Abandonment

Author's Note: I wrote this point of view piece on the book My SIster's Keeper. I focused on the character of the older brother Jesse because nobody ever seems so pay attention to him and it's sad. 

In My Sister's Keeper, Kate is always getting sympathy from someone because she has AML. It's a rare form of leukemia. You could only imagine what her parents and siblings are going through. Kate's 13 year old sister, Anna, is her donor and has been a donor for her whole life. Kate and Anna are both frequently in and out of the hospital. Their parents have no time for the older brother Jesse because they're lives temporarily revolve around Kate and Anna. How do you think Jesse feels that absolutely  nobody pays the slightest bit of attention to him?

The book is mostly out of Anna and her parents point of view. They talk about how tough it is to have a daughter with cancer.Or, when told in  Anna's perspective, how unfair it is for her to sacrifice things about her own body and her own life to undergo another invasive surgery. Jesse however, has very few parts in the book and he is always left in the dirt to fend for himself. Nobody ever asks him simple questions like "hey, how was your day?" or " how are you?". He is left alone to figure and sort things out himself. The readers of this book always feel sympathetic towards the parents and the sisters, rightfully so, but the readers  never think about how it affects Jesse. People think " wow, that lucky older brother just gets to live his life". If the whole entire book was told from Jesse's point of view, the story would be completely different . 

Interpreting the story correctly is key. You can't judge or criticize other characters if you don't have a lot of information. Sure you can make predictions or inferences, but can you really make a factual statement about them? No, you can't because just like Jesse in this book, characters are often perceived differently to many people. 


 I recreated a scene from the book where it was originally told in the mothers point of view, but I typed it in Jesse's point of view. 

Does anybody know I exist? Can anybody see me? I stand directly in front of them and appear translucent. So what if I drink? So what if I smoke? So what if I do marijuana? Nobody cares what I'm up to anyways.  I'm out of sight out of mind. Kate's their prized possession who takes up 90% of their time. The other 10% goes to Anna who is their fragile doll. They spend their time with her explaining the next procedure she will be having. God forbid anything happen to Anna. That would mean no stem cell transplant. That would mean no bone marrow transplant.That would mean no existence of Kate. I however, am like a little piece of dust to my parents. Pointless and unacknowledged. 

I beat  up some kid in school today. Nothing serious, just a black eye and a bloody nose. The principal lectured me in his office for a good hour about the famous " treating people the way you want to be treated" crap. Every agitating word that came out of that  mans  mouth sounded like a foreign language. All I could think about was wanting to smoke. My dad lectures me about the whole "you'll get emphysema" thing about once every four months. I don't care. Nobody will miss me if I die. I rolled my eyes at  the principal while he called dad and told him Islammed that kid. I don't think Dad will care because Kate relapsed again and is having another lymphocyte infusion today from Anna. Pretty big  procedure if I may say so myself. Leukemia seems like a downer. Poor Kate. Oh well, not my problem.

Mom's on her way to get me, surprisingly. She's probably going to yell at me or something stupid like that. 

 I love Kate. And I love Anna too. They're my sisters. Kate having cancer is the worst. I don't get involved with any of it though. Nobody needs to know I care. Nobody.