Stargirl- Real Life Issues

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is about a new girl who moves into the small town of Mica, Arizona. Everyone in Mica was exactly the same. But when Stargirl arrives, everyone at Mica Area High School starts to question their "normal" way of doing things.

One of the main real life issues that is presented in this book is how people judge and discriminate against people who are different from them. At the beginning of the book, Stargirl didn't care what people thought of her and ignored everything they said about her. "We didn't know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew" (Spinelli 15). This quote shows how no matter what everyone at MAHS tried to do, Stargirl just went on being herself. During the book at one point, Stargirl stops being herself and tries to be "normal" so people would talk to her. " 'Stargirl, you just can't do things the way you do. If you weren't stuck in a homeschool all your life, you'd understand. You can't just wake up in the morning and say you don't care what the rest of the world thinks" (Spinelli 136). She decided to become "normal" so she could be like the rest of the world. When she did that, she cared about what the rest of the world thought about her for just those couple days. She was so unhappy when she acted unlike herself to please everyone else. In the end of the book, Stargirl goes back to being herself and she was so much happier and she really didn't care what other people thought about her.

When I read Stargirl, I really started to think about how much I cared about what people thought of me. I realized that I shouldn't care what people think about me, and I shouldn't change myself for other people. If I didn't try to be the "normal" that everyone says is normal and just acted like myself, I would be so much happier and I wouldn't care what people say about me. I really enjoyed reading Stargirl, it was a very interesting story and I would definitely read it again.

"Dare to be different."

Theme Presentation

Theme #3: In the Wrong Hands, Technology can

Negatively Impact our Relationships and/or Communities

Group Members: Gabi Renshaw, Kelly Tibbetts, Sam Cannava, Suhas Kolli, Rishi Mehta

Timeline of Events:

Quote from Part I: “Wasn’t there an old joke about the wife who talked so much on the telephone that her desperate husband ran out to the nearest store and telephoned her to ask what was for dinner?” (Bradbury, 39)

Explanation: This quote represents Montag’s current situation with his own wife. Technology has ultimately led to the degradation of their relationship in the sense that Montag and Mildred would most probably communicate through technology rather than actual face-to-face conversations. Similistic technology in Fahrenheit 451 affects the relationships and communities due to the fact that they have almost completely disregarded social interaction and made technology their main means of communications even when social interaction is possible.

Quote from Part II: “It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did...it’s a mystery…Its really beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences...clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical” (Bradbury, 109).

Explanation: In this passage, Beatty muses to Montag about the mystical nature of fire before he was burned alive by Montag. Fire in this passage represents Montag’s subjugation and his liberation. Montag who had been accused by Beatty, was told about how he wasn’t considering the consequences of his actions. Beatty then defines the beauty of fire and how it will destroy responsibilities and consequences.

Quote from Part III: “The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time….Time was busy burning the years and the people away, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt time, that meant that everything burnt!” (Bradbury, 134).

Explanation: In this passage, Montag escapes the city and floats down the river in “Burning Bright.” Montag muses at the sun while he escapes. For the first time, he finally enjoys the leisure that Faber told him about, in order to regain his life. Montag for the first time sees the stars. He starts considering that the sun is constant to time and burns with its own fire. He then considered the moon, which gets its light from the sun. He and the firemen will burn everything since the sun burns time, meaning it burns away the people and years. Bradbury repeats the word “burning” to tell the audience how Montag experiences and how he now must redefine his conception of the burning and fire and also identity and purpose.

Theme Explanations:

    This theme is important to our understanding of the story because it helps us realize that we need to appreciate what we have and be weary of new advancements, as they may,ironically contribute to both the rise and fall of society.

    This theme connects to our modern-day society and how we see it play out in our lives and in society today by helping us realize that importance and significance of books while also highlighting the negative outcomes technology may potentially pose on both communities and relationships.