54 pages • 1 hour read
Stella by Starlight
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Character Analysis
Stella (Estelle Mills)
Stella Mills is the 11-year-old protagonist. While the novel occasionally departs into an omniscient viewpoint, it is primarily told in third person point-of-view limited to Stella’s observations and thoughts, with brief, interspersed chapters that either include or are entirely comprised of Stella’s own first-person writing. Stella has black hair and compares her skin to the “color of rum.” Her home is a small house near Kilkenny Pond; she lives with her parents and eight-year-old brother JoJo.
Stella is a nickname for Estelle; both Estelle and Stella derive from Latin for star. Stella does not indicate that she knows the derivation of her name, but she says her name “reminds [her] of the stars” (66). Drawn to the nighttime, Stella uses post-bedtime solitude and the openness of the dark outdoors to welcome inspiration for writing and thinking. Key events in Stella’s story happen “by starlight” as well, including the opening scene (the cross-burning) and climax (saving Paulette). Paradoxically, Stella discovers the truth about herself and others in the dark.
Stella is a witness to and messenger of the story’s opening scene and inciting incident, in which she sees a “practice” cross-burning by local members of the Ku Klux Klan. Seeing a man she thinks she recognizes establishes an immediate internal conflict for Stella, while the general fear and intimidation cast by the KKK’s action set up an external conflict that afflicts all of Stella’s close-knit community. Stella continues as an observer or group participant through the first few events of the rising action, such as her day at school and Spoon Man’s visit.
Gradually, however, Stella accepts more important, more active roles in the major rising action events: supporting Papa’s registering for and voting in the presidential election, the Spencer fire, finding Hazel, helping Tony Hawkins, and saving Mama from the snakebite. Whereas Stella only watched the events at Kilkenny Pond in the opening scene, in the book’s climactic scene, Stella is directly involved and in fact steers the action as she saves Paulette Packard from drowning in the pond. Irony plays heavily in this climax, as it is Paulette’s father Dr. Packard who is the source of almost all of Stella’s fears and the community’s strife.
Stella’s dynamic coming-of-age parallels her increase in active participation in the novel’s events. She matures as a character in three ways: as a writer, as a protector, and as a contributor. First, at the novel’s start, Stella’s writing is hesitant; writing assignments fill her with frustration. With continued practice and an increasing desire to find and discuss truth, her words come more confidently, and she shows pride in her own closing composition.
Next, Stella shows a developing natural inclination to protect and help others. In the opening scene she keeps JoJo safe by getting him home. She proceeds to help others in situations of escalating danger as the novel progresses: finding Hazel Spencer near the house fire, fetching help for Tony Hawkins when he is attacked, saving Mama with first aid and quick thinking from the snakebite, and rescuing Paulette Packard from the pond. Finally, Stella comes-of-age as a more active contributor within her family and community. She fusses over chores early in the novel but takes on the cooking and cleaning when Mama suffers the snakebite. At school, she rises to the position of assistant director for the Christmas pageant. She also comes to the mature realization that a public accusation of Dr. Packard’s Klan activities would not help her community of families and neighbors, prioritizing their safety.
Mama (Georgia Mills)
Stella’s mother is a strong, central, positive influence in Stella’s life. She provides a structured, well-run household in which everyone has responsibilities. Although their parents expect Stella and JoJo to follow rules, Mama understands that Stella needs freedom to sit outside at night and explore thoughts through writing. Mama is supportive and encouraging of Stella’s desire to improve her writing skills and does not reprimand Stella for struggling to produce Mrs. Grayson’s assignment. Mama initially is upset at the thought of Papa voting due to the potential danger for him and the family, but when Papa asks her to go with him on voting day, she agrees. Mama is a Mentor character archetype who teaches Stella about natural remedies in the woods and reassures Stella that someday she, Stella, will be capable of running a household and tending to those who are ill or injured. When Mama is in danger of dying from the snakebite, Papa, Stella, and JoJo are afraid of losing her, and as she recovers, Stella’s gratitude shows in her writing.
