Does anyone know the theme of "Double Identity" ?

Question

It's by Maraget Peterson Haddix. It's about the girl named Bethany that found out that she's her sister's, Elizabeth's, clone. I can't think of the theme in there! Can u help?!?!?!?!

Answer 1

Bethany, aged twelve, is in a car with her sobbing mother and burdened father. Neither parent will tell her where they're going or why her mother has been crying for months. They arrive at a small town in the middle of the night, where she is informed that she will stay with someone her parents call "Aunt Myrlie." Bethany's mother is beside herself with grief, and has a very difficult time parting with her daughter. Then, astoundingly, her overly protective parents drive off and leave her with the stranger.

Bethany tries calling her parents' cell phones to beg them to come back, but all she gets are "this number is out of service" messages. The next morning, her father calls to tell her, puzzlingly, that she's safer where she is than with them. She overhears Myrlie tell her father that Bethany must learn about Elizabeth, which is not the name of anyone Bethany knows. There are more mysteries, too, such as the way Myrlie is shocked that Bethany loves to swim and the fact that Myrlie (who actually turns out to be Bethany's aunt) always introduces her as a visitor instead of her niece.

The questions keep coming quickly and furiously: Whose memorial makes Myrlie so uncomfortable? Why do people act like they've seen a ghost when they meet Bethany?

But Bethany realizes that she's accustomed to unanswered questions, having lived with them all her life: Why does her family move constantly? Why are her parents so old? Why have they never had contact with relatives?

When the truth is finally revealed, it's astonishing --- and devastating. Even in her confusion and distress, Bethany realizes that the revelation doesn't explain everything about her odd life, or why some strange man appears to be stalking her.