The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

If Ms Skloot had not been a part of the story, the book would not have been as interesting. Ms. Skloot's inclusion to the life of the Lacks family allowed the viewers to be in her shoes. The readers were able to see through the eyes of the author, as she goes on the quest to earn the trust from the Lacks and later on show the world that Hela wasn’t just a world changing cell but a person with a family and a life. The faith healing scene in page 289 would also have felt different because Skloot's existence in the scene gave it a feeling of bond that she had made with Deborah and Gary. Some other scene that made a difference because of her presence is in chapter 6. She was so eager to connect with the Lacks family. Skloot constantly calls

Skloot shifts between focal points of her individual research and Henrietta's story. The story begins with Skloot first learning about HeLa cells named after Henrietta Lacks; immediately he becomes enthralled with learning more about Henrietta and what she did for cell culture. However when Skloot learned about the abuse the Lacks family has endured even after Henrietta’s passing she becomes set

The non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, details the happenings and life of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman and tobacco farmer who became a medical miracle in the 1950’s. The book is written in an attempt to chronicle both the experiences and tribulations of Henrietta Lacks and her family, as well as the events that led to, and resulted from, research done on Henrietta Lacks’ cells. Henrietta was a very average African American woman in this period; she had only a seventh-grade level education, and followed traditional racial and gender roles by spending her time has a mother and caretaker, as well as working on farms throughout her life until the involvement of the US in World War II brought her and her husband, “Day” Lacks, comparatively better work opportunities in industrial steel mills. However, after her death in 1951 Henrietta became much more than average to doctors at John Hopkins when the discovered that cells extracted from her cancerous tissue continued to live and grow much longer than any other tissue samples. Further investigation and isolation of these thriving cells led to the creation of the first ever immortal human cell line in medical history. The incredible progress in medicine made possible by Henrietta Lack’s tissue cells were not without downfalls, though. The treatments and experiences received by Henrietta and the effects it had on her and her family demonstrate both racial and gender

Skloot’s initial interest in Henrietta was born out of sheer curiosity, but turned into a genuine want to help Deborah know her mother and understand what happened to her. Skloot’s genuine care for people can be insinuated in her description of the time she spent with Deborah, as she says, “Each time I visited, we’d walk the Baltimore Harbor, ride boats, read science books together, and talk about her mother’s cells” (Skloot 251). The book took a backseat to helping Deborah. She wasn’t concerned with publishing her book quickly and making money quickly; she truly wanted to help Deborah understand what happened to her mother. She handled Deborah’s erratic bouts of paranoia with grace, patiently and calmly waiting for her to come around

During Henrietta treatments George Gey, the doctor that was helping her ended up taking cells from her body. He did so due to the fact he discovered that her cells were immortal. He named them HeLa cells using her first and last name in abbreviation. George told the discovery to his colleagues spreading HeLa cells throughout the world. In response the doctors used a variety of ways to go about the cells. For example, “Southampton began injecting prisoners in June 1956 using HeLa cells that his colleague, Alice Moore, carried from New York to Ohio in a hand bag” (Skloot 129). The cells were used for testing on innocent subjects. The discovery may have changed the world, but it will never change the fact they used and abused the cells. Skloot clearly shows the use of the cell provider and her cells. The reader will have a sense of imagery reading along the book because of Skloot’s

Skloot’s powerful message and use of literary devices should make her book common in a high–school classroom. Unlike the labs who classified her as simply “HeLa”, Skloot took the initiative to reveal who the woman of the immortal cells truly was. As stated by her daughter Deborah,“[e]verything [is] always just about the cells and [people] don’t even worry about her name and [if] HeLa was even a person” (Skloot 52). In order to achieve her purpose of revealing the immortal life of not only the cells but the person, Skloot uses ethos, pathos, and logos within her research of the Lacks and scientific community, to write her book accurately and sufficiently. Skloot is able to justify her story based on years of research and interviews, which a student can mock to write a research paper (to note, at the end of the book Skloot has 21 pages of notes to validate all sources of information). A example of this is regarding the Lacks family who questioned, “if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?” (9). In order to complete this book, Skloot had to explain herself and her research to them, while simultaneously forming “a deep personal bond” (7). Similarly, the author had to sift through medical journals and family reflections to

