Carmen Lowell

Carmen begins and ends the novel, in part because she emerges as the leader of the group, and because she is the deepest thinker of the four girls. She is also the original owner of the Pants, and it is her idea to use it as a common symbol of their friendship. Before any of the others fully realize it, Carmen has already intrinsically understood the powerful force that true friendship offers.

Carmen’s parents are divorced, something that she has always struggled and wrestled with. She was not privy to the reasons that her parents split up, and at the opening of the book, it is clear that once her father left them, he remained out of her life with the exception of big holidays. Carmen is half Puerto Rican, which brings up identity issues for her throughout the novel. Living in two worlds, straddling two...