Stereotypes Revealed In Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl

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.

Stargirl

was insulted by her classmates during Hot Seat. Hot Seat is a show where a student is interviewed and a jury asks them certain questions. When Stargirl was on Hot Seat, she was asked why her name was Stargirl. Her response was, “‘I named myself Pocket Mouse,’ Stargirl said breezily. ‘Then Mudpie. Then Hullygully. Then Stargirl.’” (Spinelli 63). Damon Ricci replied to that response, “So what’s it gonna be next? Dog Turd.” (Spinelli 63). Stargirl was hurt when Damon said this rude statement. Another instance of Stargirl being insulted by the student body was when Becca Rinaldi said, “You’re not just a cheerleader, you dumb cluck… you’re supposed to be our cheerleader, a Mica cheerleader.” (Page 64). Becca did not like how Stargirl rooted for Mica High’s opponents in sports. She told Stargirl to root for Mica and for Mica only. To conclude, Stargirl was verbally abused by her peers.
To continue, Stargirl’s strange cheerleading caused Mica High’s students to react harshly.

When Stargirl cheered at sporting events, she cheered for Mica as well as the opposing team. This caused Stargirl to get some hate. “Someone had splattered her face with a perfectly thrown ripe tomato.” (Spinelli 72). Stargirl’s peers never got over how she cheered for the other team. “Kevin had been right: when she started cheering for other teams, she did something bad to her own team. To see one of their own primings the opposition did something to the team’s morale that hours of practice could not overcome. And the last straw-everyone seemed to agree-was the Sun Valley game when Stargirl rushed across the court to aid Kovac, the Sun Valley star. All of this was affirmed by our own star, Ardsley himself, who said that when he saw a Mica cheerleader giving comfort to the enemy, the heart went out of him. She was why they lost the next game so miserably to Red Rock. They hated her for it, and they would never forgive.” (Spinelli 92). Therefore, Stargirl’s cheerleading led to Mica High disliking her.

Stargirl was not treated fairly by the student body. If she was treated nicely by her peers, she would not be bullied, be called names, or be brutally insulted. The way Stargirl’s classmates treated her was not kind or appropriate. If someone treated someone else like that at any other school, they would get in serious trouble. This is why the students at Mica High were too harsh when

they reacted to Stargirl.
To wrap it up, Stargirl was the main talk at Mica High. She was a cheerleader that cheered for the other team. Stargirl did very strange things outside of school. The way Stargirl was treated by the student body was not good. She was insulted, called names, and was harassed. The students at Mica High treated Stargirl with a large amount of disrespect.