A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MAIN CHARACTERS’ MORALITY IN JODI PICOULT’S NOVEL, MY SISTER’S KEEPER
A PAPER BY
T.DINI MAHARANI Reg.No. 072202020
ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM DIPLOMA III FACULTY OF LETTERS
UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA MEDAN
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Title of paper : A Brief Description of Main Characters’ Morality in Jodi Picoult’s Novel, My Sister’s Keeper
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ABSTRACT
Character is one of the important elements in fiction. The topic which is discussed in this paper is the presentation of main characters’ morality in Jodi Picoult’s novel, My
Sister’s Keeper. Though the character, the reader could see the great moral value in
ACKNOWLEDMENTS Bismillahirahmanirrahim
First of all, I want to thank and Pray to Allah SWT, the Almighty God, for blessing me in completing this paper as one of the requirements to get a Diploma Degree in English from Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara.
1. My beloved parents, T. Isa Al-Qadri and Rohana, for loving, caring, and for their support. Thanks for being my inspiration Mom. My sister and brother T. Lisa Yovita and Widarso as my second parents, thanks for supporting me financially especially in studying in English Diploma III. My sisters and brothers the important person in my life T.Silviana, T. Kartika and Asep Setiawan, T. Iskandar, T. Dermawan, T. Bebby Maysarah, thanks for supporting me morally, financially, spiritually, in completing this paper.
4. My Lovely friends, in my great three years. Masytah the one who always listening my story and give some suggestions for me. Maya the one who has so patient. Mala, Elan, Julia, Viza, Putri, Meli, who always make me laugh and going crazy with them; thanks for make me as your friend in happiness and sadness. My friends Yuliska, Tri, Sulis, Ulan. And all of my friend in English Diploma III A and B year 2007-2009.
Medan, April 2010 The Writer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION COPYRIGHT DECLARATION
ABSTRACT ... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... iv
1. INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Background of the Study ... 1
1.2 Problem of the Study ... 2
1.3 Objective of the Study ... 3
1.4 Scope of the Study ... 3
1.5 Significance of the Study ... 3
2. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTER AND MORALITY ... 4
2.1 Description of Characters ... 4
2.2 Description of Morality ... 9
3. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MAIN CHARACTER’S MORALITY 12 3.1 Anna Fitzgerald’s ... 12
3.2 Sara Fitzgerald’s... 15
4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 28 4.1 Conclusion ... 28 4.2 Suggestion ... 30
REFERENCES APPENDICES
ABSTRACT
Character is one of the important elements in fiction. The topic which is discussed in this paper is the presentation of main characters’ morality in Jodi Picoult’s novel, My
Sister’s Keeper. Though the character, the reader could see the great moral value in
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the Study
Roberts and Hendry E. Jacobs (1995:1) stated that literature refers to compositions that tell stories, dramatize situations, express emotions, and analyze and advocate ideas. Literature enables us to recognize human morality, dream and struggle in difference ways, time and situations that we would never otherwise know.
There are so mainly three important branches of literature, novel, poetry, and drama. One of the important branches is novel. Rees’ ( 1973:106 ) stated that novel is a fictitious prose narrative of considerate length in which characters and action representative of real life are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity.
1.2Problem of the Study
Jodi Picoult is the author of sixteen novels, including One New York Times
Bestsellers. In her novel Picoults tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn,
apart by conflicting needs and passionate love those triumphs over human weakness.
My Sister’s Keeper is the one of her fascinating novel and this novel be come the
bestseller book.
1.3Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to explain the main characters’ morality in Jodi Picolut’s novel My Sister’s Keeper: Anna Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Jesse Fitzgerald, and Campbell Alexander; whether it is good or bad, positive or negative, that shown by their attitudes in dealing and solve their problems.
1.4Scope of the Study
In order to make learners not to be confused in comprehending the massage, the study is limited to problem by describing only the main characters’ morality; Anna Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Jesse Fitzgerald, and Campbell Alexander. The morality is viewed by the positive or negative value. As a standard that the man want to share, deal with their problem, with right or wrong, good or bad, from their attitude; what they do and how they solved their problems, through the statement and their opinion about the problems.
