Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is a book many of us grew up with. If you boil it down, the story is about this girl who calls herself Stargirl who is very outlandish and unique. She makes a lot of decisions that most people find peculiar and bizarre.
But I think she made these choices because it’s the way she lived her life. I believe that somewhere along the line of her life her parents or someone else told her “the right thing to do is be nice” or “be who you are”. Those are classic statements that we all get as children. What she wasn’t told, or chose not to comprehend, is that there are rules of society.
She is doing the ultimate of niceness. Unfortunately kindness is a trait that isn’t as understood as it should be. She just didn’t get that enough was enough. However, I think the only reason these kids are so hateful towards her has to do with jealousy, anger, and fright. I think the kids are jealous of her. The other students saw what she had and who she was and wanted to be a part of it. But that can be harder then it looks.
The kids at Mica were angry too. They saw her betray them when she supported the opposing team, and therefore, she made a fool out of them. She represented their school, and the students acted the way she did. They felt personally harmed by her actions even though she was trying to be a good person and make the other team feel just as good as her team.
But, the main reason was fright. They were scared to step out of place, and they were afraid of Stargirl. Stargirl showed them who they wanted to be and, they didn’t want to accept that. They were “perfectly happy the way they were”. They weren’t happy the way they were. They felt free when she had influence over them, but I guess they thought she was getting to high in the status web at school, she was too popular for her own good. So they lost her. And soon lost themselves.
great post Sophia! i really liked following your journey of thought. i agree with a concept you described, when you said "I think she made these choices because it’s the way she lived her life". i believe that the outcome of your personality or who you become is based on your childhood, and experiences, and influences.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with every bit of this post.
ReplyDeleteActually, that would be impossible because I have not read Stargirl, but from what I have heard of it, this post seems to be extreamly, um, deep? I'm not sure if that's the correct adjective. I greatly enjoy how you delved deeper into the resentment that the other characters seem to feel towards Stargirl, and instead of just saying, "oh, they hate her because she's different" and leaving it at that, you thought about why people don't like difference and don't like uniquness.
I don't know if it's jelousy or just ignorance.
Anyways, this was a very good post.