Henrietta Lacks Ethos

566 Words3 Pages
Pathos is used as an appeal to emotion, often to gain an audience’s investment for a specific purpose. Animal shelter advertisements, car commercials, and even magazines use this method to attract an audience and pull them in by their heartstrings. Rebecca Skloot’s contemporary biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is no different, utilizing this method to maintain the audience’s attention and emotional investment in the story. When Zakariyya becomes angry after reflecting upon his mother’s death and how it impacted his life, Deborah embodies her role as a caring sister and shows him in a new light by way of pathos. “Then he walked slowly back to the building, holding the picture in front of him at eye level, seeing nothing ahead but