Papa (Josiah Mills)
Papa is a quiet, unassuming leader in his community and a strong father to Stella and JoJo. He gathers the neighbors on the night of the cross-burning and he is the first to voice the desire to vote. He is quick to send Stella for Dr. Hawkins when JoJo’s illness worsens, and without a thought to his pride, he sends Stella to Dr. Packard when Mama suffers the snakebite. Stella reveals in one of her written practice compositions that Papa was eager to enlist in the army, but those in charge dismissed him. The reader can infer that many experiences like that over the course of Papa’s life drive him to vote: “Sometimes I just get tired of bowin’ down and givin’ up, you know?” (77) Though typically quiet, Papa occasionally reveals passionate emotions: “I live in this country and I ain’t no slave, and dagummit, I oughta be allowed to vote!” (76). Papa is also a hard worker, shown when he takes a second job near the story’s end to better support his family.
Tony (Anthony) Hawkins
Tony Hawkins is the 11-year-old son of Dr. Hawkins and a boy in Stella’s class. He and Stella sit together during the nighttime meeting after the cross burning, walk in a group together to school, and walk together to town when JoJo needs medicine. Tony is cheerful and exuberant, responding consistently to Stella with questions and comments that show care and interest. Tony trusts Stella with his secret about running the track at the white school for nighttime practice, to which she responds with a parallel secret about staying up at night writing. Tony represents the Ally character archetype because he demonstrates care and trust toward Stella. Tony is kindhearted, honest, and undeserving of the terrible treatment he receives from Max Smitherman and Johnny Ray Johnson. After that physical attack, Stella mentions in a composition that Tony is not so cheerful anymore.
Dr. Packard
The strongest antagonist and Shadow character archetype in the novel, Dr. Packard is the “white doctor” who leads the local group of Ku Klux Klan members in Bumblebee. The author depicts him as prideful and ostentatious with equipage on his horse that “sparkles;” he has the means to give his daughter Paulette five dollars for the candy store. Dr. Packard’s hate shows most strongly when Stella implores him to help after Mama suffers a snakebite. He refuses to treat Mama despite Stella’s emotional attempt to appeal to his sense of love for family, and in fact insults Mama in his refusal: “Only stupid people let snakes bite them” (285). Paulette tells Stella after Stella rescues her from the pond that her father showed hatred toward African Americans “all [her] life,” and that he also physically abuses his wife, Paulette’s mother. Stella realizes that Dr. Packard’s hatred for others is not something that she can change. Dr. Packard is a static character whose traits do not vary over the course of the book.
Paulette Packard
Paulette is Dr. Packard’s daughter. She is a static character in that she does not change in traits and personality; Stella, however, learns a great deal about Paulette. After their brief scenes together, Stella’s opinion of Paulette changes. Initially Paulette appears to Stella as a privileged girl who brings a pocketbook to Mountain View School and wears clothing that is “clearly store-bought.” After Stella rescues Paulette from the pond, Stella learns that Paulette struggles with her father’s hatred toward others, his role in the KKK, and his inattentiveness to her (Paulette). Paulette symbolically represents Stella’s cause for the difficult-to-pinpoint bitterness she must “button up” at the novel’s beginning, as well as the acceptance Stella learns at the end that inequality and racism won’t be solved by simply “telling on” Dr. Packard.
Spoon Man (Terence Oglethorpe)
Spoon Man visits Bumblebee as a traveling salesman of fabric, trinkets, and other wares. He also brings news and stories. Mama decides on a spontaneous potluck supper for all the neighbors upon his arrival, and everyone brings a dish and helps set up chairs and tables for food and fellowship. Spoon Man serves as a Trickster archetype. He arrives unannounced, dressed in bright, flowered, and patchwork clothing. He initiates jokes and cajoles some neighbors into buying his products; he says he’ll attend church service in the morning, but Stella knows he’ll slip out long before the service ends to move on to another town. He broaches the subject of the Klan’s activities in Bumblebee and connects them to the general sense of unhappiness and desire for change under President Hoover, which prompts Papa to state publicly that he (Papa) would like to vote. Spoon Man’s eagle story inspires Stella to write about flying and serves as an example of the repeated motif of rising above circumstances in the novel.
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