My Sister’s Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper

by

Jodi Picoult

Sara Fitzgerald Character Analysis

Sara is the mother of Jesse, Kate, and Anna Fitzgerald. She was deeply devastated by Kate’s cancer diagnosis, vowing to keep her daughter from dying at all costs. As a result, Kate’s treatment is her top priority, with her and her husband Brian going so far as to conceive Anna as a donor for Kate. Sara is extremely protective of Kate and strongly disagrees with Anna’s decision to sue for medical emancipation. Although Sara has been a stay-at-home mother since the birth of her children, she is a former lawyer and returns to the law in order to represent herself in Anna’s case. She frequently attempts to get Anna to back out of her case, growing angry when she is unable to do so. As a result, Anna and Sara’s relationship becomes strained throughout the course of the novel, but the two eventually reconcile after the revelation that Kate asked Anna to file her suit. After their reconciliation, Sara accepts Kate’s impending death and lets go of the need to keep her alive against her will. After Anna’s sudden death, Sara struggles with grief for many years but ultimately is able to reforge her bonds with the rest of her family.

Sara Fitzgerald Quotes in My Sister’s Keeper

The My Sister’s Keeper quotes below are all either spoken by Sara Fitzgerald or refer to Sara 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:
3. 1990: Sara Quotes

I think there are crossroads in our lives when we make grand, sweeping decisions without even realizing it. Like scanning the newspaper headline at a red light, and therefore missing the rogue van that jumps the line of traffic and causes an accident. Entering a coffee shop on a whim and meeting the man you will marry one day, while he’s digging for change at the counter. Or this one: instructing your husband to meet you, when for hours you have been convincing yourself this is nothing important at all.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald
Page Number: 30-31
Explanation and Analysis:

“Providence Hospital doesn’t know anything,” he says fiercely. “Do you remember when the chief’s son broke his left arm, and they put a cast on the right one?”

I stare at the ceiling again. “Just so you know,” I say, more loudly than I’ve intended, “I’m not going to let Kate die.”

There is an awful sound beside me—an animal wounded, a drowning gasp. Then Brian presses his face against my shoulder, sobs into my skin. He wraps his arms around me and holds on as if he’s losing his balance. “I’m not,” I repeat, but even to myself, it sounds like I am trying too hard.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 36
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:
6. 1990: Sara Quotes

My first strike was marrying a guy without a college degree. My second and third were getting pregnant. I suppose that when I didn’t go on to become the next Gloria Allred, [Suzanne] was justified in counting me a failure. And I suppose that until now, I was justified in thinking that I wasn’t one.

Don’t get me wrong, she loves her niece and nephew. She sends them carvings from Africa, shells from Bali, chocolates from Switzerland. Jesse wants a glass office like hers when he grows up. “We can’t all be Aunt Zanne,” I tell him, when what I mean is that I can’t be her.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Suzanne “Zanne” Crofton
Page Number: 60
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:
13. Wednesday: Anna Quotes

[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:
16. 1996: Sara Quotes

“You are allowed to take a break, you know. No one has to be a martyr twenty-four/seven.”

But I hear her wrong. “I think once you sign on to be a mother, that’s the only shift they offer.”

“I said martyr,” Zanne laughs. “Not mother.”

I smile a little. “Is there a difference?”

“Did you want to get your crown of thorns out of the suitcase first? Listen to yourself, Sara, and stop being such a drama queen. Yes, you drew a bad lot of fate. Yes, it sucks to you.”

Bright color rises on my cheeks. “You have no idea what my life is like.”

“Neither do you,” Zanne says. “You’re not living, Sara. You’re waiting for Kate to die.”

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Suzanne “Zanne” Crofton (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 174-175
Explanation and Analysis:
23. 1997: Sara Quotes

“I won’t let your sister take care of Kate,” Brian says. “I’m supposed to take care of Kate.” The hose falls to the ground, dribbles and spits at our feet. “Sara, she’s not going to live long enough to use that money for college.”

The sun is bright; the sprinkler twitches on the grass, spraying rainbows. It is far too beautiful a day for words like these. I turn and run into the house I lock myself in the bathroom.

A moment later, Brian bangs on the door. “Sara? Sara, I’m sorry.”

I pretend I can’t hear him. I pretend I haven’t heard anything he’s said.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Suzanne “Zanne” Crofton
Page Number: 238
Explanation and Analysis:
27. 2001: Sara Quotes

The paper [Brian] has been scribbling on falls out of his hands and lands at my feet; before he can reach it I pick it up. It is full of tearstains, of cross-outs. She loved the way it smelled in Spring, I read. She could beat anyone at gin rummy. She could dance even if there wasn’t music playing. There are notes on the side, too: Favorite color: pink. Favorite time of day: twilight. Used to read Where the Wild Things Are, over and over, and still knows it by heart.

All the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. “Is this…a eulogy?”

By now, Brian is crying, too, “If I don’t do it now, I won’t be able to when it’s really time.”

I shake my head. “It’s not time.”

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
32. 2002: Sara Quotes

“Taylor already thinks you’re beautiful.”

“Well I don’t!” Kate cries. “I don’t, Mom, and maybe I want to just once.”

[…]

“We’ll sew something,” I suggest. “You can design it.”

“You don’t know how to sew,” Kate sighs.

“I’ll learn.”

“In a day?” She shakes her head. “You can’t fix it every time, Mom. How come I know that, and you don’t?”

