Indifference in this day and age is seen all around. Many are influenced to be conformists, to not be perceived as unusual. The novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli effectively explores the experience of being unlike and incompatible in an environment as judgmental as high school. Leo Borlock, the narrator and main character, would soon become fairly intrigued and involved with Stargirl’s unique demeanor. After being homeschooled for years on end, Stargirl begins to attend Mica High School and is presented as a bubbly and daunting character who quickly gains popularity. However, it goes downhill from there when she executes an unfavorable action which would cause the entire school to shun both her and Leo out. Though Leo successfully convinces …show more content…
The process and hardships encountered by Stargirl were a necessary procedure for not only Stargirl, but possibly readers as well, to find value and pride in their distinctiveness. Another example of this is executed in “Several times in those early weeks of September, she showed up in something outrageous. A 1920’s flapper dress. An Indian buckskin. A kimono. One day she wore a denim miniskirt with green stockings, and crawling up one leg was a parade of enamel ladybug and butterfly pins.” (Spinelli, pg. 10. The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid afores This evidence could spark relatability for readers through self-expression in style, otherwise a form of non-conformity. Regardless of how others might perceive her style, it shows Stargirl’s resilience and courage to dress in a way she feels comfortable and content. Whether indifference was frowned upon or not, she did not allow it to control how she clothed herself and dictate her actions. Readers potentially could find themselves in similar conditions where they are fearful of being the center of attention when expressing
Scout, the protagonist, is a young girl coming of age in a society trying to shove her into a dress and the role of a gilded daughter. For example, when Scout recalls a conversation with her Aunt Alexandra, a figurehead for society and one of the major female figures in her life, she begins to shine her own light on how to brighten her father’s life in a way that is true to herself. On page 108, Scout comes to terms with the fact that she is defying stereotypes, “I could not possibly be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. She hurt my feelings and set my teeth permanently on edge,
The book Stargirl, written by Jerry Spinelli is about a girl named Stargirl. Stargirl recently enrolled to a new school, Mica High School. She was different from the other students in several ways. She wore different outfits from the other kids and walked around Mica High playing her ukulele at lunch. Some of her behaviors led to Stargirl becoming the most popular girl in school. This includes cheering for the opposing team when she was a cheerleader. Stargirl makes an impact on her fellow classmates because she united a school through her unconventional ways. However, the student body turned on her and was mean to her. Stargirl was treated poorly by her peers because they bullied her, called her names, and insulted Stargirl.
When reading Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, it is instantly understood that you have control of not only being yourself, but being true to yourself. In the novel, Stargirl left a great legacy in MICA High School and all the people living around in general. So after reading Stargirl, we can understand that individuality and truthfulness to yourself is important to everyone around and most of all,
Grandmother often thought if she dressed and acted the part of a lady, then she would be acting in an acceptable behavior, but the way the reader views her actions is not the
George starts with the example of the Christian schoolgirl outfit, once meant to represent sexual purity and chastity, it now has been fetishized to the point where it represents sexuality bursting at the seams. She states that it does not help that older women are now wearing promiscuous outfits adorned with childlike slogans and logos. The increasingly scantily clad nature of grown women acting as role models for children causes them to dress like their role models. That is, in a provocative manner. George says that such clothing blurs the line
Back in Celie’s time women putting on a pair of pants was a paramount statement. The pants are also her source of economic success. Page 146: "Well,
The setting of the story is Mica Area High School in Arizona. The kids who attended this high school all wore the same clothes, talked the same way, ate the same food, and listened to the same music. They were pretty much identical to each another. The city had been built around an electronics business park. The city was only 15 years old. It was a town in the middle of the dessert where everyone’s front yard was made up of stones and cactuses. This story could have taken place in another time because the issue that the main character, Stargirl, is dealing with is a timeless problem. People always have trouble accepting other people who are not like them. Not to mention that cliques and popularity in high schools have been since anyone can remember. We all need to belong, even Stargirl.
When informing the readers that her fans would often write not only about her work but also about “… [her] youthful indiscretions, the slings and arrows I suffered as a minority…” (Tan 1), this bothered Tan to an extent because she By educating herself she was able to form her own opinion and no longer be ignorant to the problem of how women are judge by their appearance in Western cultures. By posing the rhetorical question “what is more liberating” (Ridley 448), she is able to get her readers to see what she has discovered. Cisneros also learned that despite the fact that she did not take the path that her father desired, he was still proud of all of her accomplishments. After reading her work for the first time her father asked “where can I get more copies” (Cisneros 369), showing her that he wanted to show others and brag about his only daughters accomplishments.
In the generation leading up to the emergence of the flapper, the popular style for women was that of the “Gibson Girl”. Based on the depictions of women by...
When life becomes overwhelming during adolescence, a child’s first response is to withdraw from the confinement of what is considered socially correct. Individuality then replaces the desire to meet social expectations, and thus the spiral into social non-conformity begins. During the course of Susanna’s high school career, she is different from the other kids. Susanna:
Scout is expected to behave like “a lady” but she resists conforming to those roles. For example, Scout faces discrimination because she doesn’t dress how society wants her to dress. More specifically, her aunt Alexandra forces her into a dress that which Scout does not want to wear. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee, 108).
When one thinks of flappers, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of a woman dressed much like Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie, bobbed hair, fringed low-waisted dress, flat-chested and highly made up face. This, though a stereotype is close to the truth. In the 20’s after the first world war women’s roles in society began to change, primarily because they started becoming more independent – both in their dress and action. They started to defy what was considered to be appropriate feminine behavior and along with those actions came new fashions. The sleek, boyish look became popular and women began to wear lower waistlines, higher hemlines, sleeveless dresses that showed off their arms, long strands of pearls and rolled down pantyhose to show their knees. Women who had larger breasts even went so far as to bind them down to fit into the flat-chested ideal of beauty. The “in” look now was boyish, much in contrast to the feminine big skirted, shirtwaisted dresses of their mothers’ age. Women began to gain the independence and social liberties that men had always possessed, they wanted to physically display their newly gained freedoms. Short hair, first as a bob, later as a slicked down “shingle” that curled above the ears emphasized the new androgynous look women were trying to obtain. These “modern” women asserted their independence by going out dancing, moving to the city alone, drinking even during prohibition, flirting and having love affairs.
"We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won't be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys."(Lee, 127)
There are very few moments and people from that past the resonate throughout all of history. When moments are remembered, it is usually because the moment was an important one that created an enormous change. People are normally remembered because they did something of significance in their lives that brought about change. The murder of Thomas Becket is one of the rare instances of the past, where a moment and a person are remembered together. Many notable authors have written about the murder of Thomas Becket, and William Urry deserves to be one such author.
In the story, the young girls wished to participate in the civil rights movement, which was no stranger to the danger and the cruel aspects of humanity. The question then becomes, ‘why dress them in white?’ , “censorship often comes in the form of concerned parents who do not want their children exposed to a worldview other than their own”(“Censorship in Schools and the Effects on Our Children”). The mother in the story chose to dress her child with innocence, sending her towards the place she thought safest for her child, in an attempt to shield her daughter from the danger of the world around them. This dressing scene is a reflection of society, where parents believe they can keep their children safe by shielding them from the harsh realities of society.