Discussion Questions and Character List
Character List
Anna Fitzgerald
- Youngest child
- Protagonist
- Smart
- Funny
- Observant
Kate Fitzgerald
- Middle child
- Struggled with cancer
Sara Fitzgerald
- Mother
- Strong
- Stubborn
- Smart
- Father
- Foil to Sara
- Firefighter
- Works to hard
- Kinder
- Oldest Child
- Sensitive
- Tough on the outside
- Blames himself for not being able to save Kate
- Anna's lawyer
- Arrogant
- Mirrors Anna
- Guardian
- Independent
- Outsider at school
- Campbell's ex-girlfriend
- Sara's oldest sister
- Comforter and Supporter
- Kate's oncologist
- Warm
- Serious
- Judge appointed to Anna's case
- Fair
- Kind
- Caring
- Child killed by a drunk diver
- Understanding of Sara and Brian
- Kate's crush
- Cancer patient
- Dies
- Julia's Twin
- Dislikes Campbell
- Campbell's service dog
- Epilepsy service dog
- What is Campbell's condition and what is his relationship with Julia?
- Describe Kate?
- Why do you think the author, Jodi Picoult, added Judge's (Campbell's dog) character in the book?
- "We loved you even more,--because we knew what exactly we were getting." How Anna would have felt after hearing her mother say this?
- What kind of cancer does Kate have? And how would you feel hearing you have cancer?
- Why do you think Sara (Anna's mother) spends her free time shopping?
- Anna has nightmares where she gets cut into pieces. What do you think is the causes of these dreams? If her mother knew about those dreams and is the cause of them what do you think she will do and how would her father react?
- What do you think of Sara's character? Do you think that what she's doing is fair to both her daughters?
- What is the irony of Anna's death? Do you think that Kate ever felt guilty?
- Do you think that Sara cried over Anna's death because she lost her daughter or because she lost the only donor for Kate?
Answers
- Campbell has epilepsy which does not allow him to control his own body. Campbell and Julia had an on and off relationship. They love each other but somehow, every time they end up together, something happens.
- Kate is a kind character that is the center of the conflict. Everything revolves around her whether she likes it or not.
- Campbell's health condition.
- Even more conflicted because she knows that it is not normal to design your child. And she does not really know how to feel about it. Also she wants to be able to have her own life without having to be a donor to her sister Kate.
- Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (blood cancer), I would be devastated.
- She wants something normal in her life. She wants to be able to say that her life and her decisions are normal and right.
- Anna has these dreams because she fears surgery. Sara would talk to her but she would not think to much about it, however, Brian would because he sees things through his children's perspective.
- Based on a persons opinion. My opinion is that she cares more about Kate than Anna however, she tries to show the outside would that she loves them both.
- The irony is that many religious people disagreed with the entire modeling a human being. So it is another way of saying that what should not be alive is going to die.
- Both. She believes that if Anna dies, so would Kate meaning she would lose both her kids.
Comments:
Answers:
1.
Campbell Alexander has Epilepsy. He ironically has a long history with Julia,
as the two were a couple in high school.
2. Kate
is Anna`s older sister, and the ill character of the story. She is very
stubborn like any other teen, but even then she remains very open minded. She
realizes the reality of her situation because she knows shes going to die, and
she accepts that. Kate is also very strong and she doesn`t like to worry her
parents when it comes to her illness. She specifically says ``My cancer is making
my family sick too``. She demonstrates that shes aware what kind of effect her
sickness is giving her family.
3. Jodi
Picoult had to add in Campbell Alexander to the story because ofcourse, he`s
the lawyer that helps Anna with her case. He`s a very unique character because
he knows what it`s like having no control over your own body (he has epilepsy)
therefore making him the ideal character for Anna`s case. Jodi also added him
in because ofcourse, he seems quite tough at first, until we learn that in the
end it`s him that gives Kate the kidney. This is also a big plot twist.
4. Her
mother means that they were even more excited to have her because they knew she
had a purpose in life. I think what Sara said made Anna a little special, but
not in such a good way. She knows already that she was conceived for Kate, and
no other reason. It makes her want to prove to her parents that there are more
to her than just ``Kate`s donor``.
