In a book that takes its title from the banner that signifies a family member's active military duty, all these characters face the call of war. And their worries go back a generation. Earley weaves his story's strands a bit too tidily when he presents a thwarted romance between Jim's Uncle Zeno and Chrissie's mother, a romance that ended because Zeno didn't enlist to fight in World War I.
Just as riskily, Earley courts excess sentimentality in a strenuously sweet encounter between Jim and Chrissie in an empty house. With mountaintop clouds on cue to supply an air of fantasy, they imagine themselves as the old married couple who once lived in this place. It is a dream meant to carry Jim through the hard times, and perhaps a sequel.
In a display of his own characteristic magic, which is a sure antidote to heavy-handedness, Earley has the two schoolmates choose fantasy names for this role-playing game. Chrissie decides to call herself Hernando. That makes sense with the memory that Hernando comes from one of the history lessons (on Hernando de Soto) through which Chrissie and Jim have been tacitly flirting.
Giving herself an exotic, ethnic name in Aliceville is also Chrissie's defiant way of flaunting her half-Cherokee origins, which arouse the small-mindedness of this small town's population. When Jim awkwardly refers to Chrissie as "half white," she angrily replies, "That depends on whether or not somebody's asking me to mop."
As The Blue Star evokes the economic forces that shape the lives of Aliceville's residents, it shows Chrissie striking a hard bargain. She has promised herself to Bucky because she sees no other way out of stark poverty. Jim is forced to face this when he finds Chrissie living with Bucky's parents. And he collides with even tougher truths when Bucky comes home in a terrible way. In a book that keeps its symbolism strong and succinct, nothing could better signify that childhood is over.
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