My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult Essay

Introduction

A book journal otherwise referred to a reading log is quite important as it helps the reader to note their reactions to whatever they are reading from the books. Writing down responses is one way of helping the reader to discover their feelings about various aspects of the book they are reading; characters, themes, and plot among others. Therefore, a book journal enables the reader to deepen their general enjoyment as well as an understanding of the book. When writing the book journal, various aspects can be considered some which have been mentioned above. Other considerations when writing a book journal include; your thoughts, emotional response, connection of the book with the readers life, how the reader connects with the characters, any other questions the reader might have, any confusion which arises when reading the literature, impacts of the book on reader's life, favorite quotes from the book, considering the author, and summary of the book. These are just but some of the elements which can be considered while writing a book journal. In this exercise, book journals have been written for two books; "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult and "The Green Mile" by Stephen King.

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"My Sister's Keeper"

The Plot

"My Sister's Keeper" is a novel written by Jodi Picoult and published in 2004 by Atria Publishers. The story is set in a fictional town known as Upper Darby in Rhode Island, in the United States. It revolves around a small family and most as well as major characters in the novel are members of the family of Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald. Kate, one of Fitzgerald's children has Leukemia and lives most of her life in hospital. Later on, her kidneys fail and are scheduled for dialysis three times a week and each session takes two hours. Her sister, Anna is her only saviors as she donates tissues for her such as leukocytes, stem cells, and even bone marrow whenever Kate is in need. Later, she gets into a coma after an accident and her kidneys are removed and transplanted into Kate.

My Thoughts

Picoult's text, "My Sister's Keeper" is one very interesting book that would leave yearning to keep flipping pages as you read. Personally, I have enjoyed reading the book right from Chapter One, Monday. In particular, the first chapter begins by twisting the incidences and bringing main characters on board. The author has employed a very interesting tool of suspense where after reading the first chapter, you are left salivating to know what happens next. My impressions keep changing as I continue exploring the book. It is evident that the author has managed to capture my attention fully to the book as much as I am an inactive audience who obtains her piece through reading. After reading the book and interacting with different characters and themes, I can attest I feel different. My perceptions have changed and so are my anticipations. As mentioned before, the author carefully chose characters that fitted well in the storyline and were brought in exactly when they were needed. I can read and reread the book several times. The order of events as presented by Jodi Picoult creates suspense as well. Moreover, the interesting nature of how things unfold makes one want to continue reading. For example, despite Jesse having a criminal record; using drugs and being an arsonist, he still reforms and becomes a police officer after successfully going through the academy. In other words, Picoult carefully twisted events in a manner the readers would not anticipate unless they read through to the end when certain things get revealed. It is therefore unquestionable whether I would read the book again since it is obvious I would several times more.

Emotional Response

Picoult's novel invokes varied emotions; anger, laughter, tears, and sympathy among others. She was careful when writing the novel not to dwell on a single mood throughout the text. Emotions have been balanced and as I was reading through the novel, I managed to laugh, frown, sympathize and once in a while shed a tear. It is a clear indication that I was flowing with the book and each detail; style and tools employed by the author made sense to me. I took my time to understand their effect on the piece of literature. For example, I frowned at Jesse due to his bad character. He was a stubborn boy who abuses drugs giving more stress to already stressed up the family as a result of Kate's ailment; leukemia. Jesse apart from abusing drugs also turned into an arsonist who torched abandoned buildings in the neighborhood using locally improvised explosives. He was violent. A reader would, therefore, frown at his behavior and be angered by the violent habit he displayed. However, it is evident that Jesse was seeking attention from his parents who gave more priority to Kate and Anna.

Sympathetic emotions are also evoked as one reads through Picoult's work. For example, one would, and I specifically sympathized with Kate for having through the suffering of having cancer of the blood and bone marrow. As a young woman with a promising future, it is difficult to comprehend why she had the bad disease. Anna, who was born as the savior of her sister Kate is also sympathetic to her and some of her actions including seeking medical emancipation where she would be able to make her own decisions regarding her medications including donations of organs. She wanted to donate a kidney to her sister. When they are involved in an accident finally, and Anna becomes brain dead and her kidney is given her sister Kate who survives the surgery. At this point where her family members switch off the life support machine and she dies, clear tears indeed roll down the reader's cheeks. I found myself in this emotional captivity. One would also laugh at the childish behaviors displayed by Jesse for example torching of abandoned houses, a behavior most likely to be displayed by a mad person.

