Author Ursula LeGuin once said, Its nice to have an end to journey towards, but its how you get there that really matters. This statement is true in all our lives and is and overhanging theme in Jodi Picoults bestseller My Sisters Keeper. Using My Sisters Keeper as a reference as well as my own life experiences, I would like to show you how this statement by Miss LeGuin is relevant to all of us and is something that as humans we live our lives about.
In My Sisters Keeper, Miss Picoult tells the story from many different points of view as each character is undergoing there own separate journeys and each with there own end to aim towards whether it be Annas unfortunate death or Jesses turn around to an upstanding citizen and police office, they all under go change in there journeys and arrive at there ending The journey in particular that holds the most importance is Annas journey to her death. This journey has more impact on the characters than any other journey and it is the central idea of the novel. The main impact this journey has on anyone apart from Anna is Kate. Kates journey in the novel leads to the opposite place as Anna, her journey leads to life. With this thought in mind I would like to take you back to Miss LeGuins quote, she says that its the journey that counts not the ending and in this case it is truly visible. Kates journey ends in life but she will always remember the journey that she went through and what her sister sacrifice to get her there. The same can be said for other characters and there journeys. Jesse turns from a juvenile delinquent to and upstanding cop but the way he got there was what will be imprinted in his memory.
This whole concept of enjoying the journey is a concept that we have been told since we were young. All our lives we have been told that school years are the best of our lives and we should enjoy them and it is true. We all look forward to the ending of school but when it is over we will look back and realize what a good time we had and remember the journey along the way more than the ending, at least that is the way I feel it turns out. Other life experience are examples of how although we look forward to an end, we will always remember the journey, things such as relationships, kids, work. In fact majority of life experiences are examples of how we can look forward to the end but cherish the journey along the way.
The next example from My Sisters Keeper is the journey under taken by Campbell and Julia. Their journey involved them re-kindling a high school romance and was all brought about through Anna. This journey I feel would be the most remember journey in that if it was not fro Anna then they would not be together again but through Annas death they will remember it more because of that young girl.
After these few examples I would like to once again reiterate the point that I believe Ursula LeGuin was trying to get across when she first made the statement, Its nice to have an end to journey towards, but its how you get there that really matters. In life we are always trying to get somewhere, do something. We are constantly on a journey but when we look back its not the ending that is vivid in our memory, its the steps and our journey to get to that ending and I feel this is the point Miss LeGuin was trying to make when she made this statement. Whether it be through the relationships that have formed in us getting there as in Campbell and Julias case or the people we have lost along the way. When we look back at what we have done and accomplished, we remember more how we got there us actually getting there and I hope u can see that too.
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