My Sister's Keeper Themes

You've probably heard the term "nuclear family" before. If not, it has nothing to do with radiation, causing your mom to have two heads and your dad to have three eyes. A nuclear family is just the...

Cancer. The word doesn't exactly conjure up images of smiley face balloons, fireworks, and pink hearts. It makes you think of pain and suffering, and some of that pain and suffering is from what it...

If your sister wanted to borrow five dollars, what would you do? What if she wanted to borrow your car? Neither of those are life and death decisions, but they still might be difficult choices (esp...

It's hard being by yourself. We have no idea how hermit gurus on the tops of mountains do it—not only would it be lonely and cold, but cell service is probably terrible. But at least it's a choic...

Cancer isn't always a death sentence, but sometimes cancer does, in fact, equal death. That's the grim equation the Fitzgerald family faces in My Sister's Keeper. Their daughter Kate is diagnosed w...

Any book with a teenage protagonist is probably going to deal with identity issues. How do you fit in a white school if you're Native American? How do you grow from the Boy Who Lived into an intern...

Although there are no rules or order to cancer and car accidents (two defining moments in My Sister's Keeper), there are the rules of the law to abide by. A large part of this book takes place in t...

If you look down the list of themes, you're probably overcome with dread about now. They're all pretty painful and depressing: Suffering. Mortality. Isolation. Family. (Well, depending on what kind...