Connection of the Book with my own Life

Usually as one reads, their lives can be touched by either the whole book or just a section of it. Some characters in the book, for example, can display behaviors which are similar to ours or to people we have interacted with. Moreover, events in the book can also be similar to those which we have witnessed in real life. For example, in Picoult's book, I have likened the event where Anna's condition enables her to donate kidneys to her sister Kate who is in dire need of the organs. I once had a relative who was born blind and there is no way he could see, not even with the aid of gadgets. His only chance of seeing was through eye transplant and therefore there had to be a donor of that organ. He tried appealing to willing donors to assist and no one was available to come to his rescue. However, he had a little sister who also was born with an abnormal condition; sickle-celled anemia, a condition where the red blood cells are poorly conformed physiologically that they cannot hold enough oxygen. At around the age of nine, the young sister got seriously ill and was put on life support machine. Through assessment by the health professionals, it was realized the young girl could not survive and live again. The family was consulted if either passive or active euthanasia could be conducted to terminate the girl's life. Before, the procedure, the family enquired if her eyes could be donated to her brother who was born blind and his only chance to see was if someone donated eyes for him. A surgical procedure was carried out, and the eyes were transplanted to her brother. When he saw for the first time, it is his little sister's lifeless body that welcomed his vision. Yes, she had died but that death gave life to his vision. Reading that section of Picoult's work normally revives that incidence we once encountered about our relative where an unfortunate situation of one person turns to save another person's life. Anna's pathetic health situation saved Kate's life.

Connection with Characters

Jodi Picoult has used several characters in her novel that play different roles. Each of the characters has been given roles and personality traits that suit the flow and happenings in the novel. The characters include; Kate Fitzgerald, Anna Fitzgerald, Jesse Fitzgerald, Sarah Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Julia Romano, Campbell Alexander, and Suzzane. Each of them exhibits a unique personality trait which in one or another shifts the flow of the novel to where the author desired it to be. My favorite character among all of them is Anna Fitzgerald. She is the guardian angel and savior of her sister Kate Fitzgerald whose health is not in a good state. She is so dedicated to helping her sister to see her live another day. It can be presumed that Anna was scientifically engineered to save her sister Kate at whatever time she would need help. For example, she donated blood and bone marrow to her sister who had blood and bone marrow cancer. She also finally donated her kidneys to her sister whose kidney had failed and would have died if she did not receive the organ transplant.

Anna's system miraculously happened to match her sister's and that is why her organs and tissues could be transplanted into Kate. She gave her all to see Kate live again and even at the end, she dies and her death gives life to Kate again. Through the brain-death, her kidneys were removed and transplanted into Kate who could now afford another life once more. Therefore, she was a loving, compassionate, caring, dedicated, and independent and a heroine who gave whatever she had to her less fortunate sister. I do not like Jesse as a character in the novel especially due to his behavior. Although he is the eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald, he does not live to show a good example to her younger siblings and make his parents proud. His behavior is disgusting and he is confronted by his father about it. He later comes to terms with himself and joins police academy where he qualifies to be a police officer. He no longer begs for attention and has become understanding and supportive. However, I do not like him. If I were the author I would have changed to personality trait to be an obedient first born child who helps his parents and shows care to his ailing young sister. I would have made him someone to admire at his teenage.

Favorite Quotes

The author of the novel has made of the use of some lines, quotes or words that catch the attention of the reader either because they are interesting, creates a somber mood or appear to emphasize on something she wants her readers to grasp well. For example, in the first chapter, she writes in Anna's voice that "I'm an allogeneic donor-a perfect sibling matches. When Kate needs leukocytes or stem cells or bone marrow to fool her body into thinking it's healthy, I'm the one who provides them. Nearly every time Kate's hospitalized, I wind up there, too" (Picoult, p.13). The most interesting part here is that Anna donates stem cells, leukocytes and bone marrow transplanted into Kate to fool her whole body that it is healthy. Literally, Picoult was creating some sense of humor here because, in reality, you cannot fool a body that it is healthy if it is not. What she meant is that whenever Anna donated tissues for her sister Kate, she would always feel better for some time. In other words, the donated tissues would give Kate temporary relief from leukemia which she was diagnosed with at the age of two.

Another quote from the novel "Don't get me wrong-it isn't that my parents don't care about Jesse or whatever trouble he's gotten himself mixed up in. It's just that they don't really have time to care about it because it's a problem somewhere lower on the totem pole" (Picoult, p.18). The excerpt is more of figurative. It tries to emphasize that Jesse's problem as much as it needed attention, was lower in the hierarchy of issues to be managed by the parents. According to them, Kate's health...