The five authors, Skloot, Dyer and Flynn, Capote, and Dillard each present enticing storylines, yet the people, place, and subject matter within their books stand at polar opposites. Skloot uncovers a story of injustice for a family alongside a scientific discovery that alters history; Dyer and Flynn bring to mind the pain of a horrific tragedy from the viewpoint of those who suffered it firsthand; Capote shares a brutal account of mass murder and the truth to be found within it; and Dillard offers words of discovery of both herself and the world through the art of writing itself. Yet among these seemingly unique and different authors, a similar thread within their books connects them all. Through the language they convey and feelings they arise from the heart of the readers, these authors share a similar unspoken story through their writing. …show more content…
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot tells the story of the Lacks family and explains the development of HeLa cells and their use in scientific research. While her writing style is efficient and informative when discussing science, she is still able to engage readers through relatable imagery. When describing the issue of contamination in the lab, Skloot describes HeLa cells as they “could float through the air on dust particles” or “ride from lab to lab on researcher’s coats” (Skloot 153). Her use of personification leads one to see the cells as having a mind of their own. While the book is centered on the phenomenon of HeLa cells,
Depending on which perspective someone has, values are either shaped by the crippling society one lives in or caused by human nature’s favoritism for one species of man becoming exalted above the rest. Therefore, to escape the harsh reality of environmental injustice, a beloved pastime includes not only reading literature but being swept away into the story under the guise of fictional characters. Evidently, this experience is prevalent in Judith Cofer Ortiz’s “Abuela Invents the Zero” and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, where Constancia and Tom Sawyer reflect on their actions that were causing family anguish, disputing whether their pride is worth destroying their loved ones’ confidence. Through similar circumstances, Constancia and Tom realize that to make themselves feel justifiable to others, they must reduce their self-assurance to appreciate others, sooner rather than being outcasted again.
Dillard includes a shift from inside the plane to back outside in the twenty-ninth paragraph and uses mundane diction choices. While flying in the plane was exhilarating, once they landed, Dillard and Rahm simply “climbed,” “walked,” and “wandered.” These mundate diction choices are used in order to emphasize how being inside the plane juxtaposed to being outside of it. Inside, life was amazing and breathtaking, but outside, everything was mundane and average. The audience can understand how Dillard’s view on life outside the plane had changed--she no longer was interested in it, and desired her new-found life in the sky.
1. The main point of this selection is; you just have to fling yourself into what you’re doing, you have to point yourself, forget yourself, aim, and dive. 2. While I was reading I noticed Dillard had an appreciation for her ability to construct the perfect iceball. When he man began to chase them, I felt like even though she may have been scared that they were going to be in trouble, the thrill of it all was more exciting.
We can partially blame the atrocious experimental research conducted by the doctors exposed by Skloot on the era of American culture in which their research took place in. A time in America’s history where places like The Hospital of the Negro Insane and the belief that your doctor is always right existed and patient advocacy and informed written consent forms did not. Individual and population rights were considered a joke for African American at this time. Throughout the book, black Americans were victims of medical experimentation undisclosed to them. The same is true in the time Henrietta Lacks spent in John Hopkins hospital.
The media and scientific community are guilty of viewing Henrietta Lacks and her family as abstractions. Nonetheless, the central argument of the book is that the scientific community has an ethical obligation to respect the dignity, autonomy, and person-hood of all subjects and individuals with whom it comes into contact. Accordingly, individuals cannot be made into subjects of scientific inquiry without their consent. And, when objects of scientific study (including, for example, the physical material scientists use within a laboratory setting) are sourced from individual people, those individuals deserve to be made aware of such sourcing, and when possible they ought to be appropriately compensated. Therefore, you can see how the scientific
Jonathan Gottschall talks about how the fiction genre affects the community in the essay, “Why Fiction Is Good for You.” He takes us through the highs and lows of the genre, and talks about how different groups of people view fiction books. Gottschall uses professional opinions, and factual evidence to explain how fiction builds morality of individuals and society. In his essay, Gottschall tells us how the different genres affect us.
Elvis and Big Momma Thornton made two similar, yet distinct songs through their personal point of view. Some differences between these two songs are glaring. The Elvis version has more emphasis on the instruments and is more Rock ‘n’ Roll. It has an up tempo rhythm and is easy to dance to. The Big Momma Thornton version was true to rhythm and blues.
Storytelling can be described as a powerful tool, with the ability to reach many different individuals and affect their perspectives through the messages they are conveying. Narratives in a similar sense can have perverse effects on human consciousness, leaving impacts of how we think, feel, imagine, remember and relate. Mitchell states that popular fiction is important to society as it contains many important messages that can be disguised as social transformation or ideological revisioning due to the large and diverse audience that it is able to reach (Mitchell, 2012). The focus will be to examine four different popular fiction narratives from this term and the important messages within them that aid or encourage some aspect of social transformation.
Truman Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood epitomizes the shifting sentiments related to the murder of the Clutter family which range from terror, to sorrow, to pride, and all mixed emotions in between. Yet through Capote’s particular descriptions about each character, the connection between their feelings and their actions become further clarified. In effect, the readers experience feelings of sympathy for the victims, their friends and family, the investigators, and even the brutal murders of the innocent family. In order to craft this association, Capote employs a pathos appeal to amplify the audience’s ability to sympathize with each and every character.
Bushra Pirzada Professor Swann Engh-302 October 4th 2015 Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks who has her cervical cancer. It further goes to tell the audience how Henrietta altered medicine unknowingly. Henrietta Lacks was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951; however, the doctors at John Hopkins took sample tissues from her cervix without her permission. The sample tissues taken from Henrietta’s cervix were used to conduct scientific research as well as to develop vaccines in the suture.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, aided by journalist Rebecca Skloot. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother, and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It is a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest people. There had been many books published about Henrietta’s cells, but nothing about Henrietta’s personality, experiences, feeling, life style etc.
Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Imagine your mother, sister, wife, or cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer and you believed the doctors were doing everything in their power to help her. Only later you discovered her cells were used for research without consent and she was not properly informed of the risks of her treatment due to her race. This story happened and is told by Rebecca Skloot in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot use of narrative and her writing style enhances the understanding of the story. Henrietta Lacks was a young black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital.
The novel, In Cold Blood, is an anomaly in the literary paradigm. The author, Truman Capote, designed his novel in a way that made it unique when compared to others. His fundamental purpose was to present the problem of American violence and the fragility of the American Dream and how it can be so easily shattered. In order to portray his purpose, he used many rhetorical devices including syntax, diction, tone, ethos, logos and pathos. These devices allowed Capote’s novel to be different from the spectrum of other non-fiction novels and to support his purpose.
Authors are given the dynamic potential to create an image in a reader’s mind that would previously be unimaginable. They are given a power to control one’s imagination, word by word, page by page. Donald Barthelme, Robert Frost, and J.D Salinger are all captavating authors because of their strong authority on their stories. However, one of the most notorious examples of this unique influence is in the short story A Mickey Mantle Koan by David James Duncan. Beautifully written, Duncan tells a story of an impeccably timed tragedy.
An essential part of modern society relied on trust, especially the trust of doctors and scientists. People had the right to make an informed decision about their bodies and body parts. People had a right to their body parts, both attached and cell samples collected by doctors. The actions that the medical professions made will continue to affect future generations in both positive and negative ways. In the contemporary biographical novel, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot used logical opinions to argue about the importance of consent to reveal the lack of morality from those in the medical field which continues to persist today.