1.5Significance of the Study
2. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTER AND MORALITY
2.1 Description of Character
A novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The letter supplied the present genetic term in the late 18th Century. To become part of literary production novels had to address the discussion of art. (Wikipedia, 8 January 2010,10:15) The construction of the narrative, the plot, the way reality is created in the work of fiction, the fascination of the character study, and the use of language are usually discussed to show novel’s artistic merits. Every novel is an account of life; every novel involves conflict, characters, action, settings, plot and the theme. An author has a full freedom present characters suitable with what her work, whoever the person, the social status, the characterization and whatever their life problems. Most novels are concerned with ordinary people and their problem in societies where they interact.
There are some definitions of the character. In Webster, English Dictionary (2000:74) stated that, “Character is the combination of quality that distinguishes an individual person, group or things; moral strength; reputation; disposition.” Characters also refer to moral qualities and ethical standards and principles. In seventeenth and eighteenth-Century England, a character was a formal sketch or descriptive analysis of a particular virtue or vice as represented in a person.
Edgar V. Roberts and Hendry E. Jacobs (1995:133) stated that fiction usually focus on one or a few major characters who undergo a change attitude or characters as they interact with other characters with difficult situation, or with an idea or general circumstances that force action. The character may win, lose or tie. In fiction, a character may be defined as a verbal representation of human being. Through action, speech, description, and commentary, authors portray characters who are worth caring about, rooting for, and even laving, although there are also characters you may laugh at, dislike, or even hate.
important to indicate what that character thinks, feels or believes, speech can be used to suggest personality as well as intelligence, class and education.
The distinguishing quality called trait or characterization is deferent one character to another. Each of the character has his or her own traits. Characters may be ambitious or lazy, serene or anxious, aggressive or tearful, thoughtful or inconsiderate, open or secretive, confident or self doubting, kind or cruel, quite or noisy, visionary or practical, careful or careless, impartial or biased, straightforward or underhanded, “winners” or “losers” and so on.
According to Edgar V. Roberts and Hendry E. Jacobs (1995:135), tell us how characters disclosed in fiction. There are:
1. Actions
What character does is our best way to understand what they are. As with ordinary human beings, fictional characters do not necessary understand how they may be changing or why they do the things they do. Nevertheless, their actins express their characters. Actions may also signal qualities such as nalvete’, weakness, deceit, a scheming personality, strong inner or conflicts, or a realization or growth of some sort.
2. Descriptions, both personal and environmental
3. Dramatic statements and thoughts
Although the speeches of most characters are functional essential to keep the story moving along-they provide material from which you can draw conclusions. Often, characters use speech to hide their motives, though we as readers should see through their action narrated in the works.
4. Statements by other characters
By studying what characters say about each other, you can enhance your understanding of the character being discussed. Ironically, the characters doing the talking often indicate something other than what they intend, perhaps because of prejudice, stupidity, or foolishness.
5. Statements by the author speaking as story-teller or observer
What the author, speaking with the authorial voice, says about a character is usually accurate, and the authorial voice can be accepted factually. However, when the authorial voice interprets action and characteristics, the author himself or herself assumes the role of reader or critic, and any opinions may be questioned. For this reason, author frequently avoid interpretations and devote their own conclusions.
According to Nurgiantoro, the difference of point of view, and observations, character can be categorized as follows: Main character and Peripheral character, Protagonist character and Antagonist character, Simple character and complex character, Static character and Developing character, Typical and Neutral character.
This paper discusses about main characters’ morality. Therefore, for clarification of technical terms used in this paper, it concerns with definition of main character and peripheral character.
A. Main Character
The main character is the central figure of a story. Alternatively, the phrase denotes a primary advocate of or proponent for a cause or movement. The main character can be a hero villain in a story – it is just the character with the lead role. As a rule of thumb, main characters usually have a lot to say and appear frequently throughout the play. Main character is classified important and kept on performing that it feels dominating the whole story. Even in certain novels, a main character always presents in every event and can found in every page of novel concern. The main character in a novel can be more than one.
