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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stargirl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Individuality and Conformity
Human Nature
Seeing, Visibility, and Invisibility
Friendship, Love, and Social Pressure
Summary
Analysis
When Leo Borlock was little, he admired his uncle Pete’s porcupine necktie. When Leo was 12, his family moved from Pennsylvania to Mica, Arizona. When Uncle Pete said goodbye, he gave Leo the necktie. Leo loved it so much that he decided to start a collection of porcupine neckties. Two years later, however, he still hadn’t found another.
From the first introduction of Leo, there is a whiff of individuality about him: a porcupine necktie, much less a collection of them, is rather unconventional. This detail suggests that Leo has an eye for the unusual. Likewise, his newcomer status to Mica will give him a broader perspective on things there.
Themes
On Leo’s 14th birthday, the local newspaper ran a small feature about him. The article mentioned that Leo collects porcupine neckties as a hobby. A few days later, Leo comes home from school and finds a wrapped gift in front of his house. Its tag says, “Happy Birthday!”, and it contains a unique porcupine necktie. There is no indication of the package’s sender. Leo asks around and concludes that the origin of the gift is simply a mystery: “it did not occur to me that I was being watched. We were all being watched.”
Someone else sees and appreciates Leo’s eye for the unusual, though it’s not yet apparent who that will be. But “being watched” introduces the theme of being and visibility in the novel. Right now, it has an ambiguous overtone—is the “watcher” benevolent or sinister?
Themes
