My Sister’s Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper

by

Jodi Picoult

Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald Character Analysis

Anna is the protagonist of the novel. A 13-year-old girl and the youngest of three children, Anna was conceived via in vitro fertilization so that she could be a donor for her sister Kate, who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia. Throughout her life, she has been a donor for Kate multiple times, including for painful procedures such as bone marrow donations. At the novel’s outset, Anna’s parents want her to donate a kidney to Kate, leading Anna to sue them for medical emancipation. Anna’s decision causes considerable tension between her and her mother Sara, although her father Brian, Kate, and her brother Jesse are more ambivalent. Throughout her lawsuit, Anna often cycles between standing up for herself and second-guessing her decisions, causing her lawyer, Campbell, to doubt her commitment to her case. However, it is eventually revealed that Anna’s conflict is due to the fact that Kate herself asked her to file her lawsuit so that she can die on her own terms and Anna can have a life beyond being Kate’s donor. This latter future is indeed desirable for Anna, which causes her profound guilt as she struggles to reconcile her love for Kate with her desire for freedom. Although Anna ultimately wins her case, she never gets the chance to decide either way, as she is tragically killed in a car accident that renders her brain-dead. Before removing her life support, Campbell, Sara, and Brian decide to donate her kidney to Kate.

Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald Quotes in My Sister’s Keeper

The My Sister’s Keeper quotes below are all either spoken by Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald or refer to Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bodily Autonomy Theme Icon
).
1. Monday: Anna Quotes

I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm to create a specific combination of previous genetic material. In fact, when Jesse told me how babies get made and I, the great disbeliever, decided to ask my parents the truth, I got more than I bargained for. They sat me down and explained all the usual stuff, of course—but they also explained that they chose little embryonic me, specifically, because I could save my sister, Kate. “We loved you even more,” my mother made sure to say, “because we knew what exactly we were getting.”

It made me wonder, though, what would have happened if Kate had been healthy. Chances are, I’d still be floating up in Heaven or wherever, waiting to be attached to a body to spend some time on Earth. Certainly, I would not be part of this family. See, unlike the rest of the free world, I didn’t get here by accident. And if your parents have you for a reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it’s gone, so are you.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Jesse Fitzgerald
Page Number: 7-8
Explanation and Analysis:
2. Monday: Campbell Quotes

I tap my pen on the desk, and Judge—my dog—sidles closer. “What happens if you don’t give your sister a kidney?”

“She’ll die.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

Anna’s mouth is set in a thin line. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are. I’m just trying to figure out what made you want to put your foot down, after all this time.”

She looks over at the bookshelf. “Because,” she says simply, “it never stops.”

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Campbell Alexander (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
4. Monday: Brian Quotes

Anna’s real name is Andromeda. It’s on her birth certificate, honest to God. The constellation she’s named after tells the story of a princess, who was shackled to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster—punishment for her mother Casseopeia, who had bragged to Poseidon about her own beauty. Perseus, flying by, fell in love with Andromeda and saved her. In the sky, she’s pictured with her arms outstretched and her hands chained.

The way I saw it, the story had a happy ending. Who wouldn’t want that for a child?

Related Characters: Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald
Related Symbols: Stars and Cosmology
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
5. Tuesday: Anna Quotes

“For God’s sake, Anna,” my mother says. “Do you even realize what the consequences would be?”

My throat closes like the shutter of a camera, so that any air or excuses must move through a tunnel as thin as a pin. I’m invisible, I think, and realize too late I have spoken out loud.

My mother moves so fast I do not even see it coming. But she slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it’s faded. Just so you know: shame is five-fingered.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Sara Fitzgerald (speaker)
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
7. Wednesday: Campbell Quotes

“Anna,” I say, at the exact same moment as Sara Fitzgerald.

It is my responsibility to explain to Anna that Judge DeSalvo wants a few minutes in private. I need to coach her, so that she says the right things, so that the judge doesn’t throw the case out before she gets what she wants. She is my client; by definition, she is supposed to follow my counsel.

