Stargirl is a novel on an adolescent’s
struggle in the bosom of social pressures and change. It is a potent depiction of the reality of high school and the awful truth of teenage conformity.
Aptly named, Stargirl is a 16-year-old unlike any other Mica high school has known. She was vibrant, when others were aloof, confident when others were coy. From the moment she stepped into the teeming corridor sporting a long garb in lieu of the usual tank tops, her presence had disrupted the inveterate proceedings of the school. Her eccentric ways of playing the ukulele in the lunchroom, singing a jaunty happy-birthday for everyone to hear and leaving little tokens for her homeroom class made her popular. For a while there, different was cool. She became the newest fad. Boys wanted to date her and girls wanted to be like her. Unfortunately, fads had very short life spans and when she committed the grievous sin of cheering for the opposing team in a ferocious game of basketball, she was suddenly the school’s number one nemesis.The author, Jerry Spinelli, gave Stargirl a voice that rose above the rest. Through her person, we are able to witness the joys of an intrepid soul and the sorrow of an unwanted being. When she triumphed over her schoolmates’ contempt, she taught us a lesson beyond the banality of the schoolroom. If you''re willing to think for yourself, if you''re willing to choose your own goals, if you''re willing to mount your own search for that moral compass, then you won''t need others to give you an identity. You can be your own person. It can be risky to stand alone, but isn''t it riskier to count on the approval of others? We all want others to respect us. But if we have self-respect, the respect of others is a secondary issue. No one likes to be excluded or made fun of, but the real nobodies are those who need approval so badly they can''t live without it.
The novel communicates a powerful message that is poignant in its simplicity and provoking in its insight. All the events fall into place to effectively deliver the theme of non-conformity.Stargirl is a novel on a girl paved by destiny to be the ultimate study on individuality. It is a lesson on having the courage to be different, to hell with anyone who advocates conformity. After all, in life, there''s only one person who will always be with you, one person whose judgment will always matter. And that person is you.