The story took place in Baltimore in the early and mid 1900s, when prejudice was prominent and black people were not treated fairly or equally by white people. Moreover, the entire black community was terrified of night doctors, who would kidnap black people for scientific testing, and the book states that “fear of the night doctors only increased in the early 1900s, as black people migrated north to Washington D.C., and Baltimore” (166). This shows that the setting of the story had a huge impact on the book, as black people were taken advantage of routinely against their will. This is what happened to Henrietta, as she had to drive miles and miles to go to the only hospital around that would serve black people just to have her cells were taken without her consent by white scientists and used for the benefit of others. The author also uses many changes in point of view in the story to provide more background and portray the many different ideas and views of different people. For example, Skloot starts off telling the story from Henrietta’s point of view, showing her family and her struggles through her time with cancer. Then, she switches over to the eyes of a scientist who was working with Henrietta’s cells in a lab and working to grow the cells to benefit the scientific world. Finally, the author tells the story through her own eyes as she had to acquire information about Henrietta’s personal life through Henrietta’s family and the struggle she went through to get it. The setting of the story and the changes in point of view used by the author improve the story

Skloot does not dismiss Gey and the lab workers as malicious villains, but rather recognizes the complexity of the story and every person involved and aims to tell their perspectives as well. Skloot fairly characterizes everyone involved, basing most of her information on their backgrounds and opinions on interviews with them. However, the majority of the book focuses on Henrietta and Deborah Lack's perspectives, so it would be difficult not to side in their favor. Henrietta and Deborah's perspectives adds an additional emotional layer to the book, making readers even more engaged and invested in the book. The emotional aspects, however, do not take away from the intellectual debate or the facts of the

In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” the author, Rebecca Skloot, discusses many important points. The main point of this informative novel is how doctors from Hopkins hospital captured cells from an African American woman to study possible outcomes to many new ideas. This main point unfolds an analysis of how this event made many new discoveries, immortal memories, and prevented Henrietta’s family from varies negative situations. Firstly, this event helped unfold many new discoveries to medicine and to the medical revolution.

Rebecca Skloot the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks became obsessed with learning the story behind Henrietta Lacks when hearing about her and her cells in a college biology class. She wanted to know more and find out who this woman was and why her cells were so important to science because there was little known about her. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cancer cells were the first ever immortal cell line in science. Skloot decides to tell their story but when she begins to dig and research she realizes that the family is very standoffish and does not like the idea of sharing information with reporters therefore it was very difficult to connect with them and gather more information about Henrietta.

Throughout the novel, we learn about the medical treatment that Henrietta received as an African American woman in the 50’s. Additionally, Skloot writes about the experiences that she had when contacting the Lacks family to learn about Henrietta. While the reader learns about

192). At the end of the article, Rogers comments about the price of a vial of HeLa cells (Skloot, 2010, p. 192). Until this point, the Lacks family were unaware that companies were making a profit from their mother’s cells. This infuriated the family members because white professionals such as doctors and researchers were making a profit from their mother’s cells, while Henrietta’s children struggled financially as well as physically and could not afford to go to the doctor. It would be another twenty years before the author, Rebecca Skloot, entered the lives of the Lacks family. By then, the family would have encountered many reporters from magazines and new stations wanting to learn more about the woman behind the HeLa cells.

Rebecca Skloot in her book uses scientific facts as well as dialogue of the family and others Skloot meets on her journey and with her family comes their views of how Henrietta was treated by the doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. When Henrietta was diagnosed it was the era of the Jim Crow South. In a time that was predominantly racist, African Americans weren’t treated with the most consideration. No researcher found it necessary to compensate the Lackses for using their mother's cells. The Lackses still show their frustration about how they have yet to be compensated for researchers using their mother's cells. Reverend Pullum, Deborah’s second ex-husband, answered her phone saying if Skloot wishes to speak with Deborah “‘they want to be assured

Rebecca Skloot is the author of the book on the scientist contributor, Henrietta Lacks. She first learned of the HeLa cells during her biology community college class thirty years after Henrietta’s death and became interested in the person behind the cells ever since. Skloot became determined to tell the true story of Henrietta, and did whatever she could to find information. She presented numerous years of patience interviewing the Lacks to find out all the information she could about Henrietta and her family to give them the admiration they all deserve.

“If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that’s dishonest” said Henrietta’s relatives to Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. That statement is the essence of this book; everything in it was written very honest and course. This story was written very coherently, for nonfiction literature. It addresses the issue of scientist ethics, all while telling an enthralling story. The book delves into the history and story of Henrietta Lacks, and the origin of the HeLa cells. Overall the book was deep, interesting, and wonderfully informative.