But when I call her name, she turns toward her mother.

Related Characters: Campbell Alexander (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
10. 1990-1991: Sara Quotes

The baby’s head slips through the seal of my skin. The doctor’s hand holds her, slides that gorgeous cord free of her neck, delivers her shoulder by shoulder.

I struggle to my elbows to watch what is going on below. “The umbilical cord,” I remind him. “Be careful.” He cuts it, beautiful blood, and hurries it out to the room to a place where it will be cryogenically preserved until Kate is ready for it.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
11. Wednesday: Julia Quotes

For a minute I look at [Anna]. What would I do, if I found out that Izzy needed a kidney, or a part of my liver, or marrow? The answer isn’t even questionable—I would ask how quickly we could go to the hospital and have it done.

But then, it would have been my choice, my decision.

Related Characters: Julia Romano (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Isobel “Izzy” Romano
Page Number: 111-112
Explanation and Analysis:
12. Wednesday: Campbell Quotes

“Do you have kids?” Anna asks.

I laugh. “What do you think?”

“It’s probably a good thing,” she admits. “No offense, but you don’t exactly look like a parent.”

This fascinates me. “What do parents look like?”

She seems to think about this. “You know about how the tightrope guy at the circus wants everyone to believe his act is an art, but deep down you can see that he’s really just hoping he makes it all the way across? Like that.”

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Campbell Alexander (speaker)
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:
13. Wednesday: Anna Quotes

There was this kid in my school, Jimmy Stredboe, who used to be a total loser. He got zits on top of his zits; he had a pet rat named Orphan Annie; and once in science class he puked into the fish tank. No one ever talked to him, in case dorkhood was contagious. But then one summer he was diagnosed with MS. After that, no one was mean to Jimmy anymore. If you passed him in the hall, you smiled. If he sat next to you at the lunch table, you nodded hello. It was as if being a walking tragedy canceled out ever having been a geek.

From the moment I was born, I have been the girl with the sick sister. All my life bank tellers have given me extra lollipops; principals have known me by name. No one is ever outright mean to me.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Jimmy Stredboe
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:

[Kate] sprinted, and nearly had it, but then Jesse took a running leap and slammed her to the ground, crushing her underneath him.

In that moment everything stopped. Kate lay with her arms and legs splayed, unmoving. My father was there in a breath, shoving at Jesse. “What the hell is the matter with you!”

“I forgot!”

My mother: “Where does it hurt? Can you sit up?”

But when Kate rolled over, she was smiling. “It doesn’t hurt. It feels great.”

My parents looked at each other. Neither of them understood like I did, like Jesse did—that no matter who you are, there is some part of you that always wishes you were someone else—and when, for a millisecond, you get that wish, it’s a miracle. “He forgot,” Kate said to nobody, and she lay on her back, beaming up at the cold hawkeye sun.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald (speaker), Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Jesse Fitzgerald (speaker)
Page Number: 137-138
Explanation and Analysis:
17. Thursday: Anna Quotes

I decided one day to force myself into imagining what it would be like after Kate died. That way, […] when it really happened, I’d be ready.

I kept at it for weeks. […] There were entire days when I did nothing but cry; others where I felt like I’d swallowed a lead plate; some more where I worked really hard at going through the motions of getting dressed and making my bed and studying my vocab words because it was easier than doing anything else.

But then, there were times when I let the veil lift a little, and other ideas would pop up. Like what it would be like to study oceanography at the University of Hawaii. Or try skydiving. Or move to Prague. Or any of a million other pipe dreams. I’d try to stuff myself into one of these scenarios, but it was like wearing a size five sneaker when your foot is a seven—you can get by for a few steps, and then you sit down and pull off the shoe because it plain hurts too much. I am convinced that there is a censor sitting on my brain with a red stamp, reminding me what I am not supposed to even think about, no matter how seductive it might be.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 178-179
Explanation and Analysis:
30. Monday: Campbell Quotes

You might remember the recent case of the firefighters in Worcester, Massachusetts, who were killed in a blaze started by a homeless woman. She knew the fire had started and she left the building, but she never called 911 because she thought she might get into trouble. Six men died that night, and yet the State couldn’t hold this woman responsible, because in America—even if the consequences are tragic—you are not responsible for someone else’s safety. You aren’t obligated to help anyone in distress. Not if you’re the one who started the fire, not if you’re a passerby to a car wreck, not if you’re a perfectly matched donor.

