Plot

By:Jennifer Sipos

          The book My Sister’s Keeper starts out through thirteen-year-old Anna Fitzgerald’s point of view. She goes on to explain that she was put on Earth for a reason; to save her sister. Anna’s parents, Brian and Sara, found out their eldest daughter Kate had an aggressive form of leukemia when she was only a toddler. Because of the severity of Kate’s disease and her need for bone marrow, Kate and Brian turned to a geneticist to help them “engineer” a baby that had the same characteristics as Kate. A baby that would help save Kate’s life. Within the first five chapters of the book, it is quite obvious why the name is My Sister’s Keeper.

Anna is finally fed up with constantly having medical procedures, painful ones especially, done to her in order to help Kate. It is primarily based on Anna’s fear of giving one of her kidneys to Kate. Because of this, Anna seeks out a witty attorney named Campbell Alexander, who comes with a loveable service dog “Judge”, and he will later help her sue her parents for the right to her own body.

Sara finally finds out that her youngest daughter is suing her, and she nearly explodes with anger. She cannot wrap her head around why Anna would ever make a decision, like the one she is making, that could potentially end her sister’s life. After this, the plot has a steady beat of Sara trying to convince Anna out of suing her and Anna timidly standing her ground.

There are about two mini-plots that are introduced throughout the story. The first is when Julia, Anna’s appointed Guardian Ad Litem, comes to save Anna from her “walking on eggshells” lifestyle. When Julia goes to see Campbell, readers learn that they had been in a relationship together when they were both in private school. They both continue with their love/hate relationship throughout the novel. The second mini-plot is Anna and Kate’s older brother Jesse’s attention-seeking actions. On numerous occasions he makes reckless decisions such as starting fires in abandoned warehouses, letting Anna try a cigarette, and making his own moonshine in his room. At times he becomes the comic-relief of the novel.

Kate’s condition gets worse when she doesn’t receive the kidney that Anna was supposed to supply her with. Anna feels guilty about Kate’s increasing pain and illness but still she stands her ground and continues to file the law suit against her parents. Anna takes the stand at the trial and admits that Kate was the one who told her to file the lawsuit in the first place. She explains what Kate told her, that she was tired of being sick and constantly on the brink of death.

At this point Campbell collapses and endures an epileptic seizure. He then goes on to explain that he has his service dog “Judge” because he can tell when a seizure is going to come on. He also admits that his seizures were the reason he broke up with Julia when they were younger, because he didn’t want his seizures to limit Julia as they limit himself. Julia and Campbell later make peace with one another.

Back to the trial, the Judge makes his decision and gives Anna medical emancipation and gives Campbell medical power of attorney over Anna. Campbell and Anna get into the car to go to the hospital, so Anna can tell Kate that she “won” the case. On the way to the hospital, they get into a serious car accident. Campbell makes it out alive but once at the hospital, the doctors rule Anna brain dead.

Anna’s family is devastated. The doctor tells Sara that Anna is eligible for being an organ donor. Campbell then tells the doctors to give Anna’s kidney to Kate.

An epilogue takes place in 2010, and Kate is living healthy. She explains that her family was solemn for a long time after Anna’s death, but she ends the book by saying “I think about her kidney working inside me and her blood running through my veins. I take her with me, wherever I go.”

Questions

1.) Why did Anna choose to continue the law suit, no matter how hard her mother tried to convince her otherwise?

2.) Why did Sara and Brian go to see a geneticist?

3.) Why do you think the author made Julia and Campbell have a past with each other?

4.) What elements did Campbell Alexander bring into the novel?

5.) What was Anna’s main goal in this novel?

6.) What was the Judge’s ruling?

7.) What do you think the Judge’s ruling would have been if Kate had not told Anna to file the lawsuit?

8.) Why was Jesse important to the novel? What elements did his character bring?

9.) What is Julia’s relationship to Anna? Why was she brought into the novel?

10.) What is Sara’s initial reaction when she finds out Anna is suing her and Brian for the rights to her own body?