Blog #6, Quarter 2

I was having trouble thinking about another topic to blog about for "My Sister's Keeper" so I decided to go back and re-read the part that I couldn't focus on the first time that I read through it. During the end, I was so desperate to finish and have a nice cry that the words didn't register as much as they should have. Jodi Picoult has this style in her writing where she throws in these small comments which are actually huge concepts. This is what makes her books so interesting to read, the reader always ends up thinking deeper than normal.

The first comment that caught my eye in the epilogue was an observation of their mother. Kate notices, "she began to look for signs - plants that bloomed too early, eggs with double yolks, salt spilled in the shape of letters" (421). When the reader first reads this, they think the mother desperate and kind of pitiful. But if they think about it, what mother would be able to see anything as mundane as it used to be. Everything would be filled with their daughter's face and mind. After the sudden, random death of a daughter, the miracle recovery of another daughter, and the troubled son graduating from the police academy, is it really insane to think Anna might be hiding in that morning's eggs? From the outside perspective, yes, it is insane. But if was happening to me, I don't know if I could remain sane without that shred of hope. The mother will spend the rest of her life waiting for the next "interaction" with Anna, but that might be better than the alternatives.

The next thought provoking comment is, "Grief is a curious think, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-Aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family" (422). I really liked that metaphor because on the outside, skin is soft and smooth but if you take off the first layer, if you rip a Band-Aid off, it becomes blotchy and less smooth and stingy. A family is like that, in the way that it has many layers, built up for protection. When one gets ripped off, the strongest layer of protection is gone. The strongest layer is always in the front, like with skin, or with chess. The pawns are in front because they have the strongest defense. If all the pawns are lost, the game gets harder.

As it turned out, the epilogue was full of impressive thoughts that I had missed the first time. That might have been a good thing, however, because at the time it probably would have brought on a new wave of tears. I'm glad I went back and re-read it because I would have missed out on one of the best parts of the book.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.