B. Peripheral Character
2.2 Description of Morality
The description of main characters’ morality in Jodi Picoult’s novel, My Sister’s
Keeper, will be discussed based on the definition of the morality it self.
Webster (2000:300) defined moral is of relating to character and human behavior, particularly as regards right or wrong; probable, although not certain; psychological emotional. In addition, Webster (2000:300) defined morality is a moral principles; a particular system of moral principles.
Morality (from the Latin Moralitas “manner, character, proper behavior”) has three principal meanings.
In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or set of beliefs distinguishing between right or wrong behaviors. Descriptive morality does not explain why any behavior should be considered right or wrong, only that it maybe classified so. For the most part right and wrong acts are classified as such because they cause benefit or harm, respectively. However, this is not by any means an all-encompassing criterion. It is possible that many moral beliefs are based on prejudice, ignorance or even hatred.
adherence to this letter position is known as moral skepticism, in which the unchanging existence of a rigid, universal, objective moral “truth” is rejected.
In its third usage, morality is synonymous with ethics. Ethics is the systematic philosophical study of the moral domain, ethics seeks to address questions such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation (applied ethics), how moral values should be determined (normative ethics), what morals people actually abide by (descriptive ethics), what the fundamental nature of ethics or morality is, including whether is has any objective justification (meta ethics), and how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature is (moral psychology). In applied ethics, for example, the prohibition against taking human life is controversial with respect to capital punishment, euthanasia, abortion and wars of invasion. In normative ethics, a typical question might be whether a lie told for the sake of protecting someone from harm is justified. In meta-ethics, a key issue is the meaning of the terms “moral” or “immoral.”
historical contexts. This position, known as moral relativism, often cities empirical evidence from anthropology as evidence to support its claims. The opposite view, that there are universal, eternal moral truths are known as moral absolutism. Moral absolutists might concede that forces of social conformity significantly shape moral decisions, but deny that cultural norms and customs define morally right behavior.
( Wikipedia, 8 January 2010, 10:15).
Based on the explanations, it can be concluded that morality is a human inside when they have to decide between two or more choices in their life as their thoughts and feelings; whether it is right or wrong, good or bad.
3. A BRIEF DECRIPTION OF MAIN CHARACTRS’ MORALITY
There are seven main characters in Jodi Picoult’s novel, My Sister’s Keeper; but at this chance, the author describes only five main characters in this novel.
3.1 Anna Fitzgerald’s
Anna Fitzgerald is a IVF girl. She was born for a very specific purpose; to save her sister.
As quoted:
“I was born for a very specific purpose. I wasn’t the result of a
cheep bottle of wine, or a full moon or the heat of moment. I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm to create specific combination of precious genetic material. They doing that because I could save my sister, Kate.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009: 8)
Anna is a smart kid, very strong willed and independent. She is cheerful and a constant person in Fitzgerald’s families.
As quoted:
“This is not Anna; I am used to struggling with Jesse, to lightening Kate’s load. But Anna is our families constant. Anna comes with a smile. Anna tell us about the robin she found with a broken wing and a blush on its cheek. Anna gives us a backbeat.”
(Picolt, Jodi, 2009:46)
bone marrow match for Kate a life and a role that she has never challenges; until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is.
She is determined to get rights to her body but after her parents find out and sees their reactions, she is not sure if she should continue with the lawsuit.
As quoted:
“My mother holds me tighter. “We’ll talk to the judge and explained it. We can fix this.” She says. “We can fix anything.” And because those words are really all I’ve ever wonted to hear. I nod.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:68)
Anna is a good sister; but sometimes she feel board to be a donor for her sister and try to escape from her problem. She just wants continuing her life without being a part of her sister life. She is trying to kill her sister. Sometimes the recollection is so clear she can remember the itch of pillowcase under her hand, the sharp point of Kate nose pressing in to her palm. Kate does not stand a chance against her, of course, but it still does not work. Her father comes and save Kate; and he lead Anna to her own bed.
