The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Character Analysis

She is very vivid in describing the events happening, especially with her medical terminology. In addition, she captures the horror in Henrietta Lack’s condition to truly describe the magnitude of the situation. However, Skloot is most successful when she is met with the surviving members of the Lacks family. “Henrietta’s family – particularly Deborah – and their lifelong struggle to make peace with the existence of these cells, and the science that made possible,” (Skloot, 2010, pg7) catches the readers emotions to help understand another side of the story. Developing a major ethics debate, Skloot’s implementation of pathos reveals the heavy gravity behind the

Rebecca Skloot develop the characters through the actions of each person instead of directly stating them. This style of her writing allow the readers to fully experience the book and pull them into the story. She develops Henrietta in this form. “After her visit to Hopkins, Henrietta went about life as usual, cleaning, and cooking for Day, their children, and their many cousins who stopped by."(Skloot p.27). The text does not specifically state that Henrietta was a strong woman, but the readers can easily understand that she was mentally and physically capable of doing the housework even after her visit to the hospital. Another example of one of many characters that exemplifies “show don’t tell” is Deborah the daughter of Henrietta. “I can’t get mad at science, because it help people live, and I’d be a mess without it. I’m a walking drugstore” (Skloot p.256). Deborah has all the rights to be mad at her situation but because her mother’s cells saved many lives, she chooses to forgive. This kind of Deborah’s attitude towards this issues shows how beautiful she is as a person. Skloots professional ways of using show don’t tell pulls readers into the book and shows the story alongside the characters.

Rebecca Skloot, however, used a different perspective in her portrayal of Lacks. This is evident in the way in which she conducted her research and the way she wrote the book. Skloot’s book, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, included both the “scientific element concerns the origin and the subsequent uses of the HeLa cell line of cultured cancer cells” (Harper, 2011, p. 463) and the social and

Nana Banfoa The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: - Reading Response 2 1. How well do you think Henrietta understood her illness? Her treatment? I don’t believe Henrietta understood her illness or treatment at all. During her time, the medical field was not even close to where it is now, meaning they might not have known the extent of it, or if they did, they probably didn’t communicate that to her because she was an African-American woman.

Henrietta Lacks is not a common household name, yet in the scientific and medical world it has become one of the most important and talked names of the century. Up until the time that this book was written, very few people knew of Henrietta Lacks and how her cells contributed to modern science, but Rebecca Skloot aimed to change this. Eventually Skloot was able to reach Henrietta’s remaining family and through them she was able to tell the story of not only the importance of the HeLa cells but also Henrietta’s life.

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 Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of a poor, Southern African-American tobacco farmer who died in 1951 at the very young age of 31 years old from cervical cancer. Little did she know that cells harvested from her tumor, which were obtained without her consent have lived on and on and became one of the most important tools in medicine today. Despite Henrietta’s story being full of legal and ethical issues, the story was one filled with success and anguish. Success for science as her cells served as advancement in medical research and development; yet was sorrowful for Henrietta and her family. This story occurred during a time of segregation in the United States, when Henrietta Lacks believed she

Out of the numerous recurring themes throughout the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, two themes stood out to me. Those themes showed that there are several characters that are searching for answers or struggling to come to terms with their emotions. Two characters have a particularly difficult time with one of these two themes. The first being Deborah Lacks, the daughter of Henrietta Lacks, she is searching for answers pertaining to her mentally challenged and deceased aunt, Elsie. Deborah starts her quest at the mental hospital where Elsie was living at “Nineteen fifty-five was the year they killed her..I want them records..I know it wasn’t good..why else would they get rid of them?” (Skloot 269). Deborah is obviously upset by

In a HIPAA-conscious society today, some of the most obvious and concerning examples of the objectification of Henrietta and her family are the inconceivable breaches of privacy. Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s youngest daughter, originally chose to not request access to her mother’s medical records because “she was afraid of what she might find and how it might affect her” (Skloot 209). In 1985, however, Science 85 reporter Michael Gold published a book about Henrietta’s “Immortal Legacy” including extensive verbatim quotes from Henrietta’s medical records, including details about her previous medical history, diagnosis, pain, decline and death, and even autopsy (210). Skloot recounts Gold’s offenses, “No one in Henrietta’s family had ever seen those

Ethics, in our society, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, now part of the Department of Health and Human Services, created The Belmont Report, which is one such safeguard establishing principles for all human research (USDHHS, 1979). This paper will discuss the ethical issue of informed consent within The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the disregard to parts of the Belmont Report, as well as compare the role of the nurse in charge of Henrietta’s care versus the standards of care set for modern nurses.

When I first heard about the book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", I thought it was just a reading assignment when I was in high school that I had to complete for a grade. As I began reading I became particularly interested in Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. In "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", Rebecca Skloot talks about Henrietta Lacks and how her cells were taken without her permission, and how her family suffered afterwards. Skloot shows how medicine and science were seen back in the 1950's compared to now.

This research paper is based on the findings from the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. What you will read and come to know is nonfiction. I wish I could put the pictures of what I have seen and read together here for you to perhaps get a better understanding. A story based on not Henrietta’s life being that of immortality, but rather cancer cells removed from her body without her knowledge. These were the first cancer cells to reproduce outside of her body. You will come to know about Henrietta, her cancer, her cells, and her immortal life. Perhaps we can all learn to appreciate life in greater means of appreciation after reading and knowing the life and immortal afterlife of Henrietta Lacks. You will learn about a woman, who like us, had a family, and ended up not being able to truly live life to its fullest. Making us all realize just how cancer is and the amazing research that came from being able to reproduce her cells. Not just for cancer but for various other illnesses that plague so many of us. My hope is that you take away from this a better understanding of a time we do not know, for the ups and downs of science and the possibility of immortal life.

The theme I have selected for my book is “...Despite one’s best effort, humanity will not always return the favor. Life is not a balanced scale; life is a dance of give and take that can leave one person on top of the world and another buried six feet under.” This theme can be linked to my poster’s slogan: “It is possible to be chained by the stories we have yet to tell,” because the chains that bound the Lacks family were the cause of the unjustness they were subjected to. The image I selected represents my slogan and the characters in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because they felt locked up, left to rot as they wondered what had happened to their mother. The chains are the lies, the secrets, and the manipulations that the Lacks family

There were many unethical situations that had happened to Henrietta while she was living and after her death to her and her family. After Henrietta passed away her Husband Day whom she was hoping would take of the kids had unattended the kids and let Ethel take care of the kids. Ethel was Henrietta cousin who was jealous of her due to her husband, Galen, he had eyes on Henrietta.Galen would have done anything to get close to Henrietta and use excuses to see her. Ethel hated Henrietta so much that she took took advantage knowing that Day would

Ms. Skloot is one of the characters in the book that bring the reader to understand the story and she was a memorable character. I think it would be different if Ms. Skloot had not parted of the story because she was the only one who does the journal about Henrietta Lack’s life. Many people who know HeLa, why no one is doing it? HeLa’s kids are already grown up and no one shares her story. Deborah never saw her mom when she was a child what she has was only the picture of her mom and the memory of her mom’s document. Based on the scenes on page 289 I think there’s is nothing different there Deborah was the focus on that scene, Rebecca was only listening to that time “Gary and I shot each other a nervous glance and both started talking at once,