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Chapter 32
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
After college, Leo got a job as a set designer back East. Looking back, he realizes he became a set designer the day Stargirl took him to her enchanted desert place. Whenever Leo comes home to Mica, he visits Archie. One day they take a drive together into the desert. They still talk about Stargirl, trying to understand her.
When Stargirl taught Leo how to see, it had a lifelong impact on him—even preparing the way for his future career, which is dedicated to helping people see the stories of others, as well.
Themes
One day Archie has Leo drive him deep into the desert. They stop at an outcropping of rock, and Archie gouges a hole in the rock. Leo is surprised to see Archie take out his favorite prehistoric rodent skull, Barney, and bury it in the hole. He also buries a scrap of paper. When Leo asks, Archie says the paper contained one word.
The word on the paper is never revealed. In Archie’s past lectures, Barney symbolized a connection with humans’ primordial selves, so it’s reasonable to guess that the word has something to do with Stargirl, or her legacy.
Themes