Related Characters: Campbell Alexander (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald
Page Number: 293-294
Explanation and Analysis:
31. Monday: Anna Quotes

What if I was the one who was sick? What if Kate had been asked to do what I’ve done? What if one of these days, some marrow or blood or whatever actually worked, and that was the end? What if I could look back on all this one day and feel good about what I did, instead of feeling guilty? What if the judge doesn’t think I’m right?

What if he does?

I can’t answer a single one of these, which is how I know that whether I’m ready or not, I’m growing up.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 300
Explanation and Analysis:
36. Tuesday: Campbell Quotes

Can you tell me what the right answer is here? […] Because I don’t know where to look for it. I know what’s right. I know what’s fair. But neither of those apply here. I can sit, and I can think about it, and I can tell you what should be and what ought to be. I can even tell you there’s got to be a better solution. But it’s been thirteen years, Mr. Alexander, and I still haven’t found it.

Related Characters: Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Kate Fitzgerald, Campbell Alexander
Page Number: 346
Explanation and Analysis:
42. Wednesday: Anna Quotes

“I’m sick of waiting for something that’s going to happen anyway. I think I’ve fucked up everyone’s life long enough, don’t you?”

“But everyone’s worked so hard just to keep you alive. You can’t kill yourself.”

All of a sudden Kate started to cry. “I know. I can’t.”

It took me a few moments to realize this meant she’d already tried before.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald (speaker)
Page Number: 388-389
Explanation and Analysis:
56. 2010: Kate Quotes

There might be a morning when I wake up and her face isn’t the first thing I see. Or a lazy August afternoon when I can’t quite recall anymore where the freckles were on her right shoulder. Maybe one of these days, I will not be able to listen to the sound of snow falling and hear her footsteps.

When I start to feel this way I go into the bathroom and I lift up my shirt and touch the white lines of my scar. I remember how, at first, I thought the stitches seemed to spell out her name. I think about her kidney working inside me and her blood running through my veins. I take her with me, whenever I go.

Related Characters: Kate Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald
Page Number: 423
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire My Sister’s Keeper LitChart as a printable PDF.
My Sister’s Keeper PDF

Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald Quotes in My Sister’s Keeper

The My Sister’s Keeper quotes below are all either spoken by Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald or refer to Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bodily Autonomy Theme Icon
).
1. Monday: Anna Quotes

I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm to create a specific combination of previous genetic material. In fact, when Jesse told me how babies get made and I, the great disbeliever, decided to ask my parents the truth, I got more than I bargained for. They sat me down and explained all the usual stuff, of course—but they also explained that they chose little embryonic me, specifically, because I could save my sister, Kate. “We loved you even more,” my mother made sure to say, “because we knew what exactly we were getting.”

It made me wonder, though, what would have happened if Kate had been healthy. Chances are, I’d still be floating up in Heaven or wherever, waiting to be attached to a body to spend some time on Earth. Certainly, I would not be part of this family. See, unlike the rest of the free world, I didn’t get here by accident. And if your parents have you for a reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it’s gone, so are you.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, Jesse Fitzgerald
Page Number: 7-8
Explanation and Analysis:
2. Monday: Campbell Quotes

I tap my pen on the desk, and Judge—my dog—sidles closer. “What happens if you don’t give your sister a kidney?”

“She’ll die.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

Anna’s mouth is set in a thin line. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are. I’m just trying to figure out what made you want to put your foot down, after all this time.”

She looks over at the bookshelf. “Because,” she says simply, “it never stops.”