As they got older, Anna does not seem to exist, except in relation to Kate. She could watch Kate sleep across the room from her, one long shadow linking their beds, and Anna would cont the ways. Poison sprinkles on Kate’s cereal, a wicked undertow of the beach, Lighting striking. But in the end, though she does not kill her sister. Kate do it all on her own. At least this is what Anna tells herself.
want Kate alive, but also she wants to be herself, do not as part of Kate, that she wants the chance to grow up, even if Kate cannot. Anna thinks that Kate’s death would be the worst thing that is ever happened to her, and also the best.
As quoted:
“Anna, do you love your sister?” “Of course.”
“but you were willing to take an action that might kill her?” “something flashes inside me. “It was so she wouldn’t have to go through this any more. I thought it was what she wanted.” And I realize at the moment inside me, something breaks, “it was…it was I wanted, too.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:462)
3.2 Sara Fitzgerald’s
Sara Fitzgerald is Anna’s mother. Actually, she is a beautiful women; she has a long dark hair and the fine collarbones of a princes. But she has a difficult problem in her life since her eldest daughter had been diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL), she does not have much free time and it is difficult for her to smile. As quoted:
“My mother could be beautiful, if she were parachuted into someone else’s life. She has long dark hair and the fine collarbones of a princes, but the corner of her mouth turn down, like she’s swallowed bitter news.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:11)
Sara is distraught to learn her daughter has a potentially fatal illness, and know the only way to save her life is to have another child who matches Kate’s DNA; this makes her decide to have another child in the hope that it will do just that. She goes through IVF to ensure that the child is donor material, this is where the ethics of the situation are put in to question.
As quoted:
“We sit down on the set at the TV studio. We’ve been invited here because of our baby’s unorthodox conception. Somehow, in an effort to keep Kate healthy, we’ve unwittingly become the poster children for scientific debate.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:121)
children; but she loves Anna in a different way than Kate. Sara loves Kate as she would any child but she loves Anna because she is helping save Kate’s life. She is more grateful to have Anna instead of actually loving her.
When Anna was born she does not care about Anna how she is look like, the way she is crying, Sara just care about Kate’s life. When Anna comes out Sara remains the doctor to take care the umbilical cord and tell him to hurries it out of the room to a place where it will be cryogenically preserves until Kate is ready for it.
Sara never thinks about Anna’s feelings she just care about Kate’s health. When the doctor suggest to donor a bone marrow for Kate, without asking permission from Anna she just have explains to Anna that Kate is not feeling good, and the doctor need to take something from Anna and give it to Kate to make Kate feel better, Sara figured that was more than enough information.
As quoted:
“When we have Anna,” I remind Brian, “we know that she was
going to be donor for Kate.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:204)
hospital. Jesse feels disappointed with his mother; he runs up stairs to slam the door to his bedroom. And when Sara comes to Jesse’s room to do apologize with her son, she show the blood covers Jesse’s mouth like a vampire.
As quoted:
“I’d like to talk to you. I’d like to apologize.”
“There is a scuffle on the other side of the door, and then it swings open. Blood covers Jesse’s mouth, a vampire’s lipstick bits of wire stick out like a seamstress’s pins. I notice the fork he is holding, and realize this is what he has used to pull of his braces. “Now you never have to take me anywhere.” He says.” (Picoult, Jodi, 2009:202)
Actually, Sara is not wrong, as a mother she wants to do the best thing to save her child. All parents might be doing the same thing as she does. She is realizing that she is doing a wrong thing but there is no choice for her. She is a parent; she wonder every single day if she doing the right thing. She wonders if she knows her children the way she think she does. She wonders she is lose her preventative in being Anna’s mother, because she is so busy being Kate’s.
At the end of the court session Sara being a lawsuit for herself as a Anna’s mother. She is conscious that the lawsuit is not about Anna, not about Kate or about donating a kidney. This lawsuit is about having choices. A long time ago, she used to be a lawyer, but she is not one any more. She is a mother, and what she have done for the past eighteen years in that capacity is harder than anything she ever had to do in a courtroom.
