Quote 21
Kevin Quinlan and I usually agreed on everything. We had been best friends since arriving in Arizona the same week for four years before. We both thought the prickly pear cactus looked like Ping-Pong paddles with whiskers, and that saguaros looked like dinosaur mittens. We both loved strawberry-banana smoothies (3.15)
How important is it in a friendship to like a lot of the same things? Is it okay to disagree on some things, too? Kevin and Leo seem like great friends, but by the end of the novel, we're wondering if their friendship was based entirely on having things in common, and nothing deeper.
Quote 22
The change began around Thanksgiving. By December first, Stargirl Caraway had become the most popular person in school (8.1).
Stargirl may have become the most popular girl in school, but we have to ask: does she actually have any friends? We're betting that all her followers would consider themselves friends of hers, but we're thinking Dori is the only true one.
Quote 23
In my homeroom, when the announcement came over the PA about Stargirl winning the district title, I was about to let out a cheer, but I caught myself. Several people booed (20.3).
Are Leo's actions in this situation the actions of a friend? What would a good friend have done in this situation? Cheered anyway, perhaps?
Quote 24
I understood why this was happening to me. In the eyes of the student body, she was part of my identity. I was "her boyfriend." I was Mr. Stargirl (23.5).
Calm down, Leo. There are worse things in the world than being Mr. Stargirl. Despite the dramatics, Leo is actually touching upon a pretty important truth here. The people that we surround ourselves with reflect who we are in many ways. If we surround ourselves with people who lie, cheat, and steal, we are saying that those things are acceptable and fine with us. If we surround ourselves with people who are kind and interesting, then that is what we are saying is acceptable to us.
Quote 25
"Something's gotta change," I said. "That's all I know."
"You mean like change clothes? Or change a tire? Should I change the tire on my bike? Would that do it?"
"You're not funny. You know what I mean."
She saw I was upset. Her face got serious (25.7-10).
We do know what Leo means here. He means that she has to change who she is or they will break up. Way to be a friend, Leo. Way to be a friend.
Quote 26
"So," I said, "what happened when you asked Dori Dilson?"
"She said no. She's mad at me."
"I could tell."
"Ever since I became Susan. She thinks I betrayed myself" (27.11-13).
Dori is mad at Susan, but we can't help but let out a little cheer for this ninth grader. We think the fact that she's mad at Stargirl is actually an indication that she is Stargirl's one true friend. She's loyal in the way that truly counts.
Quote 27
I waited until the last of the students had left the courtyard, and Stargirl and Dori were performing for no one. To my surprise they went on and on. It was too painful to watch. I left school by another door (30.42)
The contrast between Dori and Leo is so drastic here that we can't help but compare the two. Dori is there by Stargirl's side when no one else is, and Leo runs in the opposite direction.
The old professor often talked to Señor Saguaro—and to us. He was not certified to teach in Arizona, but that did not stop him. Every Saturday morning his house became a school. Fourth-graders, twelfth-graders—all are welcome. No tests, no grades, no attendance record. Just the best school most of us had ever gone to. He covered everything from toothpaste to tapeworms and somehow made it fit together (7.5).
Archie is a teacher by his very nature. He doesn't have to be in a school following a curriculum; he sees those teachable-moments everywhere and thoroughly enjoys imparting his knowledge and wisdom to anyone, specifically young people, who is willing to learn. We kind of wish he were our neighbor, too.
"I want to put her on Hot Seat. Dorko Borlock here doesn't want to."
Archie studied me through the smoke. I thought I saw approval, but when he spoke, he merely said, "Work it out, men" (7.48-49).
Leo is very perceptive. He often knows things, but then he second-guesses himself or is just too cowardly and messes things up. It is most likely true that Archie does agree with Leo. He wouldn't want Stargirl on their mean-spirited show. However, he knows that sometimes, we have to figure things out for ourselves. It is much more important for them to learn to resolve their conflicts without adult interference.
"So, what should I do?"
Archie waved his hand. "Oh, well, that's the easy part. Stay away from her: your problem's kaput."
I sneered. "Great advice. You know it's not that easy."
He did know, of course, but he wanted me to say it" (19. 16-19).
Great teachers have a way of letting us come to our own conclusions, even when they've known them all along. Of course Archie is acting more like a counselor than a teacher, here. He knows what's right, but he won't tell Leo, because it's more important that Leo come to the same conclusion all on his own. That way, it's more meaningful.
Quote 31
Like so many of Archie's words, they seemed not to enter through my ears but to settle on my skin, there to burrow like tiny eggs awaiting the rain of my maturity, when they would hatch and I at last would understand (19.39).
In this really cool simile, Leo compares the way you typically receive knowledge (through you ears) to how you get wisdom from Archie (through little eggs that enter your skin and hatch at a later date). Has someone ever told you something that made absolutely no sense to you till much later?
Quote 32
"He says it all boils down to this—if I'm translating correctly: Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others'?
The Señor says everything will follow from that."
I wasn't sure I understood the Señor any more than I understood Archie half the time, but I said nothing, and I went home (19.52).
This is a great example of how good a teacher Archie really is. He has Leo actually thinking (at least momentarily) that the cactus and Archie are two separate people. Hilarious. Of course the Señor is hard to understand; he's a cactus, for Pete's sake. The thing can't actually talk. But in the comedy of the moment it's a reminder that the right question can be so very important in learning.
Quote 33
In bed that night, as the moonlight reached high tide under my chin, I realized that in fact I understood the question perfectly. I just didn't want to answer it (19.52).
Sometimes, we're our own best teachers. Leo spends some quiet time in the moonlight (thanks again, nature), and comes to his own realization about his Stargirl situation. Of course, he wouldn't have gotten to this moment if it weren't for Archie and Señor Saguaro.
Quote 34
She taught me to revel. She taught me to wonder. She taught me to laugh (20.8).
Stargirl is a teacher to Leo on several levels. She doesn't bring him facts to learn, but she teaches him how to live more fully. We wish we all had Stargirls in our lives.
Quote 35
She saw things. I had not known there was so much to see.
She was forever tugging my arm and saying, "Look!"
I would look around, seeing nothing. "Where?"
She would point. "There."
In the beginning I still could not see. She might be pointing to a doorway, or a person, or the sky. But such things were so common to my eyes, so undistinguished, that they would register as "nothing." I walked in a gray world of nothings (20.9-13)
Stargirl teaches Leo to "see" the interesting things around him as if he were a visitor to a new land. This takes him out of a "gray world of nothings" and into a colorful, vibrant world of infinite interest.
Quote 36
"This is… unbelievable. Files. On people. Like she was a spy."
Archie nodded, smiling. "A lovely treason, hm?"
I could not speak. He led me out into the dazzling light (31.44-46).
In this instance, like in so many others, Archie takes Leo into the "light." In other words, while Stargirl leads Leo from "a gray world of nothings" into a world of color and wonder, Archie leads Leo from the darkness of his own ignorance into the light of knowledge and truth. Now there's a happy ending.