My Sister’s Keeper Themes

The question of bodily autonomy and its limits is the core issue of My Sister’s Keeper. The novel’s protagonist, 12-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, attempts to assert agency over her own body when she sues for medical emancipation from her parents in order to avoid donating her kidney to her older sister, Kate, who is suffering kidney failure after a decade of battling acute promyelocytic leukemia. The dilemma of the two sisters’ conflicting…

The deep relationship between siblings is a recurring theme in My Sister’s Keeper. The most significant instance of this is the relationship between the protagonist, Anna, and her older sister, Kate. Although Anna is suing for the right to refuse to donate her kidney to Kate, this does not mean she hates Kate; on the contrary, the two are shown to be extremely close from their very first scene together, in which…

The attempt to regain control of one’s life is present in nearly every aspect of My Sister’s Keeper’s plot. The most obvious instance of this is Anna’s lawsuit, in which she is attempting to assert control over her own body despite the potential effect this could have on Kate’s health. However, the theme of control can also be seen more broadly in the trajectory of the characters’ lives. Sara, for instance…

My Sister’s Keeper spends considerable time exploring the isolating nature of severe illness. This, of course, most profoundly affects Kate herself. Due to her aggressive leukemia, which keeps her out of school and causes her to appear visibly ill, she has never been able to have a normal group of friends. Although she eventually gets her first boyfriend, Taylor, she is devastated when he dies suddenly from complications of his own cancer, a tragedy…