Lena Kaligaris

Lena Kaligaris
File:SisterhoodPic-1.jpg (L to R) Carmen (America Ferrera), Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Lena (Alexis Bledel), and Bridget (Blake Lively)
Born	Late August Bethesda, Maryland
Other names	Lenny, Len
Education	RISD College
Occupation	Artist
Spouse(s)	Kostos Dounas (boyfriend) Leo (boyfriend)
Parent(s)	Ariadne "Ari" Kaligaris (mother) Georgios "George" Kaligaris (father)
Family	Effie Kaligaris (sister) Valia Kaligaris (paternal grandmother) Bapi Kaligaris (paternal grandfather)

Lena "Lenny" Kaligaris is a fictional character in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a best-selling series of young adult novels by Ann Brashares. In the 2003 film version of the first book, she is portrayed by Alexis Bledel.

Personality

Lena is a shy, introspective aspiring artist of Greek heritage. Lena is very beautiful, but rather than be overconfident because of this she shies away from others because she is always worried that they only like her for her beauty. Lena considers her biggest weaknesses her inability to love and trust freely (she feels especially guilty that people like her on-again-off-again boyfriend Kostas and best friend Bee who have lost so much in their life can live and love freely when she herself is reluctant to trust others) and her tendency to avoid the real situation because it is difficult to deal with emotionally. Her friend Tibby Rollins adds that "If you asked Lena to pick A or B, she'd always choose C," meaning that Lena has difficulty following her emotions. Rather, she justifies and overthinks everything.

Sister

Lena has an outgoing and slightly trampy younger sister named Effie. She and Effie generally get along, even though they are very different. She does, however, sometimes have disagreements with her younger sister, as Effie sometimes feels like Lena chooses her friends (the Sisterhood) over her own family.

• However, the character of Effie Kaligaris was deleted in the movie made of the first book, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (film).

Mother

Lena's mother Ari is a psychologist of Greek descent. She is very similar to her daughter in that she tends to be closed off and serious. Ari was invovled in a very passionate love affair when she was a young woman, but her lover left for Greece, telling her he'd return and never did, leaving Ari heartbroken. Lena and her mother sometimes have difficulty connecting, but they find emotional support in one another during Lena's break-up, as Ari can relate to her daughter's heartbreak. Ari is described as very ambitious.

Father

Lena's father is equally ambitious. His father wanted him to continue the family restaurant business in Greece, but he left for America to pursue a career in business. He is very old-fashioned and is not at all keen about Lena joining art school because he knows she will be painting nude models. Lena observes that though he puts on a tough "man of the house" exterior, he is actually quite vulnerable and just worried about losing his daughters.

Grandfather

Lena's grandfather "Bapi" is very close with Lena, despite the fact that he doesn't speak English and she speaks only limited Greek. Lena sometimes feels like an outsider amongst her wild and extroverted Greek relatives, but she and Bapi are both more quiet and pensive and he calls her "his girl" because of this. He is her paternal grandfather.

Grandmother

Lena's paternal grandmother Valia is closer in personality to Effie than Lena. Valia is a vivacious and outgoing Greek woman who loves cooking and has an appetite for gossip. She was the one who encouraged Lena's relationship with Kostos. After the death of her husband and subsequent move to America Valia became bitter and disagreeable, quite in contrast to her previous vibrant personality. Though she was still heartbroken, she returned more to her original self upon her return to Greece.

Friends

Lena best friends are Tibby Rollins, Carmen Lowell and Bridget Vreeland. She is especially close to Carmen and often worries about Bridget's recklessness.

Plotlines

In the first book in the series, she meets Kostos when she goes to Santorini, Greece, to visit her grandparents for the first time. At first she dislikes him, but later she starts to fall in love with him, and he with her. Brashares based Lena on the myth of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt who, when spotted bathing by a suitor, turned the young man into a stag.[1]

In the second book we learn that several months after she got together with Kostos she broke up with him because she didn't like her happiness being so dependent on another person. This book centers on her admitting her feelings for Kostos. Toward the end of the book he eventually visits her and the two spend a happy week together; Kostos then leaves with nothing but cryptic warnings about his obligations in Greece. Later, Bapi dies. At his funeral in Greece Lena confronts Kostos and he tells her that one of the girls he dated in an attempt to get over Lena is pregnant, and he has married her so that she would not have to raise the child alone. At the end of the book, Lena goes out to dinner with Carmen where she meets Carmen's stepbrother Paul. The sparks between them were spectacular, and the book ends with Carmen hoping that Lena won't be too stupid to let her relationship difficulties with Kostos get in the way of her going after a great guy like Paul.

The third book describes Lena getting over Kostos. She goes to an art class, but when her father learns that they are painting nude models he withdraws his funding for both the class and her tuition to an art university. Lena befriends her teacher Annik who urges Lena to take a stand for her rights and raise the money for herself. Annik is in a wheelchair and as practice for her painting asks Lena to paint a portrait of her. Lena, feeling awkward, neglects to paint Annik's wheelchair. Annik tells her that in order to be a real artist she must "draw the chair" a metaphor which Lena later uses in her life to encourage her to confront the pain in her life and the lives of her friends and families instead of shying from it. Using her "draw the chair" philosophy, Lena reaches some closure with her father, sister and bitter grandmother (who is staying with the family in the States due to the death of Bapi the previous summer.) It also encourages her to acknowledge the effect her break-up with Kostos had on her and encourages her to finally consider a relationship with Paul.

In the fourth book Lena once again goes to a summer art class where she meets a handsome and talented young man named Leo. The two fall in love and eventually sleep together (Lena's first time, as she was a virgin prior). However, after they have sex Lena is flooded with emotion and realizes that she was in fact disappointed that her first time wasn't with Kostos. Meanwhile, Kostos visits Lena and tells her that he is divorcing the mother of his child as she claims to have had a miscarriage (though he is suspicious that she made up her pregnancy in the first place to get him to propose to her). Annoyed that things were finally going her way romantically before Kostos came and mixed up her feelings, Lena visits him in his motel and yells at him for expecting her to not have gotten over him. When she visits Greece with the rest of the sisterhood later in the book she meets up with Kostos again. They talk over their relationship and he finally kisses her, before cryptically telling her "Someday" in Greek and leaving for London for school.