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Study of Gothic elements in Rebecca by Daphne
Study of Gothic elements in Rebecca by Daphne
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Recommended: Study of Gothic elements in Rebecca by Daphne
Sasha Amos 07/27/2017 Rebecca Skloot tells a story on Loretta Pleasant also known as Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who had cervical cancer. Without her consent, her doctors took her cells and used them to create HeLa. The Lacks family had no knowledge of what Henrietta’s cells had done.
Introduction In this book, author Rebecca Skloot sets out to give a biography of the late Henrietta Lacks. She had first heard of Henrietta Lacks in her freshman biology class at 16 years old. After only learning her name and skin color, Skloot became very much curious. Twenty-two years later, all her research was published as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
On the day of October 4, 1951 a women by the name of Henrietta Lacks passed away at the age of thirty-one due to cervical cancer. Even though Lacks died on that day she still lives to this very day. This is because then Lacks was undergoing treatment for her cancer at John Hopkins Hospital her doctor took samples Lack’s tumor caused by the cancer. Researchers tested to see how long her cells could live while outside of her body. Researches were surprised to find out that somehow Lacks’ cells wouldn’t die.
In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot goes on a lengthy journey in order to uncover the past of one of the greatest advances in medical history. Through the process she discovered that there was more to the story than just one woman, and this would lead her on an international adventure to discover the truth. Throughout the book many issues are present, many of them are quite severe, these issues include abuse and racial issues. To begin, there are multiple forms of abuse that are present in the book, and these include types of abuse such as physical, emotional, sexual and even abuse of power. Deborah Lacks Was abused at a young age by a woman named Ethel.
The book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot revolves around an African American woman who began life as a poor tobacco farmer, but soon after being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951 would unknowingly become one of the most important people in history. Unfortunately many would come to simply know her as “HeLa” the first “immortal” human cell line instead of another human being who had the right to know what doctors would soon do to her. She was strong woman and great mother to five unique children; Elsie, Lawrence, David (Sonny), Deborah, and finally Zakariyya (born Joe). The story itself tends to transition between the past and the present day. It gives us the story from both the perspective of Henrietta’s
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a novel written by Rebecca Skloot meant to be a memoir of one of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history and the woman that influenced it. Instead of immortalizing her cells like every other publishing company under the quasi-ambiguous name, HeLa, Skloot decided to give the medical miracle a name and tell her story. From life, death, and hereafter, Skloot has told the story of a woman that would have gone forgotten in history, along with the ethical mishaps along the way. The story begins with Skloot telling Henrietta’s life story and her sickness.
While, Rebecca Skloot endured ten years of writing her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which included a lot of research along with many trials. Skloot visited many scientific labs, hospitals, and mental institutions which included many different types of people from many different places, with many different backgrounds; including nobel laureates, grocery store cashiers, convicted felons, and a professional con artist. While Skloot was gathering research pertaining to Henrietta’s family, she was accused of making facts up and lying about the information she was compiling. She was both physically and mentally slammed for the story she was trying to document and the information she was trying to gather to do so.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book that includes her biography, then her childhood to her tragic death; the story of her family over various decades; Skloot’s research and her relationship with the Lacks family, especially Deborah; and the story of the HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks was known by scientists as HeLa was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951, and then became one of the most important tools in medicine. They were necessary for the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, and much more scientific developments. A doctor at Johns Hopkins took a piece of her tumor without her consent and then sent it down to scientists who been trying to grow tissues in culture for decades. Henrietta's
About 60 years ago, before African Americans had much respect at all, there was a woman named Henrietta Lacks who was diagnosed with cancer in her cervix. Without asking for permission, Henrietta’s doctors took some of her cells from her cervix, and they took them to do more research on them and tried to grow them for the first time outside of a persons body. Because she was African American, she and the rest of her family were not respected by doctors, or many other people at this time. These cells later became very critical to medical advancements and scientific research for the rest of the world. But, the injustice of this situation raises a large controversy over whether or not this is justified.
What makes us trust another human being? Even though there are many who are corrupt, trustworthy individuals have the ability to persuade us of their credibility. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a nonfiction book, Rebecca Skloot tells us an almost unbelievable story in a very believable way. Rebecca Skloot shows extreme patience with Deborah. As she continues to conduct research on the Lacks family, it is not uncommon for Deborah to act extremely irrationally.
An immortal cell, one which can never die, one of the great myths of life is no longer a myth. In fact, it’s been a part of science for 66 years now. Such an impossible, inconceivable thing came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who died at the age of 31 (and has been a huge contributor to medical science in the last 60 years) has endured the most adversity between a choice of her, Phineas Gage and Douglas Mawson. She was a woman who suffered from cervical cancer and died on October 4, 1951 (Johns Hopkins Magazine).
In the reading of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, the author Rebecca Skloot makes it well known that Henrietta Lacks, while a patient at John Hopkins Hospital samples of her cells was taken from her without her or her family’s knowledge or consent. We are made aware of this on page 33 “though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor — Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix”. As a health professional, you are violating that patients’ rights and in this case the Lacks right to privacy were violated. The way that the lacks family’s right to privacy was the fact that Henrietta’s cells often referred to as the HeLa cells
Throughout the process of reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there are a great deal of recurring themes that run central to the story’s plot. However, the theme of spirituality, which is often intertwined with the beliefs of the Lacks family, is one that captures the reader’s attention starting as early as the prologue. Even the author, Rebecca Skloot, provides a contrast between herself and Henrietta’s youngest daughter, Deborah, to illustrate how one’s beliefs can drastically shape his or her worldview. In terms of this particular story, it is important to take a closer look into how these faith-based beliefs interact with their counterpart of drawing conclusions based on evidence, thus introducing the question “How did level of
Inequality has been around since the stone age and continues to make its presence known today. Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is an example of the inequality shown to African-Americans in the medical world. Specifically, the unequal medical care Henrietta Lacks received, which many other black women experienced as well. In her book, Skloot suggests that African-American women suffer from psychological effects after receiving unequal medical care, do not receive equal medical treatment, and are more likely to die from maternal complications. Researchers agree, stating that these are common occurrences in the medical industry.
It is a novel that depicts a black woman’s quest to find herself, who could also be interpreted as Hurston who may have been trying to find herself through her many years of study and