Henrietta Lacks Book Report

Rebecca Skloot stands before the rickety old cabin, pressed against her parked car, fearfully hiding from the looming, antique cottage, afraid of what is to come. She lies in the middle of Turner Station, an ancient, eerie, ghost of a town where the Lacks family grew up on a bustling tobacco farm. The house was the childhood home of Henrietta Lacks, the late cervical cancer patient whose cells became the first ever to continue to reproduce and thrive outside of the body. This crumbling, wooden cabin is home to many memories and long-lasting history that is going to lead Rebecca to learning who is behind the HeLa cells and how important she is- to her vast family of cousins, grandparents and siblings, and to the world and future of biology for

When Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951, she left her five children motherless and alone. This includes one of her two daughters, Deborah Lacks. Throughout her life, Deborah never was able to meet her mother and knew of her only as an idea- a woman who died soon after her birth. After Henrietta’s death, she faded into old news and was hardly ever talked about. Deborah only ever wanted to learn more about her mother, going as far as harassing her brother, Lawrence, until he broke down into tears. She had always been confrontational and tough, this showing through when she is determined to overcome an obstacle. This is significantly different to how Rebecca Skloot grew up, living in a white, agnostic neighborhood instead of Deborah’s Christian childhood in the South. When Deborah and Rebecca first meet, they find themselves contrasting, even leaving Rebecca speechless at times over their first phone call. While Rebecca prepares herself to be ‘honest, compassionate, and patient’

While she barely knew some of her children for a long time, she was a very good mother who taught her children proper respect and manners albeit in a harsh way. This is seen when Rebecca first meets and talks to Deborah Lacks in the beginning. It shows the complete opposite of what Rebecca believed the Lacks family to be in the beginning of the book- a harsh, angry family, cross at the world for taking Henrietta and using her cells for science without permission. Instead of this attitude, the Lacks family is patient, kind and willing to listen to what others have to say even though they are fed up with all the interviewers and investigators breaking down their door to learn more. This helps Rebecca to understand how important manners and discipline was to Henrietta and how she took care to teach it to every one of her children. This idea also reveals how much Henrietta wanted the best for her children and how much she cared for them. In other words, it shows how close Henrietta was to her family and how important they were to her. With the entire Lacks family reminiscing of their mother or sister’s legacy, it gives Rebecca time to realize how important and special Henrietta was to this group of people, instead of a group of cells in a petri dish labeled ‘HeLa’. In fact, Henrietta’s influence was so strong that even people that weren’t direct family were considered her children.