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Campbell Alexander (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
4. Monday: Brian Quotes

Anna’s real name is Andromeda. It’s on her birth certificate, honest to God. The constellation she’s named after tells the story of a princess, who was shackled to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster—punishment for her mother Casseopeia, who had bragged to Poseidon about her own beauty. Perseus, flying by, fell in love with Andromeda and saved her. In the sky, she’s pictured with her arms outstretched and her hands chained.

The way I saw it, the story had a happy ending. Who wouldn’t want that for a child?

Related Characters: Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald
Related Symbols: Stars and Cosmology
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
5. Tuesday: Anna Quotes

“For God’s sake, Anna,” my mother says. “Do you even realize what the consequences would be?”

My throat closes like the shutter of a camera, so that any air or excuses must move through a tunnel as thin as a pin. I’m invisible, I think, and realize too late I have spoken out loud.

My mother moves so fast I do not even see it coming. But she slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it’s faded. Just so you know: shame is five-fingered.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Sara Fitzgerald (speaker)
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
7. Wednesday: Campbell Quotes

“Anna,” I say, at the exact same moment as Sara Fitzgerald.

It is my responsibility to explain to Anna that Judge DeSalvo wants a few minutes in private. I need to coach her, so that she says the right things, so that the judge doesn’t throw the case out before she gets what she wants. She is my client; by definition, she is supposed to follow my counsel.

But when I call her name, she turns toward her mother.

Related Characters: Campbell Alexander (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Sara Fitzgerald
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:
10. 1990-1991: Sara Quotes

The baby’s head slips through the seal of my skin. The doctor’s hand holds her, slides that gorgeous cord free of her neck, delivers her shoulder by shoulder.

I struggle to my elbows to watch what is going on below. “The umbilical cord,” I remind him. “Be careful.” He cuts it, beautiful blood, and hurries it out to the room to a place where it will be cryogenically preserved until Kate is ready for it.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
11. Wednesday: Julia Quotes

For a minute I look at [Anna]. What would I do, if I found out that Izzy needed a kidney, or a part of my liver, or marrow? The answer isn’t even questionable—I would ask how quickly we could go to the hospital and have it done.

But then, it would have been my choice, my decision.

Related Characters: Julia Romano (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Isobel “Izzy” Romano
Page Number: 111-112
Explanation and Analysis:
12. Wednesday: Campbell Quotes

“Do you have kids?” Anna asks.

I laugh. “What do you think?”

“It’s probably a good thing,” she admits. “No offense, but you don’t exactly look like a parent.”

This fascinates me. “What do parents look like?”

She seems to think about this. “You know about how the tightrope guy at the circus wants everyone to believe his act is an art, but deep down you can see that he’s really just hoping he makes it all the way across? Like that.”

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Campbell Alexander (speaker)
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:
13. Wednesday: Anna Quotes

There was this kid in my school, Jimmy Stredboe, who used to be a total loser. He got zits on top of his zits; he had a pet rat named Orphan Annie; and once in science class he puked into the fish tank. No one ever talked to him, in case dorkhood was contagious. But then one summer he was diagnosed with MS. After that, no one was mean to Jimmy anymore. If you passed him in the hall, you smiled. If he sat next to you at the lunch table, you nodded hello. It was as if being a walking tragedy canceled out ever having been a geek.

From the moment I was born, I have been the girl with the sick sister. All my life bank tellers have given me extra lollipops; principals have known me by name. No one is ever outright mean to me.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Jimmy Stredboe
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:

[Kate] sprinted, and nearly had it, but then Jesse took a running leap and slammed her to the ground, crushing her underneath him.

In that moment everything stopped. Kate lay with her arms and legs splayed, unmoving. My father was there in a breath, shoving at Jesse. “What the hell is the matter with you!”

“I forgot!”

My mother: “Where does it hurt? Can you sit up?”

But when Kate rolled over, she was smiling. “It doesn’t hurt. It feels great.”

