Development of Anna Fitzgerald Character – My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Children can feel neglected when one of their siblings have a serious illness. Annas statement, which appears in her narration on the first Monday, refers to the way Anna’s parents conceived her. When Anna says she “didn’t get here by accident,” she means that her parents deliberately selected her, or rather the embryo that would become her, for a specific reason.“Although I am nine months pregnant, although I have had plenty of time to dream, I have not really considered the specifics of this child. I have thought of this daughter only in terms of what she will be able to do for the daughter I already have…Then again, my dreams for her are no less exalted; I plan for her to save her sister’s life.” Anna’s mother didn’t even have her because she wanted to she had her because she felt like she needed to. When that was done from there on out the neglection started

In Erik Erikson's stages of development, the identity vs role confusion theory coincides with Claire’s life tremendously. The identity vs role confusion is a theory where basically the question, “Who am I?” pops up to the teens head many times in order for them to find out what type of person are they. The teens usually hang out with many social groups or act a certain way in order to fit in with the norm or to feel at all comfortable with who they are. The identity vs role confusion usually involves teens who go through the ages of twelve through eighteen. In Claire’s perspective she experiences she experiences this theory in a way that she just tries to go with the flow. She just suppresses feelings just because she has no real friends or parents in her life. She has no grip on her personality

I do believe the knowledge that Anna was conceived to save Kate affects both Anna’s and Kate’s perceptions of themselves. This, however, does not affect their relationship with each other. In Kate’s case, I feel the knowledge that Anna was conceived to save Kate did make Kate feel guilty. She felt like she was responsible for Anna’s pain because as portrayed in the movie, Kate felt like she “let” her parents hurt her sister.

Adolescence is defined as the transition between childhood and adulthood. Many changes happen at this stage. Adolescence involves things such as puberty, greater independence, and a time when someone begins to construct their identity. Identity means their life value and goals including a secure sense of who they are in terms of sexual, vocational, and moral ethics. In the next few paragraphs I will be discussing my Virtual Child, Maeve as she went through adolescence (ages 11- 16). I am going to delve into the different changes I saw in her and how they relate to theories proposed by Piaget, Erikson, Marcia, and Gardner. Each

My Sister's Keeper is the story of Anna Fitzgerald, who by the age of thirteen has undergone many blood transfusions, numerous surgeries, and multiple bone marrow transplants. “Most babies are accidents, not me. I was engineered, born to save my sister’s life.” At the beginning of the movie Anna explains that she as conceived to be a donor for her sister, Kate. Kate is a 16 year old with renal failure due to a very rare form of leukemia. The girls' parents expect Anna to donate her kidney to help her sister. Instead of donating the kidney, Anna files a lawsuit against her parents for the rights of her own body so that she could not be forced into the surgery against her will. This causes mixed reactions between Anna’s parents, Brain

Anna’s id appears to be the dominant aspect of her personality, especially in the beginning of the story,

In this paper I plan to discuss the developmental stages of adolescence. Adolescents are also referred to as "teenagers" or "young adults." Adolescence begins after the childhood stage and ends right before adulthood. The years of adolescence range from 12 years old to 21 years old. The years of adolescence can be quite a roller coaster ride. Young people in this stage encounter a great deal of changes in their life as they prepare for adulthood. I will discuss emotional, intellectual, physiological, and social domains of development and how it relates to adolescents. I will also discuss some helpful tips for teachers to aide in communicating effectively to adolescents and understanding their

First of all, with the use of plot and character as dramatic elements, MacLeod is able to depict the main characteristics of the nature of adolescence, mainly the search for identity and the quest for independence. Among the scientific community, adolescence is believed to be the most crucial period in human development. It is a period of “rapid biological, social and psychological change” (Soto, et al. 330). There are the transformations that define puberty, there are changes in the relationships and attitudes towards adults and peers, and many teenagers struggle to form a coherent identity (331). In the process of discovering their identities, most adolescents become self-centered. Having not yet

Being brought into the world as a savior sister and having to undergo countless surgeries so that her older sister can fight leukemia, has an impact on Anna’s psychosocial development. Psychosocial development focuses on the development of the personality. It refers to how a persons mind, emotions and maturity level develop throughout the course of their lifespan (McLeod, 2010, p 4 ). Well known psychologist Erik Erikson gave an insightful theory of how personality develops based on his experience when working in psychotherapy, with children and adolescents from low, upper and middleclass background (Personality development, 2009, p 6). According to Erikson, the socialization process of an individual refers to eight stages, each stage is accompanied by a “psychosocial crisis” that needs to be solved in the

Freud described humans as having three essential components that built personality. The three components were the id, the ego, and the superego. He described the id, as being what governed an infant’s drive to overcome their primitive biological desires. According to his theory infants had no other goal than to release the tension that built up when their

What variables influence the adolescent developmental process? Does biology outweigh the effect of environment? Do teenagers mature in a continuous or discontinuous fashion? What effect do early verse later experience influence the young people’s maturity into adulthood? Through the ages, researches have investigated these questions to better understand the growth adolescent experience between the ages of ten to twenty-one. The intermingling of the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional process constitutes the development of an adolescent. By examining the effects of nature verse nurture, continuous verse discontinuous development, and early verse later experiences, we will conclude that the developmental process in an adolescent is the intertwining of all these variables and not a result of one over the other.

In 1935 Anna became the director of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Training Institute and the following year she published another book, which was a very influential study of the “ways and means by which the ego wards off unpleasure and anxiety”, called The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. This book was different from the “traditional bases of psychoanalytical through in the drives: it became a founding work of ego psychology and established her reputation as a pioneering theoretician” (“Anna Freud - Life," n.d.).

There are five characteristics that all adolescents have. These characteristics are biological growth and development, an undefined status, increased decision-making, increased pressures, and the search for self. The brain and the endocrine system control biological growth and development. During the early stages of adolescence, individuals experience growth in height and weight, changes in the body, the development of sexual characteristics, and skin problems. For example, I started getting curves in my body when I hit puberty. My body started to develop changes. Our society’s expectations for children and adults are clear, but for the adolescent, expectations are inexplicit. Some adolescents are treated like children, but some are treated like adults. There is an undefined status. For example, my parents pay for my lunch, but I have to have a job so I can support myself.

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the

Imagine being born just so you can give up your cells and organs to your sister with Leukemia. That is the life of Anna Fitzgerald, and her sister Kate. The book I read is titled “My Sister's Keeper”, the title is the same for the movie. Personally, the movie was better for me because I like being able to see things visually and in detail. The way the book explained the characters I was really able to imagine them in my head and in the movie it wasn't so much easier to understand what was going on