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Chapter 12: The Dinner
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Flipped, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Perception vs. Reality
Family and Identity
First Love
Integrity and Growth
Summary
Analysis
After the dinner, Bryce notices Juli being uncharacteristically polite to him at school, which makes him uneasy. He gets roped into the school’s yearly “basket boy” auction, where boys pack lunches and get bid on by students, teachers, or parents, who then eat the lunch together in the cafeteria afterward. Garrett tells him that Shelly, Miranda, and Jenny are already in a bidding war for him. Shelly and Miranda are the popular girls, while Jenny—cruelly nicknamed “Jumbo Jenny”—decidedly isn’t. To play it safe, Bryce spends the week sucking up to Shelly and Miranda, hoping one of them will outbid Jenny.
Juli’s cordiality toward Bryce makes him uneasy because it’s so different from how she normally behaves around him—if she were outright ignoring him because she was mad, or if she were invading his personal space as she’s done for the last six years, he would understand, but this is something else entirely. His attempt to keep the unpopular Jenny from winning his basket suggests that he’s slipping back into old, superficial habits, retreating into familiar territory because his shifting dynamic with Juli has thrown him for a loop and left him completely unmoored.
Active
Themes
At the auction, Juli surprises Bryce by bidding on Jon Trulock, the boy on stage just before him. Stung, Bryce becomes preoccupied, wondering if she’s moved on and likes Jon now. When his turn comes, Shelly, Miranda, and Jenny battle over his basket until Shelly and Miranda team up, paying a record $122.50 to win him. At lunch, though, all they want to talk about is hair, tanning, and vacations. Their cruel, mean-girl jokes about Jenny also leave Bryce feeling uncomfortable.
Shelly and Miranda, who once represented the pinnacle of popularity, now seem vapid to Bryce. Their jokes about Jenny echo the casual meanness he has long tolerated from Garrett and even his father, making Bryce’s discomfort extra heavy in this moment. On top of all this, Bryce must also deal with the possibility that Juli now likes someone else, and his preoccupation suggests that he may be jealous of Jon.
Active
Themes
Across the room, Bryce sees Juli laughing at something Jon says, and something inside of him finally snaps. He lashes out at Shelly and Miranda, prompting them to turn on each other in a full-blown physical, hair-pulling food fight. In the chaos, Bryce crosses the room, takes Juli’s hand, and asks her whether she likes Jon. Embarrassed, she says no—but when Bryce tries to kiss her, she dodges his advances and bolts. She avoids him the rest of the day. Garrett mocks him for crushing on Juli, but Bryce tells him to back off—if this is Garrett’s idea of friendship, Bryce is officially done with him.
Active
Themes
Bryce knows for sure now: he likes Juli. He goes to her house after school, obsessively ringing the doorbell, but Mrs. Baker tells him Juli doesn’t want to see him and advises him to give her a little time. Bryce then confides in Chet, who is clearly thrilled with the recent turn of events. He warns his grandson that there’s no going back now. That night, Bryce berates himself for taking so long to see Juli for the interesting, wonderful person she really is, and he resolves to prove to her just much he’s changed.
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