5. Kate
has Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) which is a very rare type of blood
cancer. If I had just found out that I have a cancer in my body, I would`ve
obviously freaked out. Cancer means a long journey fighting and even thinking
about it is painful. I know firsthand what cancer is like, because my mom had
breast cancer not too long ago. When you have cancer, the days are extremely
long and tiring and you sacrifice your health even more for additional
treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. I already know how hard it was for
my mom, and hearing that I have cancer would be just as heartbreaking.
6. I
think Sara spends her free time shopping because it`s a great way for her to
spend some time to herself, and escape from her home life. She has a very tough
job as a mother because she`s constantly running back and forth from hospitals
and home. Everything in her life seems to be a mess. She probably enjoys retail
therapy even more because she can enjoy her life for a few hours.
7. Anna
has these terrifying dreams because shes extremely scared of surgery and being
chopped up to give her insides. I feel like if she told her mom (Sara) she`d
comfort her but she wouldn`t do too much to stop them. After all, she is
encouraging Anna to give up her kidney for her sister and these dreams would
make her idea of surgery even worse. Brian is the more understanding character
in this story. If he was aware of such dreams he would show empathy, put
himself in his sisters situation. Brian always finds a realistic yet caring way
to negotiate things with Anna.
8. I
think Sara`s a character who never gets a break. Throughout the story, she
constantly has obstacles thrown at her path that add to her (already) chaotic
life. Personally, I think Sara`s trying
her best to be fair, but shes definitely doing the right thing by focusing on
Kate. If I were her, I`d be doing the exact same. Although Anna or Jesse don`t
seem to get enough attention, nobody`s perfect and Sara`s only trying to give
everything to her daughter who she knows can die at anytime.
9. Just
like in the movie ``The Fault in Our Stars`` there is an ironic death. Anna`s
death is very ironic because the entire story is focused on Kate`s fatal
illness, we naturally expect her to be the one to die. Anna`s death is due to a
car accident which adds so much more shock to the story because she plays such
an important role in Kate`s life. I dont think Kate ever felt guilty for her
sister`s death because it was tragic. Its not as if Anna had already donated
the kidney, she never got too. In the end, they both kind of got what they
wanted because Anna hadnt ended up giving her kidney and Kate survived her
cancer without depending on Anna for once.
10. I
think Sara experienced grief for neither of those reasons. The major reason why
Sara was so upset was because she never considered Anna`s feelings the way she
did Kate`s. She`s also in regret because she was so sure that it would be Kate
she`d lose first, that she hadn`t even told Anna how important she truly is
without Kate, or how much she truly appreciates her for going along with the
transplants and needles for so long. Ofcourse Sara was upset for those two
reasons as-well, but in my opinion the major why she was upset is because of
the regret she has inside her for never treating her the same way as she
treated Kate.
4) I totally agree with you Maram, Anna probably felt very weird and confused. She was probably thinking about the fact that if her parents didn’t genetically design her, would they still love her as much. This also put a lot of stress on her decision-making as if she refused to give a part to Kate her parents would probably love her less.
ReplyDelete5) Kate has Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, which is a type of blood cancer. If I had this cancer I would feel horrible, sad and most of all confused on what I would do and how I was supposed to continue on with my life. I would find out that there is no cure and I wouldn’t want to endanger someone else’s life for mine. Therefore I would go about my life and try to live my life everyday like it was my last.
6) I also agree with you on this on Maram, in fact I do think that she wants to keep something in her life that is normal, as we see that this is anything but a normal family.
8) I honestly feel for Sara, she got pregnant with a wonderful girl who then got cancer and she needed a perfect donor. She made the decision to design a child, as she wanted to do anything possible to help Kate. I believe what she does at the start by designing a kid for Kate is not right at all and she shouldn’t have started it because now she is faced with the challenge of picking between them, which results in her not being fair to one.
10) I believe both however she was probably crying more about how if Anna died Kate would die too. Therefore in an instant both of her girls are dead, and that was the reason