Sisters

Nonfiction | Graphic Memoir | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-59

Pages 60-98

Pages 99-151

Pages 152-197

Key Figures

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Pages 99-151Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 99-111 Summary

At the pit stop, Raina decides to buy batteries for her Walkman instead of snacks for the rest of the journey. She is so distracted by the thought of being able to put her headphones on that she forgets to use the bathroom. She ends up needing to go on the side of the road instead, which irritates Mom, who didn’t want to stop again. Along the drive, scenes of the Rocky Mountains fill the panels and Raina is amazed at the natural beauty of Colorado. When Amara’s ears become pressurized with the rise in altitude, she spends several minutes screaming in pain. This is followed by Will singing to himself, and Mom’s facial expressions becoming increasingly severe and agitated. She yells at Will to be quiet, telling him, “You’re just like your father!!!” (109), but this doesn’t phase Will, who is only excited to see his dad. In a flashback, Will is a baby, watching baseball with Dad. As Dad yells in celebration of a home run, Mom is seen in the kitchen becoming irritated. She mentions to Raina how Dad’s lack of work is causing her stress.

Pages 112-127 Summary

A splash page shows the dim lights of a town in the distance. When the family pulls in, it is pitch black as they arrive at what seems like a massive house that takes up the entire frame. Mom hugs her sister, and Raina asks about her cousin Lindsay, who is at the mall. She is left to hang out with her other cousins with which she has little in common. When Lindsay returns home, she mentions how much Raina has changed and closes herself in her room, leaving Raina feeling disappointed. Later, Lindsay invites Raina to a karaoke party in her bedroom—which is really just Lindsay singing for what seems like hours. Raina falls asleep on Lindsay’s floor, and when she awakes, she goes downstairs to find her sister has taken her pillow.

In another flashback, Dad finally finds work in Silicon Valley. When he brings home a Macintosh computer one day, Amara is the first one to be glued to it. After being shown the Paint program, she takes over and demands that everyone else leave her alone. When that doesn’t work, she puts a blanket over her head and the computer screen so nobody can watch her. Amara spends days in front of the computer and becomes irate when anyone tries to distract her.

Pages 128-151 Summary

Raina wakes up holding her stuffed bear that she used as a makeshift pillow with her cousins sitting in front of her, laughing at her for having it. They make fun of her for being 14. Later, while brushing her teeth, Raina sees Lindsay’s large makeup collection in the bathroom and applies some to her skin. Amara is the first to poke fun at Raina for how she looks. Raina feels like an outcast as none of her cousins seem to remember her or want to spend time with her, and the adults are absorbed in their own world as well. The panels advance through a series of forlorn moments as Raina wonders what to do, and she soon finds herself outside with Amara. She asks Amara if she ever feels like she doesn’t fit in, and Amara replies, “All the time. The difference between you and me is, I don’t care” (137). Raina offers to share her colored pencils, but Amara sees through Raina’s gesture and accuses her of self-pity. A loud “SLAM” (139) follows as Raina goes back inside. That night, she falls asleep thinking about how the sister she wished for seems to hate her.

In a flashback, Raina’s parents tell her they are giving her their room to allow her to have her own space as she grows up. As a way to appease a jealous Amara, they decide to buy her a pet snake. Amara squeals with delight as Raina’s head begins to spin at the thought of it. Amara gets a king snake named Mango, and after three weeks of it never eating, they realize it only eats live mice. Mom insists on taking the snake back, but it gets loose in the car on the way to the pet store. When Raina is picked up and finds out she was riding with a snake, she runs away in terror, her eyes bulging out of her head.

Pages 99-151 Analysis

Although it seems as though the story’s plotline is leading up to a climax at the family reunion, the reunion turns out to be lackluster, disappointing, and more of the usual conflicts. Despite being around many people, Raina ironically feels more isolated and out of place than ever at the reunion. She looked forward to visiting with her cousin Lindsay, remembering how much fun they had at the last reunion, but Lindsay has fully embraced being a teenager and barely remembers Raina. Raina’s other cousins are polite but have little to relate with Raina about. When Raina attempts to connect with Amara over their shared feelings of disconnect from everyone around them, Amara denies the opportunity: “You’re not being nice. You’re just feeling sorry for yourself” (139). Raina is also far more preoccupied with fitting in and places a high importance on social acceptance, and Amara is more motivated to focus on herself and her personal aspirations.

Amara is a socially intuitive person and has a deeper understanding of the members of their family than they themselves do at times. While Raina often shows a lack of self-awareness for how her actions affect others, instead placing most of the blame on Amara, Amara sees the problems in the family as part of a larger issue that nobody is discussing. That night is the night Raina feels most alone on the road trip, as she snuggles with her bear in the darkness. She thinks about how nobody in her family seems to understand or like her, not realizing that Amara only wants her love and attention: “The cousin I wished was my sister barely knows me at all. And the sister I actually have hates me. Although I guess it’s nothing personal… She hates everyone” (140). This scene shows Raina’s selfishness and lack of insight, as she sees her sister’s aggression and emotional distance as a personality flaw, rather than a response to the world around her. This lack of insight is an indication that Raina’s memories and recollection of the events of the road trip are biased and partially borne out of unresolved emotions. To add to the pain of the ordeal, she is teased by her cousins when they see her with her bear the next day. Raina is divided between her attachment to her childhood and her desire to Grow Up, and it is most evident at the reunion when she puts makeup on in a desperate attempt to Connect with her older cousins. Alongside this attachment to her childhood is Raina’s attachment to a life that no longer exists, in which she is the only child, her parents are happy, and their lives are relatively simple. In this state of wishful remembrance, Raina fails to notice the growing distance between her parents.

Each new section of the story begins with a splash page. Some are depictions of road trip nostalgia, such as the diagram of the inside of the van and the various items that each child finds essential for a road trip, or the license plate bingo game. Others are of a familiar scene from Raina’s past, such as sitting beside a stereo and listening to music. Diagrams are also layered throughout the story to help readers visualize the events of the story, such as the family’s road trip on the map, the blueprint of the house after Raina gets her own room, and the Colorado state license plate. Along with helping readers to conceptualize the story, these large illustrations offer readers a small break from dialogue and a chance to employ their spatial awareness. Typography and color also play a major role in depicting mood and plot, such as the use of a large, bolded, stretched out font when the girls hear that Amara will be getting a snake: “WHAT?!” (143), or the use of a yellow filling to denote loud screaming: “CHAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!” (135). Illustrations add the element of symbolism to many pages, such as the use of a skull and knife to symbolize Amara’s anger when Raina distracts her from the computer (further emphasized by her red eyes and fanged teeth), or stars to denote Amara’s confusion at her mother’s severely irritated state. Various angles are used to demonstrate the perspective of the characters, such as the intentional drawing of the mountains to fill up the entire panel and the van drawn miniscule in the corner to indicate the overwhelming size of the landscape.