Characters can come in a variety of types, and teachers often like to identify characters as round, flat, dynamic, and/or static. Static characters are characters that do not change over the course of the story; they essentially remain unaffected by the events that occur around them. For this reason, static characters tend not to be the protagonist of the story, as a protagonist often experiences personal growth. Static characters are sometimes perceived negatively because they don't grow over the course of the story (and they tend to be the bad guys), but this certainly isn't always true. Popular characters like James Bond and Sherlock Holmes are static characters—they start out talented and clever, and they stay that way.

In Jerry Spinelli's book Stargirl, one example of a static character is Hillari Kimble. She is mean at the beginning of the story, she's mean throughout the story, and she's unbelievably mean at the end of the story when she hurts Stargirl, the one person who has brought fantastic changes to Mica High.

In chapter 2, readers see Hillari telling other students that Stargirl is "not real"—in other words, Hillari is trying to convince her peers that Stargirl's persona is fake and an act. Fortunately for Stargirl, many students quickly move past her quirkiness and come to appreciate her genuine love of life. Hillari, however, never makes that change. If anything, her resentment toward Stargirl only seems to grow, even though Stargirl is nothing but kind to her. She remains static in her dislike of Stargirl, even going so far as to take off her shoe to smash a cookie that Stargirl gives her. At the end of the story, Hillari slaps Stargirl at the school dance.

Hillari is a great example of a fairly major static character, as static characters are relegated to more minor roles. A good example of a minor static character in Stargirl is Archie, who remains the neighborhood old wise man throughout the story.