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ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan tugas akhir untuk memenuhi persyaratan memperoleh gelar
Sarjana Sastra di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen
Maranatha, saya memutuskan untuk menganalisis sebuah novel karya Jodi Picoult
yang berjudul My Sister’s Keeper. Hal yang akan saya analisa dari novel ini adalah
konflik yang dialami oleh tokoh utama di dalam novel tersebut, penyebab konflik,
dan solusi yang diambil untuk memecahkan konflik tersebut.
Novel My Sister’s Keeper menceritakan seorang anak perempuan bernama
Andromeda Fitzgerald atau Anna yang terlahir secara kloning sebagai donor
allegeneic untuk menolong kakak perempuannya bernama Kate yang terkena
penyakit leukemia akut, sehingga Anna menjadi donor yang sempurna untuk Kate.
Anna, adalah tokoh utama dalam novel ini, ia mengalami dua konflik psikologis dan
tiga konflik sosial. Semua konflik yang dialaminya berkaitan dengan dirinya sebagai
donor allogeneic. Anna mempunyai perbedaan pendapat dengan orang tuanya,
sehingga menimbulkan konflik sosial. Sama halnya dengan konflik psikologis, Anna
mengalami tekanan sehubungan dengan penentuan kehidupannya. Akan tetapi Anna
harus menentukan yang terbaik untuk dirinya sendiri. Pada akhirnya, semua konflik
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CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF INNER AND SOCIAL CONFLICTS OF THE PROTAGONIST IN MY SISTER’S KEEPER 1. Inner conflicts concerning: 1.1Suing Anna’s parents . . . 4
1.2A necklace given by Anna’s father . . . 6
2. Social conflicts concerning: 2.1Anna’s need to be equally given attention by her parents as they give more attention to Kate . . . 8
18
APPENDICES
Summary of My Sister’s Keeper
Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald as one of the protagonists in this novel is
trapped in a family situation. She is not ill, but she has to stay at hospital because
of her sister‟s illness. Her elder sister, Kate Fitzgerald, has acute promyelocytic
leukemia since she was two years old. Anna was born as an identical genetic copy
of her elder sister to help her to be alive. She is the one who can save her elder
sister. Now Anna is thirteen years old and she feels tired that she always gives
what her elder sister needs, and her parents never ask permission from her when
the doctor takes anything from her body. Anna decides to hire a lawyer to become
medically emancipated from her parents in order to gain the right to make the
decision for herself. Her lawyer, Campbell Alexander, works for her.
At the end of the book, it is revealed that the reason Anna initiates the
lawsuit is because her sister does not want her to donate the kidney. Kate says that
she is ready to die. After the trial, Anna is granted medical emancipation.
Unfortunately on her way home, Anna has a car accident and dies in the accident.
19 Biography of the Author
Jodi Picoult was born May 19, 1966 in Nesconset on Long Island, New
York. She has written since she was five years old. She studied writing at
Princeton University, and graduated in 1987, and she also gets a master‟s degree
in education from Harvard. She married Tim Van Leer and they have three
children, Sammy, Kyle and Jake. They live in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Picoult‟s stories are inspired by her happy childhood and marriage, and her
plots tend to revolve around relationships, love, and family. Until 2009 she has
written seventeen novels. In 2003, she was awarded the New England Bookseller
Award for Fiction. She has also been the recipient an Alex Award from the Young
Adult Library Services Association, sponsored by the Margaret Alexander
Edwards Trust and Booklist, one of ten books written for adults that have special
appeal for young adults; the Book Browse Diamond Award for novel of the year;
a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of
America; Cosmopolitan magazine‟s „Fearless Fiction‟ Award 2007; Waterstone‟s
Author of the Year in the UK, and a Vermont Green Mountain Book Award.
Most recently, she wrote five issues of the Wonder Woman comic book
series for DC Comics and her book entitled My Sister‟s Keeper is translated into
thirty four languages in thirty five countries. My Sister‟s Keeper has made into
20
The film was released to theatres nationwide on June 26, 2009 and came out on
DVD on November 17, 2009.
1 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In this thesis, I choose to analyze a novel entitled My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi
Picoult, and I will discuss the inner and social conflicts of the protagonist. Jodi Picoult
is an American writer of the 21st century and she is the bestselling author of eighteen
novels. All her novels are about family and human living. “Most of her books are
inspired by her children” (Picoult). “In her novels, Picoult always serves conflicts
between human relationships and poses moral dilemmas which involve a criminal or
civil case and she often uses an attorney character”(“Jodi Picoult”).
I choose one of her novels entitled My Sister’s Keeper because she describes the
characters in great details. The plot gives clear picture and detailed explanation. The
conflicts in this novel are very prominent. “She tells the emotionally riveting story of a
family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human
weakness” (“My Sister’s Keeper”). This novel won nine awards, one of which is the
Winner of the Margaret Alexander Edwards Award or the Alex Award, which was
given by the American Library Association (Picoult). “The novel is translated into thirty
2 Maranatha Christian University Sister’s Keeper”). It is also stated in The Boston Herald that “It is difficult to find a
book combining a timely moral dilemma with well-drawn characters for whom one
cares. Picoult has written such a book” (Picoult). The statement above is also one of the
reasons why I choose Jodi Picoult’s novel entitled My Sister’s Keeper, as she can create
such an interesting novel with well-drawn characters whose life stories can touch our
feelings. Besides, the plot is clear, which makes this novel worth-analyzing.
The literary elements that I am going to analyze in this thesis are conflicts of the
protagonist because conflicts among the most prominent literary elements in the novel.
