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OHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYY GOSHHHHHHHHHHH!! My Sister's Keeper was SO GOOD but it was SO SAD!! I just finished the book and I just about cried at the end. Jodi Picoult is such a touching writer - SHE IS AMAZING. I definitely recommend EVERYONE to read one of her books. She really puts your life into perspective; life's too short to spend worrying about...anything.

This last section of the book was the main climax and the final resolution. First of all, Anna actually won medical emancipation, which means she won the court case. But by the time it was necessary for the judge to make a decision, the case was no longer about Anna and her kidney, it was about the right for Anna to make her own choices. And by the end of Anna's story, she won the right, at age 13, to make those choices. We see that Anna and Campbell are very much alike and they have a great relationship by the end of the case. Campbell tells Anna he can take her home after they sign the paperwork while Brian and Sara head to the hospital to see Kate. It's pouring the rain outside and Anna and Campbell get into a HUGE car accident. Campbell makes it out alive, along with Judge (the service dog), but Anna doesn't get so lucky. She has a weak pulse and is pulled out the totaled BMW by her own father. She is taken to the hospital and pronounced brain-dead, and because of the recent court case, Campbell now has final say on all medical decisions. He decides to give Anna's kidney to Kate and to take her off life-support. Although Campbell wants to keep Anna for as long as possible, he knows he has to let her go because the part that makes Anna Anna, is gone. The story line changed completely and I never even saw this coming. 

Towards the end of the book, we see the real reason why Campbell has the service dog, Judge. It's because he got in a car accident at age 18 and he has seizures and he is very self-conscience about them. He usually lies if anyone asks what the service dog is for. He even lies to Julia. When Campbell has a seizure in the middle of court, Julia finally realizes what he has been hiding all this time. This is when she tells him that she loves him, she has always loved him, and she DOESN'T care if he has seizures - and she will ALWAYS be there for them. This is soo cute - and I'm so happy for them. We find out in the epilogue that they end up getting married.

Also, I find this very interesting. We hear from EVERYONE's point of view in the story, except for Kate. We don't hear about her side of the story until the epilogue. I find this really interesting. This is obviously a technique that Jodi Picoult is using because we never REALLY hear how Kate is feeling until Anna finally opens up during the court case when she testifies. We learn that Kate wanted to die. She wanted to put everyone out of the pain and anxiety that they were feeling at that time. Anna would have been more than willing to give Kate her kidney - that's just the kind of person that she is. But the fact that Kate encouraged her to fight her parents, to fight for the right to her own body - so that she, Anna, could have some happiness, was amazing. Kate wanted to STOP being the one that Anna always took care of, she wanted to be the hero for once, and save Anna.

Also at the beginning of the book there is a little snippet of the story, all italicized. The reader orignially thinks its from the point of view of Anna, but at the end we finally learn that it's from Kate's point of view! This is a huge shocker and the last few sentences of that story send chills up my spine. Only really powerful authors can do that to the reader, that's why Jodi Picoult is so amazing.

The reader learns a lot about of background information about Julia and Campbell's relationship. We learn that they both love each other -- but Julia doesn't want to tell Campbell this because she doesn't want to feel pathetic and Campbell doesn't want to tell Julia this because he doesn't want her to lose the quality of an independent spirit. Julia and Campbell are a lot alike and I think that it's stupid that when Julia shows Campbell that she loves him back and feels as if she can depend on him -- he freaks out and runs away! It's really annoying and I just want to slap Campbell because he's being an idiot. Obviously, Julia and Campbell are perfect together and they know everything there is to know about each other.

Also in this reading, I learned all about the past with the Fitzgerald family. There was one point in 2001 where the doctors were certain that Kate was going to die. She woke up in the middle of the night and she was gushing blood from her nose and from her eye sockets...it was so heartbreaking! Brian and Sara immediately rushed Kate to the hospital but the doctors told them the only way to try to keep Kate alive would be to put her on this experimental arsenic poison treatment. At first, Brian was a little skeptical, but after some convincing Sara agreed because they both decided that if Kate died without trying this treatment they would also wonder what would have happened if they decided to try the treatment. While reading this book, I constantly think about my future self and wonder what I would do if I was in this situation...honestly, I have NO idea what I would do. Obviously, I would do anything to keep my child alive like Sara, but at the same time, I would love my child too much to let him/her suffer like Brian said. It's such a scary thing, cancer. It's so scary because there is no cure, and its still a mystery. 

