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Henrietta Lacks: A Literary Analysis

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Family, for most people, is defined as a sort of safe haven for people to go to. For others, families may be fragmented, split, or may have wrong ideals as a whole. Broken families, while they may have a long lasting effect on the spouses, can also have a detrimental, long-lasting effect on the children of these marriages which can lead to certain mental illnesses. For example, in the story of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Deborah faces the emotional effects of her mother’s death. Other stories such as “A Rose for Emily”, show how Emily 's fathers parenting techniques and a lack of a mother figure burdened her future. Into the Wild explores the emptiness of love which affects the life choices of a man named Chris. All of these situations …show more content…

The story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, explores the true story of a woman named Deborah and her journey to discover more information about her mother and what her cells did for humanity. Deborah’s mother, Henrietta, died of cancer and her cells, which were attained by inhumane means, contributed greatly to the scientific study of curing other diseases. Although, Henrietta’s death also had a great impact on Deborah due to the fact that Deborah had to face certain difficult situations. With her passing, Deborah was forced to live with a cousin of her mother, who abused her and had a husband who also verbally and sexually mistreated her. The abuse is prominently shown when Galen, the husband, screams at Henrietta, “Get back here till I finish with you, Dale! You …show more content…

Chris’s family is composed of his two parents, Walt and Billie Mccandless, and his sister, Carine. His family is well off as shown when said, “Walt went into business for himself, launching a small but eventually prosperous consulting firm, User Systems, Incorporated” (Karakauer 20) and the family seemed to only want the best of the best for their son, Chris. While their descriptives may seem like your average family, they still had troubles in their life. In a letter to his sister, Chris told her specifically that he wished to cut all ties off with his family, “I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I love” (Krakaeur 64). By using the word “idiots” when speaking about his parents, Chris shows how he thinks of his parents as lessers and thus this idea contributes to the the true, inner resentment Chris seems to feel for his parents. Chris’s need to “divorce” his parents was due to the fact that he truly despised the lifestyle that they lived and had, especially since it was fueled by materialism and betrayal. Chris’s father, Walt, lived a double life before and during the first years of Chris’ life. He seemingly had two women at his beck and call, but as soon he got discovered and that lifestyle vanquished for him. Although,

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Nonfiction books can often expand ones knowledge, especially in the subject of science. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, writer of the book and journalist Rebecca Scloot finds herself looking at an image of an African American whom had a tumor growing in her body without knowledge of it. This woman in the photo, Henrietta Lacks, although her name was unknown by most scientist and teachers, helped change the face of medicine back then and even today. Henrietta Lacks started getting treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 31. The physicians at the hospital cut a dime size piece of her tumor and sent it into the lab where George Gey then put it on clots of chicken blood to see if the cells would grow.

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The book is divided into three parts. The first part talks about Henrietta Lack’s life. Henrietta Lacks went to John Hopkins on September 19, 1950 because she felt a lump in her cervix. A few days later, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Then the doctors performed a surgery and later gave her radiation therapy.

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He was referring to his parents at this point in the story. They wanted to buy him a new car but he refused. This was Chris separating himself from his parents and trying to be himself in the world. There was nothing wrong with

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The scientific community and the media are guilty of viewing Henrietta and her family as abstractions; they did not give the Lacks family a fair trial, they’ve yet to give her family any form of compensation for the success of her cell line, and operated on Henrietta like a science fair project. In the non-fiction narrative The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, it states, “The fact that no one had sued over the growth or ownership of the HeLa cell line, he said, illustrated that patients didn’t mind when doctors took their cells and turned them into commercial products.” (204) This is unfair to the Lacks family because the fraud lawyer, Keenan Kester Cofield, deceived them. Although he is a con artist, he has a wide spectrum of knowledge about law than the Lackses really have about anything; they’ve had little to no education, and they barely knew anything about the HeLa cell line.

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McCandless didn’t just abandon people he met across the country but also deserted the people who cared for him most, his family, which shows even more that he lived a selfish and uncaring life. McCandless might not have had the best relationship with his parents but they are still the ones who raised him and loved him. Billie cared for Chris and tried to give him everything, and she didn’t deserve what happened to her. Losing a child must have been really hard on her especially without any warning. She describes a vivid dream she had late in the book: “‘I don’t know how I’ll ever get over it.

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Chris didn’t take it well. He never saw eye to eye with them. Perhaps this began when Chris and his siblings were just children; when there was money problems and always too busy parents. In the book, Carine, Chris’s sister, says, “Walt’s separation from his first wife left him with two families to support . . . It was a stressful existence.

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"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is a profoundly moving and thought-provoking drama television film that combines historical and ethical exploration with a strong focus on human relationships and resilience. Directed by George C. Wolfe, the film showcases the exceptional acting talents of Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne, who bring depth and emotion to this incredible story. Based on Rebecca Skloot's bestselling book, the film delves into the life of Henrietta Lacks, a woman diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, and the unprecedented consequences of her cancer cells, known as HeLa. Since its premiere on HBO on April 22, 2017, the film has continued to spark meaningful conversations about consent, race, and the ethical challenges faced

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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.

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Abstraction throughout history “We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measures of triumph.” The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks explores the meaning of being an abstraction or a general idea.

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Within Part Three of the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks there are a few important aspects to be considered. Two things I found important were the general themes of the true meaning of family and exactly as the title says, immortality. In Chapter 32 Henrietta’s children get to see their mother’s cells for the first time at Hopkins hospital. When entering in the specific room that contained the Hela cells “Deborah and Zakariyya stared at the screen like they’d gone into a trance, mouths open, cheeks sagging.

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But he abandoned his family because he wanted to be alone. 3.His relationship with his dad was negatively affected and also outside too. They appear to want chris to be a successful student even though meanwhile his inside was appearance and especially walter and was an abusive father. He was selfish around him and others because he thinks his family was fake towards him.

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Chris McCandless, the main character of the novel Into The Wild, had faced many problems throughout his life. He had contained many stages of internal and external conflict. The biggest challenge he faced internally was the thought of his father having to families to control. When Chris was younger his father would sneak away for days at a time to visit his “other” family. He had two different lives that no one knew about, he loved both ladies but could not chose one or another.

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They thought that Chris was being selfish for abandoning his family. As an adult, Chris was able to make his own decisions in life and did not need to depend on his parents for guidance. After graduating from high school, Chris found out that his father had a second family during his childhood. Discovering this, Chris slowly became disconnected from his parents and stored anger within himself. This shows how Chris had the right to leave his family because they were one of the reasons that caused his unhappiness.

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The absence of empathy extends to the Lacks family. When it was found that HeLa cells contaminated many of the cells lines around the world scientists scrambled for a definite marker unique to the HeLa so they might contain the HeLa infestation. For this they turned to Henrietta’s family. Genetic researcher Victor McKusick and assistant Susan Hsu began to take blood from Henrietta’s children and husband, David Lacks, without having the decency to fully explain the situation to Henrietta’s closest family members (Skloot, 2011). Mourning is a physically, mentally, and psychologically draining experience.

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Reason for the Journey Going on a journey often can be the best way to find the purpose of life. Christopher McCandless is the main character of Into The Wild written by Jon Krakauer (1996) who goes on a very interesting journey to find his purpose of life. Christopher left his comfort zone of as middle-high class in order to experience the adventure in Alaska alone. Into The Wild is a story that reflects Christopher’s values and possible reason for Christopher’s unique journey.

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