The Emotional Struggle

In the book “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult, Kate the older sister is dying of Leukemia.  This is a huge emotional problem for the whole family.  Some members of the family have a really difficult time dealing with this situation.  Others handle it in a better way.  Kate’s sister, Anna handles the situation calmly. However, Sarah, the mom is very chaotic and doesn’t help the situation. 

Anna, even though she is younger than Kate she deals with her sickness very responsibly.  She acts very calm and emotionally stable around Kate.  Having a sister who is dying of a very scary illness can be tough to deal with and I think Anna handles it very well.  Not only does she act responsible, she also makes her sister feel welcome and normal.  When she treats Kate like sisters treat each other, for example, fighting over stuff, it makes Kate feel better and like she belongs.  This helps the situation and doesn’t make it worse than it already is.  Overall, I think Anna deals with this difficult issue very well and understands how to deal with the situation. 

On the other hand, Sarah deals with the situation poorly.  As a mom it must be really difficult to see your child in a lot of pain.  This is why Sarah gets frantic and chaotic when Kate has a relapse or is doing some sort of treatment.  When Sarah has nervous breakdowns this causes Kate to get more nervous.  How Sarah acts during these tough situations affects how everyone else in the family acts as well.  Sarah has a hard time emotionally, dealing with Kate having cancer. 

It is very challenging and upsetting when dealing with a troublesome situation.  In the story Kate has cancer starting at two years old.  I realized that even after having to go through many relapses and seeing the same thing over and over again it is still hard to contain ones self.  When an issue is as severe as Kate’s, it is very hard to act calm and deal with it in the right way.