My parents looked at each other. Neither of them understood like I did, like Jesse did—that no matter who you are, there is some part of you that always wishes you were someone else—and when, for a millisecond, you get that wish, it’s a miracle. “He forgot,” Kate said to nobody, and she lay on her back, beaming up at the cold hawkeye sun.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald (speaker), Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Jesse Fitzgerald (speaker)
Page Number: 137-138
Explanation and Analysis:
17. Thursday: Anna Quotes

I decided one day to force myself into imagining what it would be like after Kate died. That way, […] when it really happened, I’d be ready.

I kept at it for weeks. […] There were entire days when I did nothing but cry; others where I felt like I’d swallowed a lead plate; some more where I worked really hard at going through the motions of getting dressed and making my bed and studying my vocab words because it was easier than doing anything else.

But then, there were times when I let the veil lift a little, and other ideas would pop up. Like what it would be like to study oceanography at the University of Hawaii. Or try skydiving. Or move to Prague. Or any of a million other pipe dreams. I’d try to stuff myself into one of these scenarios, but it was like wearing a size five sneaker when your foot is a seven—you can get by for a few steps, and then you sit down and pull off the shoe because it plain hurts too much. I am convinced that there is a censor sitting on my brain with a red stamp, reminding me what I am not supposed to even think about, no matter how seductive it might be.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 178-179
Explanation and Analysis:
30. Monday: Campbell Quotes

You might remember the recent case of the firefighters in Worcester, Massachusetts, who were killed in a blaze started by a homeless woman. She knew the fire had started and she left the building, but she never called 911 because she thought she might get into trouble. Six men died that night, and yet the State couldn’t hold this woman responsible, because in America—even if the consequences are tragic—you are not responsible for someone else’s safety. You aren’t obligated to help anyone in distress. Not if you’re the one who started the fire, not if you’re a passerby to a car wreck, not if you’re a perfectly matched donor.

Related Characters: Campbell Alexander (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald
Page Number: 293-294
Explanation and Analysis:
31. Monday: Anna Quotes

What if I was the one who was sick? What if Kate had been asked to do what I’ve done? What if one of these days, some marrow or blood or whatever actually worked, and that was the end? What if I could look back on all this one day and feel good about what I did, instead of feeling guilty? What if the judge doesn’t think I’m right?

What if he does?

I can’t answer a single one of these, which is how I know that whether I’m ready or not, I’m growing up.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 300
Explanation and Analysis:
36. Tuesday: Campbell Quotes

Can you tell me what the right answer is here? […] Because I don’t know where to look for it. I know what’s right. I know what’s fair. But neither of those apply here. I can sit, and I can think about it, and I can tell you what should be and what ought to be. I can even tell you there’s got to be a better solution. But it’s been thirteen years, Mr. Alexander, and I still haven’t found it.

Related Characters: Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald, Kate Fitzgerald, Campbell Alexander
Page Number: 346
Explanation and Analysis:
42. Wednesday: Anna Quotes

“I’m sick of waiting for something that’s going to happen anyway. I think I’ve fucked up everyone’s life long enough, don’t you?”

“But everyone’s worked so hard just to keep you alive. You can’t kill yourself.”

All of a sudden Kate started to cry. “I know. I can’t.”

It took me a few moments to realize this meant she’d already tried before.

Related Characters: Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald (speaker)
Page Number: 388-389
Explanation and Analysis:
56. 2010: Kate Quotes

There might be a morning when I wake up and her face isn’t the first thing I see. Or a lazy August afternoon when I can’t quite recall anymore where the freckles were on her right shoulder. Maybe one of these days, I will not be able to listen to the sound of snow falling and hear her footsteps.

When I start to feel this way I go into the bathroom and I lift up my shirt and touch the white lines of my scar. I remember how, at first, I thought the stitches seemed to spell out her name. I think about her kidney working inside me and her blood running through my veins. I take her with me, whenever I go.

Related Characters: Kate Fitzgerald (speaker), Andromeda “Anna” Fitzgerald
Page Number: 423
Explanation and Analysis: