Saturday, January 2, 2016

My Sisters Keep Interrupting My Writing Process


by Rebecca L,
My Sister's Keeper is a novel written in 2003 by Jodi Picoult. Her book follows the story of Anna Fitzgerald as she deals with her parents and helps her sister through her struggle with cancer.


Kate is Anna's older sister. Although they would never admit it, she is her parents' favorite. Anna was only born for the purpose of helping Kate survive. Starting from birth she has been forced to undergo surgery after surgery to prolong her sister's life by a few months at a time. Almost all of Kate's life is spent stuck in a hospital bed or in the operating room.
When Kate turns seventeen she goes into renal failure and Anna knows she will have to donate a kidney. Kate is tired of spending her life in a hospital bed and she does not want to prolong her life anymore. She asks Anna to file for medical emancipation from her parents so she does not have to give her kidney to Kate.
The book switches narration between the chapters. It is very interesting to see the Kate and Anna's journey through different point of views. The chapters do not just switch between main characters either. The story is also told by supporting characters such as Kate and Anna's younger brother, Jesse.
Picoult manipulates the way the reader hears the story by carefully choosing who will narrate which section. A lot of information about Kate and her personality are left for the reader to imagine until the last chapter which she narrates herself.
The switching of narrators allows for the reader to hear the story with a different bias each chapter and leaves a lot for the reader to make up themselves.

No comments:

Post a Comment