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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stargirl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Individuality and Conformity
Human Nature
Seeing, Visibility, and Invisibility
Friendship, Love, and Social Pressure
Summary
Analysis
In the coming days, it feels like Leo and Stargirl are the only kids in school. At first, it’s because Leo is so happily preoccupied with Stargirl, feeling her presence even when he doesn’t see her. But one day, as they walk side by side to class, Leo notices that nobody acknowledges or speaks to the two of them.
Before long, the much-feared consequences of dating Stargirl begin to appear: both he and Stargirl are being shunned—treated as if they’re invisible—by the rest of Mica High.
Themes
At lunch, he asks Kevin about it. Kevin says “they” are not talking to Stargirl. Almost everybody, except her friend Dori Dilson, is giving Stargirl the silent treatment. It started after the basketball playoffs. People blame her for Mica High’s loss. Leo protests the injustice of this behavior—it’s irrational, and besides, don’t Stargirl’s kind gestures mean anything?
Leo’s indignation reflects the foolishness of Mica High’s mob attitude toward Stargirl. The shunning is unfair, yet as even he will come to recognize, there’s also a perverse logic to it, at least from an us-and-them point of view.
Themes
From then on, Leo starts to feel more paranoid. His sense of being alone with Stargirl is no longer “a cozy, tunnel-of-love sweetness, but a chilling isolation.” Stargirl, though, doesn’t seem to notice.
From now on, there’s an ominous note in Leo’s relationship with Stargirl—although Leo cares for Stargirl deeply, he is not immune to others’ perceptions of her. Stargirl seems to be untouched by teenage mob behavior, however.
Themes