Related Characters: Kate Fitzgerald (speaker), Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Taylor Ambrose
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t tell Kate something else Jenna Ambrose said—that afterward, she went inside and stared at her son, who wasn’t her son anymore. That she sat for five whole hours, sure he was going to wake up. That even now she hears noise overhead and thinks Taylor is moving around his room, that the half-second she is gifted before she remembers the truth is the only reason she gets up each morning.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Taylor Ambrose, Jenna Ambrose
Page Number: 321
Explanation and Analysis:
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Sara Fitzgerald Quotes in My Sister’s Keeper

The My Sister’s Keeper quotes below are all either spoken by Sara Fitzgerald or refer to Sara 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:
3. 1990: Sara Quotes

I think there are crossroads in our lives when we make grand, sweeping decisions without even realizing it. Like scanning the newspaper headline at a red light, and therefore missing the rogue van that jumps the line of traffic and causes an accident. Entering a coffee shop on a whim and meeting the man you will marry one day, while he’s digging for change at the counter. Or this one: instructing your husband to meet you, when for hours you have been convincing yourself this is nothing important at all.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald
Page Number: 30-31
Explanation and Analysis:

“Providence Hospital doesn’t know anything,” he says fiercely. “Do you remember when the chief’s son broke his left arm, and they put a cast on the right one?”

I stare at the ceiling again. “Just so you know,” I say, more loudly than I’ve intended, “I’m not going to let Kate die.”

There is an awful sound beside me—an animal wounded, a drowning gasp. Then Brian presses his face against my shoulder, sobs into my skin. He wraps his arms around me and holds on as if he’s losing his balance. “I’m not,” I repeat, but even to myself, it sounds like I am trying too hard.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 36
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:
6. 1990: Sara Quotes

My first strike was marrying a guy without a college degree. My second and third were getting pregnant. I suppose that when I didn’t go on to become the next Gloria Allred, [Suzanne] was justified in counting me a failure. And I suppose that until now, I was justified in thinking that I wasn’t one.

Don’t get me wrong, she loves her niece and nephew. She sends them carvings from Africa, shells from Bali, chocolates from Switzerland. Jesse wants a glass office like hers when he grows up. “We can’t all be Aunt Zanne,” I tell him, when what I mean is that I can’t be her.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Suzanne “Zanne” Crofton
Page Number: 60
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:
13. Wednesday: Anna Quotes

[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:
16. 1996: Sara Quotes

“You are allowed to take a break, you know. No one has to be a martyr twenty-four/seven.”

But I hear her wrong. “I think once you sign on to be a mother, that’s the only shift they offer.”

“I said martyr,” Zanne laughs. “Not mother.”

I smile a little. “Is there a difference?”

“Did you want to get your crown of thorns out of the suitcase first? Listen to yourself, Sara, and stop being such a drama queen. Yes, you drew a bad lot of fate. Yes, it sucks to you.”

Bright color rises on my cheeks. “You have no idea what my life is like.”

“Neither do you,” Zanne says. “You’re not living, Sara. You’re waiting for Kate to die.”

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Suzanne “Zanne” Crofton (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 174-175
Explanation and Analysis:
23. 1997: Sara Quotes

“I won’t let your sister take care of Kate,” Brian says. “I’m supposed to take care of Kate.” The hose falls to the ground, dribbles and spits at our feet. “Sara, she’s not going to live long enough to use that money for college.”

The sun is bright; the sprinkler twitches on the grass, spraying rainbows. It is far too beautiful a day for words like these. I turn and run into the house I lock myself in the bathroom.

A moment later, Brian bangs on the door. “Sara? Sara, I’m sorry.”

I pretend I can’t hear him. I pretend I haven’t heard anything he’s said.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Suzanne “Zanne” Crofton
Page Number: 238
Explanation and Analysis:
27. 2001: Sara Quotes

The paper [Brian] has been scribbling on falls out of his hands and lands at my feet; before he can reach it I pick it up. It is full of tearstains, of cross-outs. She loved the way it smelled in Spring, I read. She could beat anyone at gin rummy. She could dance even if there wasn’t music playing. There are notes on the side, too: Favorite color: pink. Favorite time of day: twilight. Used to read Where the Wild Things Are, over and over, and still knows it by heart.

All the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. “Is this…a eulogy?”

By now, Brian is crying, too, “If I don’t do it now, I won’t be able to when it’s really time.”

I shake my head. “It’s not time.”

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Brian Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
32. 2002: Sara Quotes

“Taylor already thinks you’re beautiful.”

“Well I don’t!” Kate cries. “I don’t, Mom, and maybe I want to just once.”

[…]

“We’ll sew something,” I suggest. “You can design it.”

“You don’t know how to sew,” Kate sighs.

“I’ll learn.”

“In a day?” She shakes her head. “You can’t fix it every time, Mom. How come I know that, and you don’t?”

Related Characters: Kate Fitzgerald (speaker), Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Taylor Ambrose
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t tell Kate something else Jenna Ambrose said—that afterward, she went inside and stared at her son, who wasn’t her son anymore. That she sat for five whole hours, sure he was going to wake up. That even now she hears noise overhead and thinks Taylor is moving around his room, that the half-second she is gifted before she remembers the truth is the only reason she gets up each morning.

Related Characters: Sara Fitzgerald (speaker), Kate Fitzgerald, Taylor Ambrose, Jenna Ambrose
Page Number: 321
Explanation and Analysis: