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
In the courtroom, just before starting her closing statement, Sara thinks about how the rain spells a bad omen. She begins to read a prepared statement off index cares, but a crash of thunder causes her to drop them all. She decides to start over. Turning to Anna, she tells her that she loves her and that she worries she has lost her perspective on Anna because of her attention on Kate. She admits that she’s done everything she can to save Kate, because she wants nothing more than for her children to grow up well. She admits that she doesn’t have all the answers, and she doesn’t know what she would do if Anna was granted emancipation. What she does know, she says, is that although she does not know if her decision to have Anna be a donor was moral or legal, she knows that it was right.
Sara deciding not to use index cards and speak from the heart is a symbol of her learning how to cede control. Furthermore, although Sara still argues against Anna’s emancipation, she does so in a much more humble and empathetic way than her initial rejections of Anna’s lawsuit. Now, although she still stands by her efforts to save Kate, she acknowledges that Anna’s feelings are valid and admits that she may not have always made the correct decisions. This reflects how Sara has learned to value Anna’s feelings, even if the two of them still don’t agree.
Themes