As quoted:
“I take a deep breath,” “in my life, though, that building was on fire, one of my children was in it. And the only opportunity to save her was to send in my other child, because she was the only one who knew the way. Did I know I was taking a risk? Of course. Did I realize it meant may be losing both of them? Yes. Did I under stand that may be it wasn’t fair to ask her to do it? Absolutely. But I also knew that it was the only chance I had to keep both of them. Was it illegal? Was it immoral? Was it crazy or foolish or cruel? I don’t know. But I do know it was right. (Picoult, Jodi, 2009:479)
Sara makes a good decision by let Anna doing what she wants; to get her medical emancipation from her own body. And Anna dies after it. Sara feel regret and disappointed with her self. She realizes sooner or letters she would be lose one of her daughter or even both of them.
In solving this problem, Sara’s morality is very needed. The way she faces the bad reality in her life by making a decisions to accept the death of her daughter need courage.
3.3 Brian Fitzgerald’s
The children’s father, he is a fire fighter captain is torn between a rock and hard place; he likes the myth of the Pawnee Indians and he is so interested with the astronomy.
As quoted:
“My father like the myth of the Pawnee Indians, who saw the star delights populated the world; Evening stars and Morning star hooked up and gave birth to the first female. The first boy comes from the sun and the man. Humans rode in on the back of a tornado.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:299).
Brian has a humor sense, he likes making people laugh and he is also a friendly man.
As quoted:
“It’s fine.” I take the one piece she has managed to dissert from the roast and cut a smaller bite. I might as well be chewing leather. “Delicious, I’m just gonna run down to the station and get a blow torch so that we can serve every one else.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:48)
On the other hand, Brian is a independent and responsibility man. He loves his wife. Brian takes his wife out to dinner to make her feel better and forgets the central conflict in their family, Kate sickness. He is so responsible, when Sara’s sister give them a check for $.100, 000 that is costs for a bone marrow. But Brian refuses that because he has his own reason, Kate is his daughter so he is belong to her. He decides to find the money by his own way without asking help from someone else.
As quoted:
“I won’t let your sister take care of Kate.” Brian says. “I’m
supposed to take care of Kate.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:287)
Brian always tries to be fair with his children. His love is deferent with Sara, he loves all his children he loves Kate as she would any child and he loves Anna as he children too; not as the Kate’s keeper. He gets angry when Sara does not tell the truth to Anna and when Sara refuses to stay with Anna when she just had bone marrow transfusion.
Brian Fitzgerald’s morality is very strong in responsibilities. He believes that he has to responsible for everything as the consequence of what he did. He tries to full it whole his life, even if it needs any sacrifice. Being a good parent facing a difficult problem, take care all of the broken family is not easy for him. The climax of Brian’s sadness is when he lose his daughter that he loves for a long time, afterwards; he instead that stars were people who were so well loved they were traced in constellations, to live forever. He begins works round the clock shift, so he would not have to come home. And he fell deep into a bottle after Anna’s left him.
3.4 Jesse Fitzgerald’s
Older brother of the two girls, Jesse is reflection of his mother Sara. Jesse is eighteen and he is feeling abounded, left out and lives in the converted attic flat above the garage, he is crying out for help in his own way, he sets fires and watches from a safe distance as they burn; he only done this to unused building.
Jesse seems to have a very rebellious and depressed personality due to the situation his family has been going through. Because of all attention Kate required, little attention could given to Jesse. Jesse’s fractionation with fire grows as he mature and he began to start many large fires in abounded buildings. This shows his rebellious nature.
As quoted:
“It would solve a thousands problems if I rolled the Jeep over an embank met. It’s not like I haven’t thought about it. You know; on my license. It says I am an organ donor, but the truth is I’d consider being an donor Morgan. I’m sure I’m worth a lot more dead than the whole.
