My Sisters Keeper Compare And Contrast Picoult's Life
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Fiction is often rooted in reality. This is certainly the case for Jodi Picoult. Multiple aspects of her own life are present in her work. The characters in My Sister’s Keeper reflect the inner turmoil, desperation, and fixation of author Jodi Picoult.
My Sister’s Keeper is the story of the Fitzgerald family. When doctors diagnose their two year old daughter Kate with a rare form of leukemia, it forever alters their lives. Without a donor, Kate will die, but no one in the family is a genetic match. A controversial procedure in which they could conceive a genetic match soon becomes the only viable option. This is why they conceived their daughter Anna. Kate’s battle with cancer is no easy feat. She was in and out of remission for thirteen years…show more content… Picoult’s son Jake had a rare and potentially lethal tumor. Although he did not have cancer like Kate, they both underwent several surgeries and spent a copious amount of time in the hospital. Both Picoult and the Fitzgerald’s made the difficult decision to proceed with the riskier experimental treatment option which frighteningly made their children worse before they got better (Jodi Picoult). The emotional burden of a family dealing with a sick child is the most significant parallel between the author’s life and the characters. Picoult’s emotional hardships closely resemble those of the…show more content… Sara Fitzgerald goes to extraordinary lengths to save Kate’s goldfish. When she finds the fish belly up, she calls a pet store, three different veterinarians to no avail. Finally she calls the oceanography department at the university. After being told that she should just get a new fish, she responds with “I want to save this one” (Picoult 176). The dedication she has for the goldfish is representative of the dedication she has for her daughter. As drastic as her actions were, there is nothing she would not do for Kate. Brian Fitzgerald has this same mentality. He saves a young girl from a house fire. To do so he entered the one room filled with flames and thick black smoke. He says the fire department places the highest priority on keeping the rescuer safe, in this case himself, but he defies orders and puts his own life in jeopardy. After safely retrieving the girl he explains “I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names” (Picoult 147). He risks his life to save this young girl only to discover it does not fill the void of not being able to save his own daughter. A family at the mercy of Kate’s illness, unable to save her, desperately turns to saving anyone and anything they