The main settings of the story are Mica High School in Arizona and the surrounding desert area. The story takes place in the past tense and follows Leo Borlock's perspective. The central character is Stargirl Caraway, who is unique, friendly, and unconcerned with what others think of her eccentric style and behavior. The main conflict arises from Hillari Kimble's jealousy of Stargirl's popularity and individuality, leading Hillari to turn the school against Stargirl through manipulation. This causes Stargirl great distress until she leaves Mica High for good.

1. “ L i t e r a r y E l e m e n t s Power Point” Stargirl By : Elizabeth Forbes Bell One 2/20/08

2. Main Setting Setting: The place and time period where the story takes place. The most important setting in Stargirl is at Mica High School because that’s where Leo Borlock meets Stargirl Caraway. Mica Area High School is in Arizona, near a desert, where all the other settings happen to branch off of. MHS is where all the drama in Stargirl’s life takes place. This is where the Hillari Kimble scandal began, where all the people in MHS began to show their true colors, where they all began to ignore Stargirl for being herself. This is where it all takes place. This whole story takes place in past tense, and Leo tells the story.

3. Stargirl Character: a person or object represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story). Stargirl is the main character in this story. Everyone tries to put a label on her, but they never get passed weird, strange, or goofy. She always left them puzzled, and questioning if she was real or not. She’s different, she’s friendly, and she doesn’t let anyone get to her. She acts like herself. -“We wanted to define her, to wrap her up as we did each other, but we could not seem to get past “weird” and “strange” and “goofy.” Her ways always knocked us off balance. A single word seemed to hover in the cloudless sky over the school: HUH?” (Page 11) -“On the second day she wore bright-red baggy shorts with a bib and shoulder straps – overall shorts. Her sandy hair was pulled back into twin plaited pigtails, each tied with a bright-red ribbon. A rouge smudge appled each cheek, and she had even dabbed some oversized freckles on her face. She looked like Heidi. Or Bo Peep.” (Page 8) I chose these quotes because they describe Stargirl’s character, and her looks. It shows that she’s not afraid to be different.

4. Leo Borlock Leo Borlock is sort of the narrator. He tells the story in past tense. He’s sixteen, and in love. “…we all wore the same clothes, talked the same way, at the same food, listened to the same music.” (Page 10) “I felt a faint tug on my string. Far below, Kevin was calling, “You’re in love, dude!”’ (Page 85) I chose these quotes because they described how Leo sort of looked, and how he felt about Stargirl.

5. Archibald Hapwood Brubaker Archibald Hapwood Brubaker was an archeologist. He’s very wise and Leo can always turn to him for advice. He knows a lot about life, and all kids like him. “He stared at Kevin. “On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is us more then we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were.” (Page 32) This quote shows that Archie is very intelligent and he almost always has an answer for people’s questions.

6. Plot One – Rising Action Plot: what takes place in a story. The first plot I chose was the one from the Hot Seat episode, starring Stargirl. Everyone turned against her, and after that incident, nobody spoke to her. “The jurors laughed. They were a mob. Hands grabbed at the mike. Kevin looked anxiously at me. I could do nothing. With all the buttons and switches at my command, I was helpless to change anything on the other side of the glass. “Why can’t you be normal?” “Why do you wanna be so different?” “Yeah– is something wrong with us, you gotta be so different?” “Why don’t you wear make-up?” They were all standing now, jabbing, jutting, shouting, whether they had the mike or not.” (Page 67) This quote shows how they don’t like Stargirl. They don’t like the fact that she wants to be different. This leads to other problems later in the book.

7. Plot Two - Climax “ We were walking side by side. That’s when I noticed. No one spoke to us. No one nodded to us. No one smiled at us. No one looked at us. A crowded stairway, and no shoulder, no sleeve brushed us.” “Mostly what I noticed were the eyes. Faces turned up from the step below, but the eyes never connected with us. They went right through us as if they were gamma rays.” (Page 96) I chose this quote because this is what started the whole shunning. This is what caused Leo to make the mistake of trying to change Stargirl, and Stargirl to change to Susan.

8. Plot Three - Resolution “ I did not see her for the rest of the weekend. By Monday she was Stargirl again. Floor-length skirt. Ribbons in her hair. Just like that.” (Page 161) This quote shows that Stargirl stopped attempting to be Susan, stopped attempting to be popular, and just started being herself again. She realized no matter how much she tried to change herself, the shunning would never stop until they all got a grip and learned to accept her. After that, she was gone forever.

9. Conflict The main conflict in this story is probably between Hillari Kimble and Stargirl Caraway. Hillari doesn’t like the fact that Stargirl is trying to be different. Hillari used to rule the school and now she’s nothing more then every other girl. She doesn’t like that. She does everything she can to get Stargirl to leave so she can be popular again.

10. Solution Stargirl gave up being different once. After a while, Leo and Stargirl realized the shunning would never stop, no mater what Stargirl tried. At the end, everyone stops shunning Stargirl and Leo, besides Hillari. Stargirl leaves the school after Hillari slaps her at the Ocotillo Ball. Stargirl forgives Hillari for all the devious things she did, even after she slapped her. After everyone graduated, the school changed. It was now diversified. It even had a ‘Sunflowers’ club. Leo never went to the reunions, but he got updates from Archie. He always wonders what could have been.

11. Theme One Theme – Main idea or lesson learned. No names or places. No quote Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

12. Theme Two What goes around comes around.

13. Theme Three Treat others like you’d want to be treated.

14. Mood One Mood: What is created in words to have a reader feel a certain feeling “The episode that became known as Hillari’s Hoax took place in her sophomore year, when she tried out for cheerleading. Her face and her and figure were right enough, and surely she had the mouth ---- she made the squad easily. And then she stunned everyone by turning it down. She said she wanted to prove that she could do it. She said she had no intention of yammering and bouncing in front of empty bleachers (which was usually the case). And anyway, she hated sports.” (Page 19) This quote shows that Hillari is jealous of the fact that Stargirl is more popular then her, so she decided to go out and prove to the school that she could do everything like Stargirl could.

15. Mood Two “ Don’t, Hillari!” Suddenly Hillari dropped it. Someone screamed, but the rat fell only to the floor at Hillari’s feet. She sent Stargirl a final sneer and left.” (Page 37) This quote shows the hatred that Hillari feels towards Stargirl, she figured by pretending to drop Cinnamon, she could get Stargirl to stop trying to be different and ruining her popularity.

16. Mood Three “ When I read about things like these I wonder, Is she there? I wonder what she calls herself now. I wonder if she’s lost her freckles. I wonder if I’ll ever get another chance. I wonder, but I don’t despair.” (Page 186) This shows that Leo misses Stargirl, he wonders about her. He isn’t sad, but he’s lonely.