Journal responses Inaara

What movie does this book remind me of?
While reading the book “My Sister’s Keeper” the only movie that popped into my mind that related to it was the movie “The Island”.  In my Sister’s Keeper, Sara’s daughter Kate has developed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, which is a type of blood cancer. One thing about this type of cancer is that there is no cure at all. Sara and Brian (Kate’s parents) are faced with the decision of if they want to design a baby with all the proper genetics and other things like that so that she could help Kate by giving cells and blood to help her survive. Once they had the designed baby they named it Anna. Once Anna got older and realized why her parents had her she was not okay with it and she tried doing everything possible to stop them and refused to give Kate anymore of her body. This reminds me of the Island as this movie is about these clones that were created to help the people they were cloned off to live for a really long time. When the clones find out what actually their purpose in life is they try running away and try doing everything possible to stop the doctors from using their body parts to benefit other people.  Just like Anna they were not in control of their life until they realized they could be and they took action just like Anna.

Major themes in my book
Living in the moment is a very significant theme that I think is extremely important. At the beginning of the book based on the author’s description we can predict that Anna’s family is normal. However once we get deeper into the book we realize that this family is anything but normal. They have a daughter named Kate with a type of blood cancer, which can’t be cured. The family goes through many obstacles throughout the book and basically the author is trying to get the theme of “living in the moment”. In other words, appreciating every second of life weather you are fortunate to be happy and healthy or the total opposite. We should be thankful and use every second.

What is this book saying about life?
I believe that this book is basically saying that life is precious and short. We see and experience all the challenges that Anna and Kate go through during the book and in a second it all stops and Anna dies. When Anna dies it basically means Kate also dies. I feel as if the author is trying to tell us how in today’s society we are all spoiled with great healthcare and things like that. However there is a reality, some people are less fortunate ad I feel that it is our responsibility to help those who are unfortunate.

The mood of the book?

The mood of the story is stressful and sad because they are always at the hospital. They are always at appointments for Kate with Anna always there. In addition to that all the stress that is caused from the lawsuit and Anna’s rights to her own body make the book more intense.