In “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” by Ann Brashares she develops each character through their tone in their letters and their thoughts. The book is about four different girls who are all best best friends and have to spend the summer apart. As they each write short letters to each other the reader learns more about each character and their new environment by the tone of the letter. Carmen’s tone is the most negative, especially in the middle “‘Fine,’ Carmen said benevolently.
The connotation of benevolently makes the reader think of a kind hearted and loving person which Carmen is with her friends but is the sharp contrast how she acts towards her father. She is super excited to go visit her dad but her plans get ruined when he reveals that he has a new house and family. Carmen who has a short temper then becomes bitter. Her actions are irrational and rude to everyone who that ruined what she wanted this summer. She has a very angry tone towards her father and his new family.
She eventually runs back to her mother’s house where she is still upset and still is rude to any authoritative figure. She runs to her one friend that stayed home and gets into a fight with her because she is not appreciative of her view on the situation. As Carmen takes more time to think she learns to accept the fact that he is remarrying and she became remorseful, her tone changes from angry to guilty. She then returns to the wedding and is accepted into her new family where her tone because grateful for a second chance become part of the family.
Tibby’s tone is negative too, she is sad that all of her friends are traveling and she is stuck behind with no one to talk to. She works at a store where her boss annoys her and she complains about everything in her letters. “Tibby frowned sourly” the connotation is also negative and gives the reader the feeling of sickness or acidic taste which describes Tibby’s attitude. She then meets Bailey a 12 year old with cancer. At first she doesn’t want to hang out with her and her tone is still negative and churlish.
She then discovers that Bailey has leukemia and her tone changes, she becomes more caring and considerate with everyone especially Baily. As she opens up to Bailey she lightens and starts to discover a happier side of herself. Then Baily becomes sicker, Tibby really struggles with this and becomes very depressed her letters are sad and her she doesn’t go visit Baily because she’s in denial. “Are you joking? ‘ Tibby barked. ” the use of the word “barked” emphasizes the sharpness of her voice especially to others.
Carmen then comes to help she gets Tibby out of bed to go visit Bailey and Tibby’s mood changes again. She sees that not everything needs to be going right to be happy, she becomes positive even though she has bad things happening Bridget’s tone at the beginning of the book is very positive, she is super excited to go to her soccer camp in Mexico but she is sad that she won’t be with her friends. When she gets there she sees one coach that she immediately has a crush on. She tries to go for him, and he plays along with her but keeps on reminding her that it isn’t allowed.
Throughout all of this her tone is playful yet focused. When she finally wants to have him commit he turns her down even though he says he wants to yes, breaking her heart. She then becomes depressed and negative, she stops eating and doesn’t get out of bed. She writes letters to Lena, who decides to show up at her camp to cheer her up. She convinces Bridget to face Eric who then explains that he doesn’t like the age difference currently. When she gets back with her friends her tone becomes more positive as she forgets her heartbreak. Lena’s tone is the most positive throughout the book.
She is really sad that her friends are aren’t with her. What she does like is how much she fits in with her “Bapi” her grandfather. She is upset with her grandmother for setting her up with Kostos a family friend in Greece. She really enjoys how quiet it is because she is very shy. “She always held herself in a slightly awkward way… ” show the way Lena isn’t in confident, the use of awkward is showing how uncomfortable and embarrassed she feels in her body. Her tone is a little lonely as she struggle to communicate with the only person she relates to, Bapi.
When Kostos sees her skinny dipping she runs home and tells her grandmother that Kostos was being bad which led her grandmother assuming something that didn’t happen and telling Bapi. Lena not being able what was going on in Greek couldn’t do anything about it. Bapi ended up going over to Kostos house and beating up his grandfather. Lena’s tone then became remorseful as she felt guilty for blaming Kostos for something he didn’t do. As this all happened Lena realized that she actually likes Kostos but being the shy person she was she didn’t want to say anything.
Effie her boy crazed sister convinced her to go talk to him and tell him how she felt. Her tone during this uncertain and nervous, but after she was very cheerful and proud. Each of the girls’ had positive tones and negative tones that developed their character. As bad and good things happened to them their toned changed, their reaction to these different conflicts shaped their character. Carmen who got her heart broken was one of the most affected by her conflict, her response to her conflict showed the reader how her fiery and confident shell could easily be broken, but also be repaired by the ones the loves.
Tibby who lost a new friend also needed someone to be there to help her to deal, she relies on old friends as they return to be her rock in all the things going on. Leena relied on her sister for advice but mostly dealt with it on her own and learned more about herself by just sitting with Bapi. Carmen really just needed someone to help her evaluate why she was angry and at who but she also made a lot of decisions by herself and just needed a long time to think and sort out her own thoughts.
