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Essay on the who walk away from omelas
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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
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.
Throughout history, the act of signaling out an individual or a group, as well as putting the blame on others, scapegoat as per called; have been here for centuries. At every opportunity, certain people perform this act of condemning onto outcasts, as well as people who have vulnerabilities to make them a perfect target. During World War 2, a tenacious leader abused the Jewish people for his own countries failures, as well as killed all the intellectuals that were trying to serve and help bring a commentary on life to their country. However, in everyday life, the act of scapegoating can occur in the smallest form, but can have a huge impact on the individual and the society, making this a very important theme in the Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.
In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, religious beliefs clash with science breakthroughs over HeLa cells. The Lacks family were religious however the author Rebecca Skloot is more in touch with science rather than religion. Although the Lacks family did not turn her away from science, they did open her eyes and inspire her to believe in something more than nothing. The family did not know much about science or HeLa cells, and the family was unsure about trusting Skloot because they believed she was going to betray them like the doctors did with the HeLa cells from Henrietta.
After a sporting event, have you ever heard “We lost because of this person” or “It’s his fault we lost?” Well, this is an example of scapegoating. Scapegoating is the act of putting the blame of an event on to a specific person, or a group of people. Scapegoating plays a big role in some pieces of literature, especially The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is about the Puritan village of Salem Massachusetts back in 1692, during the witch hunts.
What is the right thing to do? Ellie Wiesel believes people should do the right thing, but more importantly these should choose a side. Indifference is worse than anger, rage, and hatred as Ellie said, “Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, have done something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses”(Elie Wiesel, The Perils of Indifference). With indifference people are only punishing the victim and helping to achieve the goal of the unrighteous.
Hope is a powerful thing; more powerful than death itself. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is about a jewish boy who is put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Elie doubted his faith to survive but had others to lean on during the hardship. Elie had the support of others as a sense of hope to survive the long, cold nights, with little food and water.
Dreams, contrary to popular belief, are terrible. The best thing to do, is to stop chasing dreams because all dreams do is distract people from more important responsibilities. People spend their time chasing their dreams, but they don’t perform their day to day tasks they need to survive on their own. In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary, has a dream of becoming an artist. Instead of getting a job to provide for her poverty stricken family, she decides to stay home and paint all day.
In this world, there’s learning things the hard way and the easy way; in Jeannette Wall’s world, there’s only learning things the hard way. The Glass Castle is an adventurous story that reveals the painfully miserable story of Jeannette Walls. A selfish mother, a careless father, and terrible social encounters- these are some of the elements of a harsh reality Rex and Rose Mary Walls failed to shield their children from. Growing up poor was already difficult, but growing up with a selfish parent, specifically an unfeeling mom, made life hell for the Walls children. The family barely had one source of income from Rex Walls, and instead of helping out with the family’s finance issues, Rose Mary spent her days at home painting.
In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rose Mary is the mother of the Walls children who often does not act as a true adult. Rose Mary’s attitudes and behaviours are childlike, and therefore her children must take on responsibility for the lack her own. Rose Mary ignores her obligations as a parent and chooses an irresponsible way of life which endangers her children. Rose Mary has never properly matured into adulthood due to her lack of financial stability, bliss ignorance and optimism, and her selfishness nature.
While reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the relationship between Rex and Rose Mary walls and their children became to be very intriguing. Specifically how they raised their kids without holding anything back, an idea reinforced by a famous Walt Disney quote This quote describes how “trying to shield” children ) from reality” wouldn’t “do them any favor.” This idea was enforced by multiple occasions from the book which include letting Jeannette cook by herself at the age of 3, even after getting serious burns from cooking, letting the kids do whatever they wanted as long as they “Used common sense”, and the incident where Rex let Jeannette go upstairs with a stranger because he knew she could defend herself. The first incident revolves around how Jeannette was allowed to cook, even after having serious burns from from cooking. ”She had to get right back on the saddle.”
One major theme authors universally write their stories around concern the power of human relationships. Though writers may take different paths to communicate this, the strength that comes from these unique connections that exist between individuals resonates with everyone. Authors clearly articulate through a myriad of rhetorical devices that maintaining relationships is a fundamental part in personal growth and allows for a stronger sense of self. In finding companionship and comradery. people become capable of evolving and arriving at better understandings of who they are.
It all comes down to just one particular fear which is not fitting in. This is called conformity; it is going along with a group and modeling your response to theirs on the way. People are afraid to state their own opinions and speak their minds which only results on them following someone else’s ideas even if they do not agree with it.
As seen in the examples above, society will do whatever it takes to solve “the bigger problem” even if it means burning the innocent. Society doesn’t stop to look back nor ahead to see the damages they’ve caused or are going to cause, they just throw the torch and wait for the town or people to fan the flame. In order for the scapegoating to come to an end, the people must first want it to end. The people must show they truly want it to stop and put forth the effort to bring scapegoating to an end no matter how bad the situation looks or is. “Under stress, a society will always scapegoat a person or a group of people” doesn’t have to be true, but unfortunately in most cases it is true and there are cartoons, plays, and poems to prove
Acceptance in Society From the beginning of time, acceptance has played an important role in society. It is only human nature, to try and be accepted into a group of people. Explained by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where social needs are expressed as the 3rd level before self-actualization. Which is what we all strive towards whether we know it yet or not. Acceptance or a sense of belonging can be reasons behind, how we form social groups like cliques, the reason we act the way we do and why we dress the way we do.
