51 pages • 1 hour read
Ann BrasharesSisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Lena accompanies Bapi Kaligaris to the hospital, where he receives stitches on his cheek. Lena notices a bloodstain on the pants and feels guilty for allowing her grandparents to think that Kostos assaulted her. She vows to tell them the truth soon. Lena sends Tibby the pants along with a letter explaining what happened with Kostos.
Bridget writes to Lena, reflecting on her behavior at the scrimmage. She knows she overdid it but says that she can’t control her hormones around Eric.
Bailey shows up at Tibby’s house and begs to help with her documentary. She asks if she can hold Mimi, which pleases Tibby—Bailey is the first person to take in interest in Mimi since Tibby was a kid. Reluctantly, Tibby agrees to let her work on the film. The following day, Bailey shows up again to tell Tibby she’s identified a new subject, Brian McBrian, a teenage boy who holds high scores on several arcade games at the nearby 7-Eleven.
Alone in the kitchen, Carmen sees Krista’s algebra homework lying unfinished on the table. She picks it up and finishes it with ease. Paul catches her in the act but doesn’t say anything. The following morning Krista demands to know who did her homework, but Paul stays quiet. Paul leaves to visit someone, and Krista and Al are cagey about where he’s going. Later, Al tells Carmen that Paul is visiting his father in a rehab facility. Krista chooses not to visit, finding it too painful. Angrily, Carmen says, “you can’t just abandon your family” (94).
Chapter 12 Summary
Tibby and Bailey head to 7-Eleven to meet Brian McBrian. Tibby instantly identifies him as “a caricature of a caricature of a loser” (97). She expects him to be intimidated by her, but he is self-assured and calm. Bailey sets up the film equipment, and they record Brian as he plays the game Dragon Master. To her own surprise, Tibby finds herself interested in the gameplay. When her camera dies, she and Bailey stay to watch Brian finish the game.
Bridget shows up to another run led by Eric. He asks about her showy performance in the scrimmage, and she admits that she was showing off for him. She boldly tells him that she wants him, but Eric tells her it can’t happen—she is too young, and relationships between coaches and campers are off limits. Bridget says she doesn’t care about the rules.
In the wake of the fight, Lena feels extra awkward at breakfast with Bapi. She tries to tell him what really happened but loses her nerve. Instead, she goes out for a walk, hoping to see Kostos, but he is nowhere to be found.
Chapter 13 Summary
Carmen attends a dress fitting with Lydia and Krista. Carmen thinks that Lydia looks ridiculous in her dress, and is uncomfortable being fitted next to “sweet, miniature, pale” (105) Krista. The dressmaker makes several insulting comments about Carmen’s body, causing her to storm out in a fury. On her way out, Paul tells her that she antagonizes people.
At Wallman’s, Bailey compliments Tibby on the pants. Tibby tells her the story of the conception of the pants and a bit about each of her friends. Bailey picks up on the fact that Tibby worries about Bridget. She asks if Bridget’s mom was sick before her death, and Tibby responds that she suffered from depression. Bailey and Tibby head to the local mall to meet a woman named Margaret. Margaret has worked at the movie theater for decades and seen countless films. Bailey asks if they can watch a movie with her. Noticing Margaret’s excitement, Tibby wonders how many movies Margaret has watched alone.
In Baja, Bridget can’t sleep. She recalls something her psychiatrist wrote about her in the wake of her mother’s death, calling her “single-minded to the point of recklessness” (108). Bridget sneaks into Eric’s cabin, waking him up from his sleep. He follows her outside, where she presses herself close to him and starts to touch him. Eric relents at first, but then pushes her away. He begs her not to come back, telling her he can’t handle it. Bridget interprets this as “an invitation” (110).
Chapter 14 Summary
Tibby interviews Bailey for the documentary. Bailey insists on wearing the traveling pants and encourages Tibby to ask her anything. Tibby asks what she is afraid of, and Bailey says she is afraid of not having enough time, and of the “quick judgements and mistakes” (112) that people make.
Tibby mails the pants to Carmen, along with a letter saying that she is unsure yet what the pants mean to her.
In Oia, the feud between the Dounas and the Kaligaris families deepen—both families are now ignoring one another. Lena makes a fleeting attempt to clarify the misunderstanding but lets herself be easily shut down by her grandmother. Instead, she tells Effie the truth in private. Effie says that she must set the record straight before Kostos does it for her.
Bridget calls Tibby, but Tibby isn’t home.
