Hope In The Stars: How Stars Throughout Lifelong Obstacles

Gavin Petitti

Mr. Bracksieck

English 10 ACP- Period 3

October 19, 2015

Hope in the Stars: How Stars Assist Characters Throughout Lifelong Obstacles In every novel, there is a message, or theme in which the author demonstrates throughout their novel. In Local Girls, Alice Hoffman’s use of stars in the novel demonstrates the main idea of fate and creates a sense of hope in numerous situations. She shows how Gretel copes and deals with her commonly negative fate, therefore engaging the reader on the progression of life in Gretel.

Stars in Local Girls is a reoccurring symbol throughout the novel, which works in relation to Gretel’s maturation with each new problem that comes before her. In the beginning of the novel, Gretel endures several things

Gretel’s childhood has been deprived of the normal, untroubled way of life for a person of young age. She has experienced a wicked divorce in her family, and also Margot, whom Gretel thinks of as almost a second mother, is single due to a previous divorce. Despite that, the later portion of the novel brings times of acceptance, and eventually happiness. In “The Boy Who Wrestled with Angels,” Gretel’s brother Jason has gone from a potential Harvard student to a man controlled by drugs, and unwilling to stop until he temporarily satisfies the sulfur “monster” raging inside of him. On his deathbed, Jason thinks to himself, “He’d thought he was lost, but now he recognized that eternity was all around him, like salt from a shaker or stars in the sky” (Hoffman 144). This of course, is Jason’s final thoughts before he passes, however he feels a sense of relief as he accepts his fate and will rest in eternity like stars in the sky. Hope here is useless for life, but is key for what fuels him towards Heaven on his transition from life to death. This is supported when, “...he could see farther than he’d ever imagined possible” (Hoffman 144). Jason wasn’t literally seeing with his eyes, but with his everlasting soul in Heaven. A second example of hope through the symbol of stars is in “Still Among the Living,” where Gretel rediscovers happiness for the first time in forever on her trip to Florida, visiting Margot and her