Change

Authors Note- This is an essay I wrote that compares the movie with the original book, My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

       Picture yourself living the life of a cancer patient. Hours upon hours spent at hospitals dealing with side effects from gruesome treatments, agonizing pain,  and  no end in sight. Having cancer is truly one of the worst things that could happen to a person. In both the book and movie called My Sisters Keeper, you get a glimpse of what living with cancer is like through sixteen year old Kate Fitzgerald. Although both the film and novel show you what your life would be like if you had cancer, there are many differences between the book and movie. Some changes are minor, but a lot of changes made by the director of the movie, affect some of the overall meanings of the book.

        Like most movies that are based on books, many minor changes occur in order to keep the movie from being too long or boring. In the book My Sisters Keeper ,Anna, the main character is thirteen years old, but in the movie she is only ten years old. Although this is a minor change, it kind of took away some of the maturity and respect that you had for thirteen year old Anna in the book. Another little difference has to do with Anna’s relationship with her father. In the book, Anna even says “my dad and I have always had a connection. I think it’s because I take after him in a lot of ways. “(page 103) However in the movie, you see that Anna’s dad feels sympathy for her, but you don’t really get that special connection like in the book.

       Although there were some small edits made to the movie, there were also larger ones that took away from the point the author was trying to get across. One of the main topics I found in the book have to do with how cancer doesn’t affect just the patient, but their family as well. In the book, Anna and Kate’s parents get so wrapped up in their daughters  lives that they don’t even notice how their son, Jessie, is being affected. He starts setting fire to buildings and becomes an arsonist. This part in the book shocked me and really showed me how having cancer affects the entire family, but in the movie this part is left out. That cut took away an important message the author was trying to make.

       Along with changing the part about Jessie in the movie, the director also changed the ending of the story.  All readers were taken by surprise when Anna, the noncancerous healthy daughter, dies in a car crash, and Kate, the dying infected daughter goes on to live a long life. No one saw that coming and it completed the message the author was trying to get across. Anna served her purpose, and healed her sister, and now that Kate was healthy she wasn’t needed anymore. It also showed me that you never know when your time will come, and you will die. During the movie, the director does the complete opposite ending and just has Kate, the sister with cancer, die. With this new ending, it took away meaning and purpose from the actual story.

       Not only were drastic changes made to the ending of the story, but noticeable differences can be seen in lots of different parts of the movie. While some minor changes weren’t that big of a deal, the director of the movie made some edits that affected a lot of the authors message and purpose for the story. Unlike the movie, I felt like the author successfully got their point across that Anna served her purpose and saved her sister, that having cancer affects the entire family, and also that having cancer is something that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.