Stargirl Conformity

At times it's good to conform with the rest of the group because it can give us benefits in life. In Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl he asks the reader to consider whether it is good or bad to conform. Leo is the main character in the story. Stargirl is a really important outsider who changes Leo’s perspective of how he lives. Leo forces Stargirl to conform to the group, but it doesn't turn out very well. She ends up being popular but deep inside she is feeling really sad. Leo learns a lot from Stargirl, but the main thing that he learns is that you can’t force people or their personality to change just to fit in.
Non-conformity could be the key to being happy in life. Stargirl has her “happy wagon.”. For example, Stargirl’s “happy wagon”(80) is almost full because she’s being unique and not conforming. At the beginning, the students at M.A.H.S didn’t like that. Soon Stargirl had her “golden age”(80) where everybody liked her which also made her a little different: “She picked up a pebble from the shelf and with a grin dropped it into the wagon ‘Well call me Ms. Unpredictable’” (81). She is a non-conformer, and she doesn't like being the same as other people. When she’s Stargirl, not Susan, she is like this little kid full of wonder, glee, and excitement which nobody can stop. In the beginning of the book she is just full of love and wonder, however towards

the end after Leo changes Stargirl to Susan she's not happy: “ She was forever tugging my arm and saying ‘look’ I would look around and would see nothing and say ‘Where?’ she would point ‘there’” (102). She is always curious and always open to love. She's always reaching and changing people's perspectives on how they live life and how they see life also. In conclusion, conformity is a bad thing to do. Like Stargirl, we should all be unique or we will also be like “the dormant mud frogs.”(40). The problem is that Leo doesn't feel good after what happened in high school which was like 10 years ago. He realizes his actions were really bad when he looked back at his memories he feels terrible about how he forced her to change.
There can be consequences, however, to not conforming.

If he didn’t do that, and if he kept conforming with the group he wouldn’t be a nobody. He would've still had all his friends, but he would’ve lost Stargirl:“‘I’m invisible’ i said to Kevin ‘Nobody hears me nobody sees me. I’m friggin invisible man’” (132). He just wanted to be a little different, but that little difference cost him a big price. In her bedroom, while Leo is talking to Stargirl he says,
“‘You can't just wake up in the morning and say you don't care what the rest of the world thinks.’
Her eyes were wide, her voice peepy like little

girls.
"You can't?"
"Not unless you want to be a hermit"
Leo doesn’t realize he is not conforming to the group, instead, he decides to kiss Stargirl and that makes him like Stargirl, a nobody.
We shouldn’t always be like everybody else. We should be ourselves, and we should be unique. He looks back fondly at Stargirl's “golden age” when everyone likes her and wants to be her friend. When Stargirl leaves, Leo goes to Archie and speaks to him on his back porch. Leo asks “Is she real?”(177). Archie says,
“‘Oh yes, as real as we get….That's the good news.’
He pointed the pipe stem at me. ‘And well named. Stargirl.’
Though I think she had simpler things in her mind
‘Star People are rare.You'll be lucky to see another one.’”(177).

Archie says Star People are rare and they are really hard to find. When Leo changes Stargirl to Susan Caraway he made her feel less special. She changes back to Stargirl, other people still hate her but at least she feels happy. Stargirl was what every Mica Area High school student once was… unique. Just like Stargirl “star” people just come and go, and you don't see them for a long time.”That was 15 years ago” (176). He hasn't seen her since then. She just vanished, and nobody knows if it was because everyone hated her or Leo didn't like her. Leo learns to live his life a different way.Stargirl has impacted him in so many different ways: “She taught me to revel. She taught me to wonder. She taught me to laugh” (107). This is Spinelli’s message for us all. He doesn’t only want Leo to live his life a different way, but he also wants us to think and live our lives a little bit differently as well.