flip through and look at the headlines and the accompanying photos to see what articles I want to read. As I thought about the little fillers that Stargirl talks about I realized that I don't think I've hardly ever read these. They aren't very big and with all of the other words and images that fill the page they get lost. They're not something you find if you're not looking for them, and we're so wrapped up in what's going on in our own lives and the larger things that will affect us that we don't pay attention to the little things that are happening in others lives. We seem scared of other people almost. We're scared to let them into our lives, and we're scared to get too close to theirs. Granted, things happened to make this so. Kidnapping happened. Murder happened. Rape happened. People were given reasons not to trust each other, and through this it because easier to trust no one than to try to figure out who could and could not be trusted. We isolated ourselves and the few people that we already knew and were close to so that no one could come into our circle unless they were first criticized and scrutinized and determined to be like us. The similarities we shared with them made them "safe."

Stargirl did so many things with other people in mind, and she didn't see them as being wrong or rude, she saw them as helping. She saw them as a way to help other people or to get to know other people. Why not learn about someone else? Why not get to know a stranger? Why not brighten someone else's day? Stargirl starts the scrapbook for the little boy across the street, and drops money for little kids to find. I still remember finding money on the ground as a little kid, and now when I see change on the ground I smile and hope that a little kid will find it. (And, this is the superstition setting in I suppose, but when I see a penny bottom up I kick it or bend down and flip it over, knowing that it will become somebody's lucky charm.) Why don't we do this? It would take little if any effort. Have you ever found a note left in a library book? It instantly brightens your day! Why don't we do this? I know the answer: because we don't think about others as much as we should. Because we focus so much on ourselves and what makes us happy that we forget the little things we can do to make others happy.

Aside from this idea of making others happy there is another big idea that stuck out to me as I read this book. It first came up on page 32 when Archie, Kevin, and Leo are talking about Stargirl. Kevin claims that Stargirl is "Like another species." Archie, thinking this through, responds with "On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were." This quote really made me think. I read it over and over again trying to figure out exactly what it meant. If Stargirl is "who we really are" then how was she me? How was she a me that I no longer was. There are multiple ways to think of this, I guess, but the one that came to mind was that she was growing older but never really "growing up". She was holding onto that child-like sense of adventure and willingness and caring that we're all born with. I thought about my little sister at this point. I remember when she first decided she wanted to dress herself. It didn't matter if her clothes matched, to her it just mattered that they were hers and she had made the decision. It didn't matter if anyone else thought they were cool, it didn't matter that we pointed out that they didn't really "go together." She just didn't care. Not only that, but little kids can sense how people are feeling. Little kids will say "hi" and chatter to just about anyone. It doesn't matter if it's Grandma or cousin John or a stranger, they're just happy to share their own happiness and love for life. Stargirl is the version of us that doesn't care about what others think. She does what she does because it makes her happy and shares her love of life and happiness with others. So what if she changes her name? So what if it's "Pocket Mouse" or "Stargirl." Archie says that "maybe that's how names ought to be, heh? Why be stuck with just one your whole life?" (34). That's kind of how it is with nicknames. I've had multiple nicknames, and as I've changed they have changed too. Granted, mine were never "outrageous" compared to the "standards of society," and they were usually chosen by other people who just decided they wanted to call me something other than "Emily", but why can't we do that for ourselves? Why can't we decide we feel like being "Stella" or "Sunflower" or "Stargirl" for a while? Even as the kids at the school start to be more like Stargirl they're not really being themselves, they're being Stargirl wanna-bes (40). They are taking on not who they are but who she is and in doing so are still contradicting what she stands for.

I think if I were to teach this book I would pose the question "Who defines normal?" because I kept writing this in my margins over and over again as I was reading this book. Normal was defined by "society," but different societies see normal differently, so who decided before it became popular? I suppose it has something to do with power? But what if "being normal" meant being different? Being yourself? What if do be considered "normal" you couldn't be a copy of someone else, but rather, you had to prove yourself unique? Would this make a difference? How would it change the way we look at the world? How would it change the way we look at other people? Would we begin to look at other people more? Would we celebrate their uniqueness? Or would we focus on our own and ignore other people all together?