At the end of this section of reading, the court case between Anna and her mother is just beginning. Campbell seems to be a pretty strong lawyer, but Sara Fitzgerald (the opposing counsel) is also pretty convincing. I'm not sure who is going to win the case, but the decision will definitely have a lasting impact on the family. I'm not sure if the decision will actually be better for the family or if it will just pull the family furthur apart. 

We are introduced to a new main character during this part of the book. We meet Julia Romano. She is the guardian ad litem for Anna Fitzgerald. Also, we see that she has a past with Anna's lawyer, Alexander Campbell. We don't know much about their past relationship except that they went to high school together and they ended up dating. Hopefully what we will find out in the future why Campbell left Julia - and this will probably explain why she is so bitter towards him.

Anna's mom, Sara, always seems to be VERY concerned about Kate but never seems to worry about Anna or Jesse, her oldest son. Jesse acts out to try and get attention. Not only does he do drugs and drinks a lot, but he is an arsonist. Neither of his parents know this about him, but he goes to empty buildings and just burns them. I think he does this so that he knows where is dad is for a brief moment of time because Brian Fitzgerald (the father) is a firefighter. Jesse sets buildings on fire because this is the only thing he can control and the more time that Brian spends on these false fires - the less time he will spend in actual life-threatening fires. Sara worries about Anna but only because she is the only person that can save Kate and give her transplants of bone marrow and granulocytes. Sara is constantly telling Anna that they don't have to go through with the court case. They can drop the case and become a normal family again. This is what Anna really wants - but she is tired of doing all the transplants. Sara keeps PRESSURING her to do all the transplants and she wants Anna to keep giving blood and cells and possibly even a KIDNEY! Anna is upset, but she knows she has to go through with the case to get her message across. 

Campbell tried to create a restraining order for Sara, not allowing to live in the same house as Anna -- but this was denied by Judge DeSalvo (the judge of this court case). Instead, Anna is now living with her dad at the fire station. This is to remain being part of the family but to avoid being in close (awkward) quarters with her mom. I think this is a good idea because Brian is a pretty reasonable man, UNLIKE Sara. Sara DEFINITELY chooses favorites.

In the second part of this book, Art Spiegelman introduces new animals. When the American soldiers came to the aid of Vladek, they were portrayed at dogs. I found this very fitting because the dogs (Americans) came and chased the cats (Germans) who were chasing the mice (Jews). Also introduced into the book were the French people who were portrayed as frogs and the Swedish people who were portrayed as deer. It was very interesting to me to see which animals Spiegelman decided to use and it has sort of a metaphoric meaning...although, I'm not quite sure why frogs and deer were used to represent the French and Swedish people, respectively.

In the end, I decided that I really liked these books. I thought I wouldn't like these books at first, and I have to say I was a little wary. I thought that these books would be really boring and more of a "guy book." After reading deeper into the graphic novel, I realized that I really did like it and it was a miraculous story. Vladek Spiegelman is definitely a lucky man. Also, I enjoyed reading this different genre. It was not to read a typical "classic" American literature book.

In Maus II, we see that Mala has finally decided to leave Vladek because he is old and miserly and she feels like she's in a prison...I really don't understand why they would marry each other if they can't stand each other. Vladek doesn't like Mala with a passion because he says she treats him poorly, and Mala can't stand to live with Vladek because he saves everything and is so frugal with his money -- he doesn't give her any freedom. Maybe it has something to do with Auschwitz...I'm not really sure because Anja died over 20 years after Auschwitz happened...I'm just not sure.

