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Chapter 20
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 weeks, Leo and Stargirl continue delivering potted violets, congratulatory balloons, and handmade cards. The cards are childishly made, yet heartfelt. Leo also finds out some of Stargirl’s secret methods. She reads the parts of the newspaper that most people ignore, like the obituaries, birthday announcements, and police blotter. Her favorite are the “fillers”—the insignificant news items that are simply used to take up space. She also listens to hair salon gossip and monitors the dozens of bulletin boards around town.
The childish style of Stargirl’s cards fits in with the theory that she’s connected to a less socially developed aspect of humanity than other people—a compassionate part that conformity largely obscures. Her delight in “fillers” also fits with her knack for noticing those who “just take up space” in society—those who don’t have much value in others’ eyes.
Themes
For example, they find a flyer posted by a person seeking odd jobs. Stargirl explains that it suggests to her that the guy is struggling to make ends meet, so she might send him a “keep your chin up” card. She challenges Leo to what she calls her “card game”—following a person in public for 15 minutes, then guessing what type of card that person might need. They go to the Redstone Mall and follow a woman in her early 40s through several stores for 15 minutes. When time’s up, Stargirl makes up a story about the woman, whom she suspects is divorced and lonely. They follow some other mall shoppers, Stargirl dropping spare change for little kids as she goes.
Stargirl’s “card game” is very different from typical teen behavior in a mall. It requires a lot of patience and a willingness to see other people as inherently valuable and interesting. At the same time, there’s something a bit naïve about it, too—it doesn’t seem to occur to Stargirl that her behavior could be seen as intrusive or creepy if she were caught. It’s another way in which she’s rather childlike in nature.
Themes