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:112)
Kate gets sick when Jesse in twelve years old, it is not like Kate planed it or
anything, but is happened to be Christmas Eve. He has shuttled over to some neighbor’s hose last minute, which sucked, because they were having a nice Christmas Eve with their relatives. And keep whispers about him like he is a charity case and deaf to boot. Jesse thinks that his parents does not care about him, because he cannot do anything to save Kate’s life; and he feels that Anna is on their radar, because she pays in to their plan for Kate.
As quoted:
“I would up that day at the middle of the intersection, smack under the traffic light, with taxies breaking and a car swerving off to the left and a pair of cops running to keep me from getting killed. At the police station, when my dad come to get me, he asked what the hell I’d be thinking.”
“I hadn’t been think, actually, I was just trying to get to a place where I’d be noticed”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:298)
Fitzgerald families were absurd because of Kate sickness. Their parents spent all the time to take care of Kate’s health. Jesse often gets a present from his parents that he never asks for one; it is like a guilt gift over the years he gets quite a few of those big-ticket items. It is usually in conjunction with one of Kate’s episodes. And since Anna usually involves, she is gets some amazing present too. Then a week later his parents would feel bad about the unequally and would buy him some toy to make sure he does not feel left out.
As quoted:
“it’s not fair, but Kate knows that. It doesn’t take a whole long life to realize that what we deserve to have, we rarely get. I stand up, with that lightning blot branding the lining of my throat, which makes it impossible to swallow, so everything gets backed up like a dammed river. I hurry out of Kate’s room and far enough down the hall where I won’t disturb her, and then I lift my list and punch a hole in the thick white wall and still this isn’t enough.”
(Picolt, Jodi, 2009:391)
Through this problem, Jesse can prove that he has a good morality too; he cares with his sisters. And when Anna dies, and his families trying to become like a normal families; Jesse reform his attitude. He graduates from the police academy. And he win a citation from the mayor for his role in a drug bust.
3.5 Campbell Alexander
Campbell is Anna lawyer. A man with mysteries of his own, has his own “service dog” Judge, but he is not blind and always covers up the real reason why he needs him, with different excuses all the time.
As quoted:
“The waiter reaches into his back pockets and hands me a plastic card. “here’s the barely menu.”
I want a double espresso and two croissants, and I’m not blind.’ “then what the dog for?”
“I have SARS.” I say. “he is tallying the people infect.” The waiter count seems to figure out it I am joking.”
Campbell is a rich man he lives in a apartment it is a work of art; sleek and minimalist. There is the best that money can buy. He is a handsome man. He has a black hair and he is tall is about sex feet; his eyes look frozen over.
As quoted:
“Campbell Alexander comes in too; he is got black hair and he is
at last as tall as my dad. Six feet-with a right angle jaw and eyes
that look frozen over.”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:19)
Campbell has wonderful brain and an excellent job. His father is a federal judge; and he is graduates from Wheeler school. It is factory pumping out debutantes and future investment bankers. He is the one of famous lawyer in Providence. He ever wills to litigate against God. That is why Anna choice him to be her Lawyer. Campbell helping Anna sues her parents for rights to her own body, but he seems to be doing it for the wrong reasons. He seems to be selfish and he wants to help Anna just for money. As Anna leaves his office after their first meeting, Campbell converses with his secretary.
As quoted:
“you can’t expect the kid to expect a kid for herself.” I head back
into my office. Judge follow pausing just inside the threshold.
“It’s no my problem.” I say.”
Campbell is so ambitious he will be do anything to gets what he want. He ask the judge to brings Sara rid away from Anna because he is afraid Sara will be persuades Anna, and brainwash Anna. And Campbell thinks that Brian Fitzgerald is his lock. Once the judge realizes that at least one of Anna’s parents agrees with her decision to stop being a donor for her sister, granting her emancipation would not be quite as lead a leap.
Campbell gets angry with Anna when she decides to stop her petition and she refuses to testify in the courtroom. Because Campbell afraid if Anna do not testify, they will be lose. But Anna still refuses to testifying and Anna asks Campbell to find another way to win. And it makes Campbell more angry with her.