During the first part of the second book of Maus, Vladek tells his story of life at Auschwitz and Vladek was a very lucky Jew. He was able to do many odd jobs to keep from doing the very strenuous work at the very end of his 10 month stay at Auschwitz. First, Vladek gave English lessons to a Polish kapo in quarentine for 2 months, then he worked in the tinshop for 3 months, he then worked in the shoe shop for another 2 months, and finally finished at Auschwitz by doing black work for the rest of the time. Art Spiegelman does a really good job telling his father's story. It's really amazing that Vladek and Anja could survive something so terrible without giving up hope and I can't wait to read about their escape from Auschwitz.

When I first started reading Maus, I thought the book was very strange. I didn't understand why the Jews were being portrayed as mice and why the story was being told the way it was - through comics. Now that I know more about the author and now that I'm further into the book - I'm definitely enjoying it more. At first I thought that I wouldn't like the way it was written. I thought I wouldn't be able to take this comic, that's about the Holocaust, seriously. But in fact, this comic is really well written and it doesn't make you laugh like most comics do. It's easy for Art Spiegelman to express the emotions of his characters through the drawings that he makes. Using comic techniques he can also easily change the moods of his characters and the tones of their voices. To express these changes, Spielgelman uses bold, italicized and all capital words, different word bubble shapes, and changes the setting of the picture box. I never realized how many factors go into making a comic strip, but this seems harder than writing an actual novel.

I'm really excited to start reading the second Maus book. I know that Vladek still lives in the end but I can't help but still be scared for his life at the end of the first book. 

So far, Maus is the story of a young man, Artie Spiegelman, learning the story of his father's life before and during World War II. Artie's idea is to make a comic book of his father's life and this is the final product. This book is really easy to read, and its the first book that I have read with pictures in a looooong time. There are three types of animals in the book. The Jews are represented by the mice, the pigs are represented by the non-Jewish Poles, and the cats represent the Nazis. I think this is really fitting that the cats prey on the mice like the Nazis "preyed" on the Jews.

This book is also interesting because it's like there are two stories going on at one time. The first story is happening in the present where Artie obtaining the information about his father's past and the second story is Artie's father's actually past. It's actually really interesting the way that Artie writes the story. He even uses his father's broken English which really gives the reader a realistic feeling about the book. 

There are also a few things that I don't understand in this book so far and they both have to do with the present: 1) I don't understand why Vladek (Artie's father) would marry Mala if he truly can't stand her. It definitely seems as if he doesn't love her and 2) I don't understand why Vladek threw Artie's coat in the trash can. It's kind of random and I don't really understand what it has to deal with in the book.

Just a few days ago I started reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Many people have recommended that I read this book, and I actually bought it a few months ago at Borders and NOW I am finally reading it. I was so excited when I heard about this assignment because now we can read a book that we are genuinely interested in reading. So far I have only read about 100 pages, but I am in love with this book! Jodi Picoult is an amazing author and I love how she writes from all of the characters points of view. Not only do we hear from the main character, Anna, who is trying to sue her parents for her medical emancipation, but we hear from her mother, Sara, and how hard it was to raise a child who had leukemia beginning at a very young age. It's an amazing story and I can't put it down!

The plot is basically about this 13 year old girl, Anna, the youngest of her family who was born just to be a bone marrow match for her sister, Kate, who has leukemia cancer. Anna has had multiple transfusions and surgeries just to keep her sister alive and her parents are now trying to get Anna to give one of her kidneys to Kate who needs this kidney as soon as possible. Anna is scared and doesn't want to go through with the surgery due to the possible side effects -- including death. The reader watches Anna hire a lawyer and live with her parents who she is suing for the rights to her own body. 

I feel so bad for Anna. She really loves her family but she can't stand feeling like she isn't as loved as her other siblings are and she doesn't feel like a priority because she was just conceived because Kate was sick. I can't even imagine what's going on in her head. What would have happened if Kate wasn't sick? Anna probable wouldn't have even exsisted.

"'Tom,' I inquired, ‘what did you say to Wilson that afternoon? [...]

‘I told him the truth,' he said. ‘...He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn't told him who owned the car. His hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house-‘ He broke off defiantly. ‘What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust into your eyes just like he did in Daisy's, but he was a tough one. He ran over Myrtle like you'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car.'"

