{Post A Week 4}

Secretion (69): a substance discharged
Misbegotten (66): badly conceived or designed

“Kate’s ribs seem as thin as matchsticks, and there is a large gray blot just off center.” (69)
This is an example of figurative language because of the use of “as” to compare what Kate’s ribs look like to matchsticks. This is when Kate is laying in the hospital bed, and her mom is looking at her and the toll chemotherapy has taken on her small body.
“It comes out in a thick clump, drifts down to the carpet like a small blizzard.” (67)
Once Kate goes home after her first infusion of chemotherapy, she comes back into her parents’ bedroom, worried. When her parents, they inquire as to what is troubling their daughter. Kate shows them how her hair is falling out, and Sara describes back to the reader what it was like using a simile.
“With grim resolve I make a ballet out of rinsing the emesis basin and bringing it back. If you focus on sandbagging the beachhead, you can ignore the tsunami that’s approaching.” (65)
I chose this not only because it’s an example of figurative language (metaphor: comparing two things without using like or as), but also a very true statement. I like how she compares focusing on small aspects of being her daughter’s caretaker instead of her illness like focusing on sandbagging for a tsunami.
“After Zanne takes Jesse home for the night, Brian and I become bookends in the dark, bracketing Kate. “Brian,” I whisper. “I’ve been thinking.”
He shifts in his seat. “What about?”
I lean forward, so that I can catch his eye. “Having a baby.”
Brian’s eyes narrow. “Jesus, Sara.” He gets to his feet, turns his back to me. “Jesus.”
I stand up, too. “It’s not what you think.”
When he faces me, pain draws every line of his features tight. “We can’t just replace Kate if she dies,” he says.
In the hospital bed, Kate shifts, rustling the sheets. I force myself to imagine her at age four, wearing a Halloween costume, age twelve, trying out lip gloss; age twenty, dancing around a dorm room. “I know. So we have to make sure that he doesn’t.”.” (72)
This quote is significant because this is how Sara introduced the concept of adding a family member just to keep the original siblings alive. It is the whole foundation of the story, and relates to when Anna said that if you were born for a purpose, you must make sure that purpose remains, because when the purpose is gone, so is yours.

PROBABLE THEME:

I think that the theme comes down to how much of an obligation one has to their family, and where it begins and where it ends.