Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli Book Analysis

In the novel, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli, there is a character named Stargirl who has just moved to Mica High in Arizona. Stargirl stands out from the rest of the students and the Mica students do not accept that she is different. They blame her for everything ranging from their undefeated basketball season coming to an end and her singing happy birthday to everyone. The Mica students pressure her to become more popular and she finally does when Leo tells her that she is not normal. Stargirl should not have changed to become more popular because she changed from Leo telling her that she is not normal, she was very sad when she was trying to be popular, and lost her only friend in Dori Dilson when she changed to become more normal.

Stargirl should have kept her personality because she was not satisfied when she was trying to become popular. This can be proven on pg. 104, “That night we did homework together at her house. I ducked into her room to check out her happy wagon. There were only two stones in it.” Stargirl tracks how happy she is with the stones in her happy wagon. When she was happy as Stargirl, she had 17 stones that showed she was extremely happy. In her chase for popularity, she only had two happy stones left which signified that she was downhearted. When she did change, she was not happy and would have rather been Stargirl. This shows that she was not content trying to fit in and be popular. 

Stargirl lost her only friend who supported her being different from everyone else when she changed. This can be proven on pg. 107 by, “So,” I said, “what happened when you asked Dori Dilson?” “She said no. She’s mad at me.” “I could tell.” “Ever since I became Susan. She thinks I betrayed myself. She just doesn’t understand how important it is to be popular.” When changing from Stargirl to Susan, Stargirl lost her only friend that enjoyed her company. She tried to become popular but she lost her personality that made her distinct and that is why Dori is annoyed with her. In her love for Leo, she tries to fit in but she isn’t happy and ends up reverting to Stargirl. Another example on pg. 116 is, “The car stopped in front of it. All that was left to see of Dori Dilson were two sets of fingers holding the sides of the sign. We were close enough now to see that the sign was trembling, and I knew that behind it Dori was crying. There was no confetti, no kazoos. Nothing cheered, not even a mockingbird.” This shows that even though Stargirl changed, Dori still cheered her on when nobody else even applauded her. She was the only one in the parking lot and that represented that Dori was a friend to keep. 

She was hurt by Leo telling her that she was not normal. This caused her to change and become “Susan” which did not change the minds of the other Mica High students. This can be proven on pg. 103 by, “She constantly quizzed me about what other kids would do, would buy, would say, would think. She invented a fictitious person whom she called Evelyn Everybody. “Would Evelyn like this?” “Would Evelyn do that?” This piece of evidence is important because Stargirl wanted to know how she should act as Susan. She purposely made up a fictitious person whom she would learn from and try to fit in. Stargirl felt that Leo wasn’t happy because he was being avoided and her being told that she does not care about trying to fit in hurt her. This action was in response to her hurting her feelings. An argument against this statement could be that Stargirl should have changed to become more popular to earn the attention of the other Mica students when she was cheering for the Electrons and was popular. Even though that is a good counter-argument, Stargirl did not care what anyone thought of her and did whatever she wanted. She would sing happy birthday to everyone and she sang/ strum her ukulele in school. Even when she was popular for a short time, she still did the things that made her Stargirl and never lost her personality. When she changed for Leo, you could see the result because she dressed/acted normally and just tried to fit in. 

In conclusion, Stargirl should have kept her personality because she had a friend in Dori Dilson, she was happy when she acted like Stargirl, and she was pressured by Leo to change. Stargirl was not liked by the students at Mica High because she had a unique personality and they did not understand that everyone will not try to fit in so that they could be like everyone else. They were not open to someone being different and that is why they pressured Stargirl to become more like them. Even Archie told Leo that she was an example of what humans are when they are who they want to be. Stargirl’s personality defined her and only her, not someone she did not want to be.