Stargirl Chapter 19 Summary

  • Leo goes to Archie to confide all of this to him.
  • Archie tells him about how the Amish do something like this sometimes to people in their communities. When someone does something particularly bad, the Amish shun that person from the community. Even the person's family shuns him until he repents.
  • Leo asks him what he should do. Archie responds that he should stay away from Stargirl. Leo says he can't do that. Archie realizes this, and he didn't really mean his own advice. He just wanted Leo to say, for himself, that he can't stay away from our girl.
  • In frustration, Leo questions why Stargirl can't be a little more like everyone else.
  • The poor guy is clearly conflicted. He blurts out "she cheers for the other team!"
  • He and Archie go for a walk, and Archie admits that she is different and sometimes she is more like a teacher to him than he is a teacher to her.
  • Archie tells Leo about how the few minutes when each of us is just waking up from a night's sleep, but before we open our eyes, are the minutes when each of us is most connected to our past and our nature. The moment we open our eyes, we become ourselves and we lose our connection.
  • Leo doesn't really get why Archie is telling him this, but Shmoop has a sneaking suspicion that Stargirl would.
  • What else is there to do but go to talk to Señor Saguaro?
  • Archie speaks to the cactus in Spanish, asking him to give Leo questions. But Leo wants answers, not questions.
  • Shush, Leo! Says Archie. Señor Saguaro says that there is only one question to help him: "Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others'?" (19.51).
  • After some initial confusion, Leo understands the question, but he doesn't want to answer it.