Building Community

Many of the characters in Love, Stargirl are isolated. Stargirl, for example, has just moved to a new town. She is home-schooled and so she doesn't have a strong community of friends at school and must build one in her neighborhood. At various times in the novel, Stargirl admits to herself, and to Leo, that she is lonely. To combat her own loneliness, Stargirl befriends a motley crew of outcasts and misfits. Alvina is the neighborhood bully, Charlie spends his day in solitary grief, mourning the loss of his wife, Grace. Betty Lou is perhaps the best example of isolation as her condition - agoraphobia - prevents her from even leaving the house to interact with the world. In their own way, each of these characters is miserable in their loneliness: Alvina turns to violence, Stargirl to moping, Betty Lou and Charlie to depression. Had Stargirl not...