Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Sister’s Keeper, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bodily Autonomy
Siblinghood
Parenthood
Control
Illness and Isolation
Summary
Analysis
Brian, thinking about how time moves faster on Earth than in space, feels as though he’s just returned “to a world where nothing quite makes sense.” He tries to listen to what Anna is saying and compares making sense of her words to trying to find shapes in a constellation. Then, he realizes he’s been looking in the wrong places; other cultures look for shapes in the dark spots, not the light. As he’s thinking this, Campbell collapses and begins to have a seizure.
Brian’s comparison between Anna’s words and the dark spaces in the sky highlights the truth that’s been hidden for much of the novel. Rather than focusing on what Anna has been saying, Brian realizes that he should have been focusing on what she wasn’t saying: her explicit reason for filing her lawsuit.
Themes
Brian takes care of Campbell through his grand mal seizure with the help of Judge, who brings him a bite block to ensure that Campbell doesn’t bite his own tongue. Julia comes to Campbell’s side in tears, asking Brian what’s happening and why; he reassures her that Campbell will be fine. Brian thinks of how the sky is off-kilter because the Earth’s axis wobbles; in Brian’s words, “life isn’t nearly as stable as we want it to be.”
Julia’s tearful concern for Campbell reveals that, despite the anger she feels towards him, she still cares deeply for him. The shocking nature of his seizure is reflected in Brian’s thoughts about the Earth’s off-kilter axis, highlighting how little control people have over the events of their lives and, sometimes, their own bodies.
Themes
Campbell comes to. Brian helps him to Judge DeSalvo’s quarters and explains that he had a seizure. Campbell has wet himself, so Brian brings him some pants and helps him change, having been desensitized to changing people’s clothes due to his EMT experience. He can tell Campbell is mortified, especially once he discovers everyone in the courtroom saw his seizure. Campbell tells Brian that he developed epilepsy from a car crash when he was 18 and has hidden it ever since. He struggles to remember Anna’s testimony and says that he needs to go back to court, but Julia comes in and tells him to wait. Brian, sensing the tension between the two of them, leaves them alone. Brian thinks of how stars are not always how they first appear.
Campbell and Brian’s interactions show the former man at his most vulnerable, sharply contrasting with the façade of control that he has kept up for the entire novel. The reveal of his epilepsy shows that, much like Kate, Campbell struggles with lacking control over his body, which has led him to feel the need to control the rest of his life by isolating himself and hiding his condition. This impulse of his has most seriously harmed Julia, but her entrance into the room at the end of the chapter hints that a reconciliation may be imminent.
Themes
