My Sister's Keeper door Jodi Picoult

NB: Denk erom dat je geen verkorte (abridged) en geen vereenvoudigde versies (simplified/adapted versions) mag lezen!

1. Algemene gegevens
   1. Name author: Jodi Picoult
   2. Title of book: My Sister’s  Keeper
   3. Year of publication: 2004
   4. Number of points: 2
   5. Number of pages: 407

1. Analyse van een aantal aspecten
   1. Summarize in one sentence what the book is about.
      Anna is filing a lawsuit against her parents who are using her as a donor for their other daughter Kate who has leukaemia.

1.      Write a summary in your own words of about 400-600 words.
   Kate has cancer.
   Her parents, Sara and Brian, come up with an idea. They’ll create a perfect genetic match in a petri dish. This perfect genetic match is Anna. Anna becomes, from the moment she’s born, a donor. Therefore, whenever Kate gets hospitalised, Anna gets hospitalised too. This is until Anna decides to sue her parents, for the rights to her own body. This time they want her to donate her kidney to Kate, but she doesn’t want to anymore, and instead wants to be able to live her life normally.
   Kate encourages her to sue their parents, because she doesn’t want to live her life like this anymore either.
   When Anna approaches Campbell, a lawyer, with her case,, he accepts it without charging her. Later on, it is revealed that he is epileptic and he knows what it’s like to not have any control over your own body. The only thing standing in the way of victory is the judge, who doubts that Anna is capable of making decisions for herself. He gets her a guardian ad litem*. Julia and Campbell both refuse to leave the case, despite a rough history between the pair of them, even though that means they’ll have to work together.
   Since Sara was a lawyer before having children, she takes the role of defending lawyer for her and her husband. She tries to convince Anna to give up the case and donate her kidney, however she doesn’t  know that Kate was the biggest cause for the case; in fact, nobody knows.. When the tension runs up too high at home, Anna decides to sleep in the fire department with her father. During this mess, Jesse starts fires in empty (often abandoned) buildings to get attention from his father (and, second-hand, his mother). When Brian finds out he is very disappointed (since he is a fireman and strongly against pyromania) but he is willing to hear him out and eventually forgives him.
   Ultimately, Anna wins the case and gets ownership over her own body, and she appoints Campbell her attorney. When they are driving from the court to the hospital to tell Kate, they get hit by a truck. Though paramedics try to get Anna and Campbell out of the car wreck and both are rushed immediately to hospital, the outcome is tragic. . Campbell survives, but Anna is brain-dead, Campbell decides on her behalf that she’ll donate her kidney  to Kate (and all her other organs to the hospital). Kate lives to tell the tale of their grief.

1. Describe the theme in one word.
   Ethics , philosophy, psychology

1. Describe the main character in detail. Use about 50 words.
   Anna:
   Anna is 13 years old. She’s intelligent and mature. She is very caring and independent, which is evident in her secrecy of Kate’s share. She was often overlooked even when performing very well because the focus was always on her sister who had cancer or her basket case brother.  

1.      Describe two minor characters.
   Jesse:
   Jesse is 20 years old and the elder brother of Anna and Kate. He derailed and sought comfort in narcotics. He has become this way to get attention that he has been failing to receive in other ways, as his parents pay more attention to Kate.
    

Sara:
Sara is the mother of Anna, Kate and Jesse. She’s persistent, determined and is willing to go the extra mile to achieve relative happiness in her family. She has trouble understanding her children’s wishes, because she is too focused on keeping her daughter alive. She’s very tough which is necessary in order for her to stay sane on this crazy whirlwind of a life that has become hers.

1. Describe the place(s) where the story is set in detail.
   It mainly takes place at Anna’s home itself. At some point Anna lives in the fire department where her father works. Other locations are all within the same city like the courtroom or the hospital.

1. When does the story take place?
   The author uses flashbacks to give the necessary information to understand everyone’s motives. This makes the story span over 12 years. If only counting ‘real time’ the story takes about a year. From Anna stating she wants to sue her parents to her eventual death.
   The story takes place in our modern day and age, no specific year is mentioned, but the technology indicates a quite modern setting.

1. Who is the person who tells the story (the narrator)?
   The story is told from the pov of all the (main) characters. This way you get to know everyone’s standpoint and a better understanding of everyone’s motives, which is important in such an ethics related book like this.

1. Give an explanation of the title.
   The title speaks for itself I would say. My Sister’s Keeper, ‘My Sister’ is Kate and Anna is the ‘Keeper’, as she keeps Kate alive.

1. Is the book just meant as a story or is the author trying to bring across a message? If so: why? If not: why not?
   She is most definitely trying to give you more than just a story. I wouldn’t be so sure to say that she wants to bring across a message, although I definitely think she wants to make you think. The book is full of morals, which isn’t something you can have hard judgement on.
   After the story itself, there is an interview with Jodi Picoult, asking her questions about the deeper meaning behind the book. There were also some questions for the reader in which they could indulge themselves deeper into the meaning of the book if they wanted to.