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Baby Zakariyya Quotes

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Lost Mother, Lost Child
Zakariyya is the fifth and youngest of Henrietta's children. After the death of his mother, Baby Joe nearly dies of tuberculosis and soon finds himself in the care of a cousin who loves to abuse him.

Zakariyya's anger at this treatment is mythical—kind of like Henrietta's aggressive cells. And it wasn't long before people were making the comparison:

Joe grew into the meanest, angriest child any Lacks had ever known, and the family started saying something must have happened to his brain while he was growing inside Henrietta alongside that cancer. (112)

Zakariyya believes this too. He thinks he learned to fight while fighting off the cancer cells growing all around him. His anger was directed everywhere: to passersby

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