My Sisters Keeper; A Deeper Look Imagine being born just to keep your sister alive?

Jodi Picoults, My Sisters Keeper, is a novel which illustrates the struggle a family goes through dealing with one daughter having terminal cancer and the other daughter being forced to save her sisters life. This family portrays a great amount of emotion as the story is told. Picoult achieves strong emotion by incorporating three literary tools: tone, point of view, and theme to create this novel. A brief inspection of these three literary tools reveals how a strong emotional response is met. Jodi Picoult comes from Nesconset on Long Island, New York and was born on May 19, 1966. Picoult and her family moved to New Hampshire when she was 13 and she now resides in Hanover, New Hampshire with her husband and three kids. Her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale, was published in 1992. Her stories are full of family drama and heart wrenching events; especially in her novel My Sisters Keeper. (Miller) A literary tool Picoult uses in My Sisters Keeper is tone. Tone is a literary technique that is a part of composition, which encompasses the attitude toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work. The tone of this book is different depending on which character is narrating. Another literary tool Picoult uses is point of view. Point of view is a position from which someone or something is observed or the perspective from which the story is being told from. Each narrator speaks in first person. This allows the reader to envision each characters point of view as their own. This tool gives the novel a lot of its emotion. As a reader we feel what each character is going through and see their perspective through their own eyes by them explaining different situations and how they feel about these situations. As each character

narrates a different tone is reflected. The last literary tool Picoult uses is theme. Theme is the abstract concept explored in a literary work. Theme plays a big role in this novel. Anna, the youngest daughter, is perceptive, speculative and thoughtful. This is evident in many places through tone. In the prologue Anna tells us a story of how she tried to kill her sister when she was three years old. I have a feeling that if I really try to figure out who I am without Kate in the equation, Im not going to like who I see, (Picoult 135) Anna states. Anna always thinks things through and her tone plays a big part in the emotion of this novel. Anna makes us feel for her as she expresses her life only being purposeful to achieve one thing, her sister living. Through point of view as Anna talks in first person the reader is allowed to go through every situation in her eyes. We feel what she is feeling and for most of the book pity her and her situation. As we got older I didnt seem to exist, except in relation to her, (Picoult 3) Anna states. The theme of right and wrong for Anna is a big one. She is forced to make a huge decision that could later come back and haunt her. She expresses how she thinks being born for someone elses use is wrong but is not allowing her sister her organs wrong too? In the prologue Anna says, In the end though, I did not kill my sister. She did it all on her own. Or at least this is what I tell myself. (Picoult 3) Anna is torn throughout the book as many different characters pull her towards different answers to this question. Anna being the main character shows us the most emotion in this novel. Sara, the mother, is stubborn and intelligent. Through tone we see these characteristics from Sara. Sara is passionate about her children. We see this here, In my previous life, I was a civil attorneyBefore I understood that the smile of a child is a tattoo: indelible art. (Picoult 27) Sara has a lot of will power and will stop at nothing to keep her daughter alive. Sara makes the reader feel for her. Nobody can imagine having to watch their child die slowly, but also
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Sarah makes the reader angry at her sometimes. She is so set in her ways about keeping Kate alive that she sometimes loses sight of Anna as a human being. We as the reader know Sara loves both daughters but in some parts of the novel it isnt evident. Saras point of view is also in first person. Sara starts her narration by telling us how Kates struggle with Leukemia began. The bruise is the size and shape of a four leaf clover, and sits square between Kates shoulder blades. (Picoult 26) This is the point in the novel where Sara starts her battle to not let Kate die. Going through part of the book in Saras eyes makes the reader have mixed emotions about her. Seeing her situation and how she handles things day to day gives a great emotional response. She takes us through a roller coaster of emotions; from sad to angry. Sara also explores the theme of right or wrong. Is it right that she made a daughter to save her other daughter, and is it wrong that she has put her youngest daughter Anna through countless surgeries already to save her older daughter Kate? Sara at one point states, I wonder every single day if Im doing the right thing, I wonder if I know my children the way I think I do. I wonder if I lose my perspective in being your mother, because Im so busy being Kates. Sara

has the mindset throughout the beginning of the book that she is right and as the book goes on we see her way shift. This allows the reader to view Sara as a human being and see how torn she is between the question of right or wrong. Brian, the father is perceptive, understanding and is also somewhat of a foil to his wife Sara. Through tone we perceive him as a caring and realistic character. Brian lives in his wifes shadow most of the book. The second chapter is where the idea of having another child (Anna) comes in. Of course the idea is Saras and when discussed with Brian he fears Sara wants a replacement if Kate dies but Sara reassures him that she wants to see if the new child (Anna) is a genetic match to help Kate. He is skeptical of Saras decisions but usually does not voice his
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skepticisms. Anna and him share a special bond and Anna feels much love from her father. This is not Anna. I am used to struggling with Jesse, to lightning Kates load; but Anna is our familys constant. Anna comes in with a smile, (Picoult 38) Brian says. Brian sees what Anna is going through whereas Sara does not. Brian spends many nights with Anna just talking to her and showing her that she means more to him than just being someone who helps his other daughter. Brians point of view is also in first person and this shows us these dialogues between him and Anna that are so heart wrenching. We have a great emotional response to Brian. He is a very relatable character and seeing some of the novel through his eyes allows us to feel for him and put our self in his shoes, caught between his wife and child. Brian explores the question of right or wrong as well. He is torn on this question because he is torn between his child and wife. He doesnt fully agree with what his wife Sara has been doing but then again doesnt want his oldest child Kate to die. This gives the reader strong emotion by allowing us to watch the

struggle he goes through not knowing whether what is wife is doing is right or wrong. Picoult achieves strong emotion by incorporating three literary tools; tone, point of view, and theme to create this novel. Each characters tone, point of view and theme come together to make a strong relatable novel. Throughout the book we see these three literary devices do their job in hooking us and allowing us to feel what each character feels. Through these emotional responses we form our own opinion of each character. Picoult succeeded in making the reader feel for each character. She also was successful in offering an underlying question of right or wrong and allowing us to relate to this and ask ourselves what we would do if we were in this situation. The question of whether having a child to save another child is right or wrong will have many different answers. This novel incorporates those answers in many different ways through tone, point of view and theme.
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Works Cited Miller, Erin. "Jodi Picoult Biography." n.d. n. page. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. <http://bestsellers.about.com/od/authorprofilesaz/p/jodi_picoult.htm>.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper. New York City: Atria Books, 2004. Print.

"Theme Definition." Web. <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html>

"Tone Definition." Web. <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_(literature)>