My Sister's Keeper Revisions

Blog Post

http://www.amazon.com/My-Sisters-Keeper-Jodi-Picoult/dp/0743454537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298746031&sr=8-1

Over break, I read My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.  While Jodi Picoult is normally regarded as an author directed towards females and who writes traditionally easier, less complex reads, My Sister’s Keeper does touch on very deep and complicated issues.  Having read the novel when I was in 6^th grade, I was unable to fully grasp all of the turmoil and depth that the novel contains, which is why I chose to re read it now, at nearly 17.  I had heard from many other people that the novel definitely conforms to the age of the reader, so I was curious to test out that statement.  I found that it did, in fact, give me more to think about, and I disregarded some of the shallower interpretations or feelings that I previously thought much about.  For example, the novel became less about the sadness, pain, and death that Leukemia brings and more about the morality and precious relationships between mother and daughter, father and daughter, sisters, and brother and sister.  I learned more about maturity in what appears to be just a child and I thought more about the craft and reason behind the significance of the ending.  With that said, I initially thought that the novel was just a “chick flick in a book”, just a “tear jerker” so to say, yet Picoult proves her literary merit by crafting a novel that appeals to all ages in all different ways, which illuminates different values and sentiments with age.

Especially after learning about rhetoric this year, rereading My Sister’s Keeper was an overall much more valuable experience.  In the end, Jesse, the troubled and quiet brother of the family narrates in succinct, stressed sentences.  He says, “It’s raining.  I go outside, and start walking.  I head down the street and past the elementary school and through two intersections.  I am soaked to the bone in about five minutes flat. That’s when I start to run” (401).  Before, I most likely did not pick up on his exact mood and relied more on the events of the novel rather than the style and emotion of it.  Also, I picked up on the parallel structures of the ending, for example, just as Jesse began his narration as “it’s raining” Sara, Anna, Brian, and Campbell did as well. Initially, I remember not understanding why they kept repeating this, but now it has a much greater and clearer meaning.