According to Harry Shaw in his Dictionary of Literary Terms,
Conflict is an important element of plot; they are the material from which a plot
is constructed. There are three types of conflicts; first type is physical conflict, a
struggle between man and the physical world. It represented man versus forces
of nature. Second type is social conflict, a struggle between man and man. Third
type is inner conflict, a struggle between desires within a person. (Shaw 91-92)
The protagonist Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald experiences both social and
inner conflicts. Each member of the family does not have good relationship with each
other. Due to those reasons, I feel challenged to analyze the social and inner conflicts of
the protagonist of the novel.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems of this study are:
1. What social conflicts are faced by the protagonist?
2. What inner conflicts are faced by the protagonist?
3 Maranatha Christian University PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Based on the statement of the problem, the purposes of the study are:
1. To find what social conflicts experienced by.
2. To find what inner conflicts experienced by.
3. To show how the resolutions of the social and inner conflicts.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
In doing the analysis, I use library research. First, I read Jodi Picoult’s novel
entitled My Sister’s Keeper as a primary text. After that, I search the references from
the library and electronic websites which can support the analysis and furthermore help
me in writing my thesis. Finally, I draw some conclusion from my analysis.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
The thesis is organized into three chapters, which is preceded by the
Acknowledgement, Table of Contents and Abstract. In the first chapter, I present the
Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the
Method of Research and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two consists of the
Analysis of Inner and Social Conflicts of protagonist in Jodi Picoult’s novel entitled My
Sister’s Keeper. Chapter Three is the Conclusion of the Analysis. The thesis ends with
the Bibliography and the Appendices, which include the Synopsis of My Sister’s
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CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After having analyzed both inner and social conflicts in My Sister’s Keeper, I
can conclude that Jodi Picoult is a great writer due to the fact that she succeeds not
only in producing a good story which makes the readers feel satisfied after having
read the novel, but also in creating inner and social conflicts so perfectly that these
elements make the story become interesting to read. In this chapter, I would review
the inner and social conflicts of the protagonist in the novel, and draw a conclusion.
Having read the novel and analyzed the inner and social conflicts of the protagonist in
Jodi Picoult’ My Sister’s Keeper, I am of the opinion that Andromeda Fitzgerald or
Anna, as the protagonist of the novel has experienced inner and social conflicts
because she has different perceptions compared to the other members in her family.
These different perceptions cause Anna to have dilemmas that affect her life in the
family.
Most of the elements of inner and social conflicts in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s
Keeper are interesting so as to make the readers wonder as well as question about
Maranatha Christian University 15
Keeper is relevant to real life. An allogeneic donor like Anna is needed for leukemia
patient to do stem cell transplantation. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is a form
of transplant in which the stem cells are gathered from a donor whose tissue type
closely matches the patient's tissue type. Similar to Anna, such donors are usually
relatives, such as brother, sister, child or parents. In Mexico, there is a boy who is an
allogeneic donor. He is willing to be a donor for his father who has leukemia because
he loves him. The boy being an allogeneic donor until his father wants to end his life
because his father cannot stand for the painful of being leukemia.
In my opinion, it is fine for someone to be an allogeneic donor for his/her
relatives; still, we cannot force him/her to be an allogeneic donor, because it is his/her
personal rights. In Anna’s case, she wants to sue her parents because she feels
burdened to get her freedom and she has the right to do that. Placing myself in
Anna’s position, I will make the same decision. Anna is human and she has full rights
of her body. Besides, Anna experiences difficult dilemma, because in her effort of
getting her freedom, she might lose Kate. I think Anna’s decision is right, because
despite her help, sooner or later Kate will die. Therefore, Anna feels that she has to
get her full rights as an individual to make her own decision.
However, if I place myself in Anna’sparents’ position, I will not do the same
thing as Anna’s parents who produce Anna as an allogeneic donor for Kate, because a
donor is not a thing, but a human who has feeling. One cannot do whatever one wants
towards human being; because they have rights for their life, as shown in the story,
when Anna grows up, she feels burdened and asks her rights as a human being. One
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because Anna’s parents have treated Anna unfairly. Anna’s parents pay too much
attention to Kate’s health disregarding Anna’s pain. Being parents means having to
be fair to all of their children, even though the family is facing a bad situation.
Therefore, I do not agree with Anna’s parents because they are not fair to their child.
Even though I disagree with Anna’s parents, I can understand them as they
only want the best for their children. They somehow forget that Anna has feelings.
They may use Anna for saving Kate but they cannot treat Anna like a thing. Even
though Anna’s parents create her as an allogeneic donor, they have to pay attention to
Anna as their child. It is not easy to be an allogeneic donor, as a donor must feel
physically painful when he/she donates his/her cells. Nobody wants to be treated like
a robot, because everyone has rights as human being. Therefore, Anna has to struggle
to get her freedom, even though she has to be ready for losing Kate. Anna has to
decide for her life and for the sake of her future, which is why she sues her parents.
I am of the opinion that Jodi Picoult as the author succeeds in creating a great
family story that fills with social and inner conflicts of the protagonist. Jodi Picoult is
successful in showing the conflicts from the Anna’s point of view and in persuading
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary text:
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. Washington: Washington Square Press, 2005.
Reference:
Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976.
Internet websites:
Allogeneic. The Free Dictionary. 2010. 29 March 2010.
<http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/allogeneic>.
Jodi Picoult. Wikipedia. 2009. 13 Aug. 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodi_Picoult>.
My Sister’s Keeper. Fantastic Fiction. 2009. 19 Aug. 2009.
<http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/jodi-picoult/my-sisters-keeper.htm>.
My Sister’s Keeper. Wikipedia. 2009. 13 Aug. 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Sister%27s_Keeper>.
Picoult, Jodi. “My Sister’s Keeper.” Jodi Picoult. 2009. 13 Aug. 2009. <www.jodipicoult.com/my-sisters-keeper.html>.