Tom was the one who told Wilson that Gatsby owned the yellow car! I know this quote is pretty long, but I found it must important because the reader sees how cold-hearted Tom actually is. Imagine what would have happened if he found out that DAISY was actually driving the yellow car. Tom would probably kill her - or at least try to kill her. She DID end up killing his true love, even though it wasn't intentional. After Wilson figured out who the owner of the yellow car was he immediately tried hunting down Gatsby. Gatsby was killed in his pool and Wilson's body was found farther in the woods. While reading this part - I couldn't figure out if this meant that Wilson killed himself or if he just injured himself and was lying there unconsciously. So much happened during these last two chapters that I wasn't expecting at all!

We also ended up finding out a lot about Nick. Although most of the time he is just an annoying and boring observer, we find out that his relationship between him and Jordan is now over. He stopped talking to her and he was being strangely rude. She called him and told him that they were over and that she is now engaged. After Nick finds out about this - he can't decide if he's angry or not because he's still in love with her. Also, the reader finds out that Nick was actually closer to Gatsby than he actually lets on. At one point in the reading he says that he never liked Gatsby from the beginning; but then when Nick is talking with Gatsby's father, Nick says that him and Gatsby were VERY good, close friends...NICK NEEDS TO MAKE UP HIS MIND. All and all, I really liked this book - the colors which held a secret meaning were espeically entertaining!

Vocab

Garrulous (adj.) - excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, esp. about trivial matters.

The president of a large corporation presented a garrulous and boring speech at the meeting.

Vestibule (n.) - a passage, hall, or antechamber between the outer door and the interior parts of a house or building.

"'Please Tom! I can't stand this any more.'

Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone.

'You two start on home, Daisy,' said Tom. 'In Mr. Gatsby's car" (134-135). 

In this quote when Tom, Daisy, Nick, Gatsby, and Jordan went to New York City for a day trip, many conflicts arose. Daisy is obviously in love with Gatsby and Tom finally realizes this and won't leave the two alone. Tom also confronts all the problems that he has with Gatsby - not only his love for Daisy, who is a married woman, but also his bootlegging business, his interaction with very shady characters, the way he says "old sport," and his lying about attending Oxford. Here is where we, the reader, finds out the truth about Oxford University and his "attendance" their. Gatsby went to Oxford for five months for a special army program after the war ended. Technically he was telling the truth the whole time, but we knew that he didn't obtain a degree of some sort from Oxford. Gatsby's involvement with shady characters has increased because Gatsby recently fired all of his servents - to prevent gossip about him and Daisy - and replaced them all with shady men and women who are very close with Meyer Wolfsheim. 

Many other things happened in the reading as well. Not only did Tom find out about Gatsby and Daisy and threaten to hurt them if they didn't stop, but Mr. Wilson found out that his wife, Myrtle has been having an affair. Mr. Wilson hasn't figured out who it is with - but he is very upset that his wife would do such a thing! Later, after Tom was coming back from the city with Nick and Jordan - he sees a fatal car accident. It turns out that Myrtle has been killed by a yellow car!! THIS IS GATSBY'S CAR! Tom immediately assumes that Gatsby was the one who killed his mistress!! BUT IT WAS REALLY DAISY!!!!!! whoawhoawhoaaaa! do you think this happened on purpose??? Maybe Daisy was so mad that she couldn't be with Gatsby so she got back at Tom by killing his true love - Mrytle! SO EVERONE SUFFURS??! I don't know....

At the end of the chapter, Nick finds Daisy and Tom together at the table with cold dinner and ale. They ended up reconciled their differences although neither of them is happy about what has happened. Gatsby stays like a true gentleman and makes sure that Daisy gets to bed okay - because you never know what trick Tom might have up his sleeve. 

 Vocab

Vigil (n.) - a watch or a period of watchful attention maintained at night or at other times

The nurse kept her vigil at the bedside of the dying man.  

 Tumultuous (adj.) - raising a great clatter and commotion; disorderly or noisy

There was a tumultuous crowd of students at the pep rally.