As quoted:
“I stand up and dumping full cup of coffee into the trash. ‘well
then,’ I tell her. ‘Don’t expect me to be able to change your
life!’”
(Picoult, Jodi, 2009:416)
After understands the problem; Campbell realize that he is going a wrong thing. He realizes that this lawsuit has never about Anna wanting her sister to die, but simply that she wants a choice to live. And Campbell feels that Anna remind him of himself; sooner or letter he becomes Anna’s friend. Anna thought that Campbell is the people would be able to understand her.
courtroom becomes shocks. At last Campbell, tell the truth about what the dog for that is a seizure dog. The dog get him somewhere safe before it happens; and he is usually have about twenty minutes lead time.
After all, of the court session, Campbell wins the chase, and the judge asks Campbell to assume medical power of attorneys for Anna until age eighteen. And when Anna had died he is very sorry about that.
Through this problem, Campbell can prove that he has a good morality too. Campbell’s morality is he wants to be Anna’s lawyer and he is do not care about win or lose he realize that this courtroom is about quality of live versus the sanctity of live. And Campbell believes that morals is more important than ethics and love more important than law. Finally, Campbell leaves the best thing for him and changes it with the best for everyone is a good thing which has a good moral value by not to be selfish.
4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 4.1 Conclusion
After portraying the main characters’ morality in Jodi Picoult’s novel, My Sister’s
Keeper. I have found what is the main characters’ morality in My Sister Keeper and
relation between characterization and morality.
Morality is a human inside when they have to decide between two or more choices in their life as their thoughts and feelings; whether it is right or wrong, good or bad.
The novel My Sister’s Keeper shows the level of morality of each character. The morality level of main characters’ is different from each other. The same central conflict but it has different solvation and different attitudes bring Anna, Sara, Brian, Jesse, and Campbell in to a different level of morality. The important thing is how they bring and use their heart, thought, and feelings to choice the negative or positive, the good and bad one as their morality.
The characterization is related with the morality. If the characters’ have a good characterization, they usually have a good value in their morality. Because the way people act and think is effected by their characterization. If the characterization is bad or not good as same as the way they think and act. Their characterizations affect their attitude, when they deal with their problems in their life as their morality.
4.2 Suggestion
Jodi Picoult explores a complex subject with bravo and clarity, and comes up with heart wrenching. My Sister’s Keeper is the one of her greatest novels. It becomes One
New York Times Bestsellers. It enriches our knowledge and opens our eyes about
other problems we find in daily life. For example, a fairness, a responsibilities, and contradictions in our life; by reading a novel, readers may get other information that they cannot find from other books. Besides Picoult also conveys a massage for the reader through her novel, My Sister’s Keeper, that difference people have a different morality. In novel My Sister’s Keeper we can learn some lessons we can see every people have a positive and negative side, we can learn how to put aside our ego to get the best for all the people that we love, and learn how to do a better thing then they do. The moralities of a person make us be mature, because we can solve our problem wisher.
REFERENCES
Cockshut, A.O.J. 1980. The Novel to 1900. Hongkong : The Macmillan press Limited.
Hazel, Stephen . 1978. The English Novel.
Hornby, A.S. 1987. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary.England: Oxford University Press.
“Jodi Picoult’s Biography”. I
on 2 February 2010.
Maio, Klara. 1999. An Introduction to Literary Study .London: Rutledge
Nurgiyantoro, Burhan. 1998. Teori Pengkajian Fiksi, Yogyakarta: Gajah Mada University Press
Picoult, Jodi.2008. Penyelamat Kakakku. Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Picoult,Jodi.2009.My Sister’s Keeper.New York :Pocket Books A Division of simon
& Schuser.
Rees. R.J.1973. English Literature.Hongkong: The Macmillan Press Limited
Robert, Edgar V and Hendry .E. Jacob. 1995. An Introduction to Reading and Writing
( Fourth Edition ). New Jersey : Prentice Hall
Rogers, Pat.1988.The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. England: Oxford University Press.
Webster.2000. Webster’s New English Dictionary. Scotland: Geddess and Grosset.
