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
As Julia walks towards Campbell, he wearily tells her that Judge is a seizure dog. She tells him that she figured as much. Julia asks why he didn’t tell her about his epilepsy, and Campbell explains that when he got sick, he decided that he didn’t want to rob Julia of her independent spirit by making her deal with it. Julia points out that, in doing this, Campbell robbed her of the ability to make that choice for herself. She confesses that Campbell’s leaving her made her think something was wrong with her. Campbell think this is ridiculous, but Julia points out that she has flaws, too. She then tells him that this time, she gets to leave him, and Campbell, dejected tells her to go. She tells him that she will—in 50 or 60 years.
Much like Anna’s revelation, Campbell’s motivations for his behavior are now laid bare as well: he felt that his epilepsy would rob Julia of her independent spirit. However, the irony of this, as Julia points out, is that Campbell compromised her independence by assuming what she wanted without asking her. But now that the truth has come out and Campbell has been forced to be vulnerable with Julia and cede control over everything, he is able to truly reconcile with her for good.
Themes