Carmen wears the pants to dinner, steeling herself to confront Lydia, but finds everyone acting like nothing is wrong. When Carmen says that she had a terrible day, they ignore her. Feeling invisible, she runs out of the house.
Chapter 15 Summary
Carmen walks to a nearby creek, where she throws a heavy rock into the water. After a while, she heads back toward the house, wondering whether her father is out looking for her. As she approaches the door, she spots the family sitting down to dinner without her. Livid, Carmen throws a rock through the window and runs away. She sits by the creek for hours, until her anger fades and she regrets her actions. Once everyone is asleep, Carmen sneaks back into the house, packs up her things, and boards a bus back to Maryland. There, she mails the traveling pants to Bridget, with a note saying that she hopes they bring “good sense” (120).
Lena picks up a bag of pastries and walks to the Dounas family forge. She contemplates Kostos’s relationship with his grandfather and feels sad that his own dreams must be at odds with his grandfather’s desire for Kostos to take over the family business. Lena waits for Kostos in the yard, but when he finally walks past, he ignores her.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
As the novel nears its climax, the challenges faced by each girl escalate. Carmen’s anger at her stepfamily grows as she feels increasingly ignored. Even finding out that Paul and Krista’s father abuses alcohol doesn’t evoke sympathy; instead, she interprets Krista’s decision to go no-contact as “abandoning [her] family,” (94), an uncharitable interpretation suggested to be rooted in Carmen’s fear that her own father is abandoning her. Though Carmen’s anger at Lydia has seemed irrational in previous chapters, here Brashares lends validity to her emotions: The dressmaker makes several backhanded comments about Carmen’s appearance, and no one comes to her defense. Brashares further develops The Complexity of Familial Relationships. The newfound stepfamily relationship is still very rocky, and no one on either side seems to understand how to interact or cope with the fragile situation. Carmen needs her father to reaffirm that he loves and cares for her, but his strategy of ignoring the rising tension to make her feel included backfires, causing her to feel more alone than ever.
Carmen’s outburst at the dressmaker’s shop is a desperate bid for someone to notice and care about her feelings, but even this is ignored as her family is determined to pretend that everything is fine. Seeing her father eating dinner without her presumably confirms Carmen’s worst fear: that she doesn’t and will never fit into his new family. When she heaves a rock through the kitchen window, she is literally shattering the happy façade they have created. Once again, Carmen regrets her actions after she reflects on them. She knows her weaknesses well, but that knowledge doesn’t stop her from acting impulsively in moments of heightened emotion.
Tibby and Bailey’s interaction with Brian demonstrates the differences in how they view the world. Tibby instantly judges Brian as a loser based on his looks and expects him to be intimidated by her. Meanwhile, Bailey views his quirks as part of what make him an interesting person. After interviewing Brian, Tibby learns a lesson about the folly of superficial judgements. To her own surprise, she likes watching him play Dragon Master, even after the camera dies. Their interaction has turned from an opportunity for Tibby to mock someone she views as beneath her into a moment of genuine connection. Bailey’s curious, compassionate approach to the world is starting to change Tibby’s perspective.
Death emerges as a prominent motif in these chapters. Apart from Bridget, none of the characters have experienced a major loss, and so have not had to consider the reality of death and mortality. Though Bailey always presents optimism, her comment that she is afraid of “not having enough time” (112) reminds Tibby, and readers, that she is seriously ill. It’s unclear how much time she does have left, and the fact of her illness looms in the background of her lighthearted interactions with Tibby. Bailey’s heightened awareness of the transience of life influences her determination to truly get to know people and be known in turn, while Tibby, who takes her life and health for granted, is historically quick to dismiss people.
In Chapter 13, Tibby says that Bridget’s mother died after suffering from “bad depression,” implying the manner of her death to be suicide. This knowledge adds complexity to Bridget’s character. Bridget’s reflection on her interactions with her psychiatrist in the wake of her mother’s death suggest that her high-energy personality may have developed partially to cope with her grief and trauma. Like Carmen, Bridget demonstrates keen self-awareness, but can’t apply it in decisive moments. Eric again fails to set boundaries, allowing Bridget to touch him before half-heartedly telling her to stop. Bridget’s interpretation of his words as “an invitation” show that she is not at all deterred and will continue to pursue him.
The pants remain an important symbol in the narrative. Carmen, Bridget, Lena, and Tibby need each other more than ever. In absence of their friends’ physical presence, they don the pants before decisive moments. The true magic of the pants is that they symbolize the girls’ bond and commitment to one another. Wearing them reminds each girl of their friends’ love, and that gives them a needed dose of courage during decisive moments.