APPENDICES
Biography of Jodi Picoult’s and Her Literary Works
Novelist Jodi Picoult makes her home in Hanover, New Hampshire. Picoult, who was awarded the New England Bestseller Award for a fiction in 2003, has written over a dozen novels since 1992. She was born in 1966 and raised in Nesconset on Long Island, New York. Her very first story, titled “The Lobster which Misunderstood” was written when she was only 5 years old.
Picoult attended Princeton University and had two short stories published in
Seventeen Magazine while she was a creative writing student at the prestigious
school. Her mentor was a teacher t the university, Mary Morris. After Princeton, she took a series of jobs-as technical writer for a wall street brokerage firm, a copywriter at an as agency, and as a middle school English teacher- before heading to Harvard to pursue a master’s degree in education.
Her stories are inspired by her happy childhood and marriage, and her plots and tend to revolve around relationships, love, and family she wrote her first novel, Songs
of the humpback Whale, a book about love, Picoult seems to have drawn on her
In 1995, she released her third Novel, Picture Perfect and it with Mercy, which became a selection on the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club. A story about mercy killing, Mercy was named one of the top seven novels of year by
Glamour Magazine. In 2003, she received the Margaret Alexander Edwards Award
by the American Literary Association for her novel My Sister’s Keeper.
Picoult often draws on her own experiences as a mother. But her environment inevitably creeps into her novels too. Her 2003 novel, Second Glace, takes place in Vermont and is inspired by the Abenaki Indians that settled in this region. In 2006, Picoult wrote her fourteenth novel, Nineteen Minutes. The book is set in the small fictional town of Sterling, New Hampshire.
In early 2007, Picoult was asked by DC Comics to pen the Wonder Women comic book series for five issues. Her first issue was released on March 28, 2007. her latest novel, Chance of Heart, hit bookstores on March 4, 2008, debuting at Number One on the New York Times bestseller list for fiction. Also in 2008, her book The Tenth
Circle was made into a television movie, starring Kelly Preston. It aired on the
Lifetime Network in June.
Jodi Picout is the bestselling author of the following novels: of the Humpback
Whale (1992), Harvesting the Heart (1994), Picture Perfect ( 1995), The Pact (
1998), Keeping Faith (1999), Plain Truth (2000), Salem Falls (2001), Perfect Match (2002), Second Glance (2003), My Sister’s Keeper (2004), Vanishing Acts ( 2005),
The Tenth Circle (2006), Nineteen Minute (2007). In she was awarded the new
England Bookseller Award for Fiction.
She was born and raised happily on long Island something that she believed at first was detriment to a girl who wanted to be a waiter. “I had such uneventful childhood that when I was taking writing classes at collage, I called home and asked my mother if maybe there might have been a little incest or domestic abuse on the side that she had forgotten about,” Picoult recalls. “It took me a while to realize that I already did have something to write about that solid core of family, and the knotty tangle of relationships, which I keep coming back to in my books.
Harvard to purse a master’s in education. She married Tim Van Leer, whom she had known at Princeton, and it was while she was pregnant with her first child that she wrote her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale.
She and Tim their three children live in Hanover, New Hampshire with a dog, a rabbit, tow Jersey calves, and the occasional Holstein.
Jodi Picoult Trivia:
- Picoult’s family has two Springer spaniels, two donkeys, two geese, three ducks and six chickens.
- When her oldest son finished reading My Sister’s Keeper, he broke into tears and would not speak to his mother for a while because he was so mad about the ending.
- Pcoult has had personal experience with the short of medical drama she writes about. When her middle son, Jake, was six he was diagnosed with cholestseatoma in his ear a benign tumor that cab grow into your brain and kill you. He had 10 surgeries in three years and was partially deaf until recently.
- Picoult likes to read Alice Hoffman.
Summary of My Sister’s Keeper
To save the life of her sibling and doing so does it make you a good mother or bad mother? Is it morality correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really one, if that guest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart or let others lead you? In My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult talkies a controversial real life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.
