ipl-logo

Henrietta Skloot's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

614 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Treatment of women in literature

When reading a book, whether the reader knows it or not, they contain invisible threads. These threads float around until ties are made in connection to a work. These ties are made through emotional linkage of the reader to the book. Like in the case of the contemporary biography of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Skloot makes to tie these threads together utilizing pathos to humanize and get the reader to connect with Henrietta Lacks and sympathize for the situation she is in.
A main goal and component of this biography is to humanize Henrietta. Skloot aims to inform the reader about the woman behind the science; she is not Helen Lane or HeLa, but a woman who had a life and a family. Actions of the scientific community severely affected not only her, but the next generation of the Lacks family. Skloot goes on to describe her family background as well as giving an in-depth description of Henrietta herself. An element that Skloot especially emphasizes was how much Henrietta cared about her appearance:
Henrietta spent hours taking care of those nails, touching up the chips and brushing on new coats of polish. She’d sit on her bed, polish her hand, …show more content…

Reading about how much work she put into what she looked like, picturing those deep red nails, and knowing just a little fact that she loved her silky top so much she washed every night; each one of these facts about Hennie’s life gets the reader to develop a connection with the text. This imagery is a effective tool to create pathos because now the reader knows more about Henrietta’s everyday life, and when the reader see Henrietta’s pain at the end of her life, it becomes all the more tragic. Skloot wants the reader to be able to picture the daily routines and regimens that Henrietta would go through in order to deviate away from the formal, scientific descriptions of HeLa and move into a more personal take on her

Show More
Related

Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

391 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

611 Words | 3 Pages

Hannah Henriques ANT Dr. Voelker September 28, 2017 Henrietta Lacks Book Review In Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot documents the years surrounding her research of Henrietta Lacks, a woman known to most of the world as HeLa. Henrietta lived and died a poor tobacco farmer from the south, living and working on the same farm as her enslaved ancestors. But little did Henrietta know that her cells would change the course of medical research and history forever.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1695 Words | 7 Pages

In her work, Skloot reveals Henrietta Lacks to be an African-American woman whose cervical cells were biopsied without her consent. These cells, known as HeLa (a combination of Lacks first and last name), have since been shared among various scientists and researchers and been the framework for ground-breaking research. Unlike other works on Henrietta Lacks, Skloot set out to tell

Read More

Henrietta Lacks: An Analysis

624 Words | 3 Pages

Part two of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, once again submerges the reader in to the world of HeLa cells. This section emphasizes what occurred with Henrietta’s immortal cells after her death. Along with the many medical discoveries made from these miracle cells, part two delves into the physical and emotional abuse that Henrietta’s children were forced to live with after her passing all while struggling financially while their mother’s cells are being sold for millions of dollars. Skloot continues her phenomenal synopsis of the life of Henrietta Lacks and the stories her cells continue to tell. One of the utmost riveting and critical scenes of this section occurs in the first few pages.

Read More

Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

903 Words | 4 Pages

This adjustment brought on more labor on her body and destructs the youth in her. Also, it is an interesting dynamic that Henrietta is mothering the children of her first cousin Day. They have been sharing a bed since Henrietta was four years old and one could only speculate how healthy that could have been for a growing girl at such young age. It’s important to remember Henrietta as a mother because that’s what she is the most as for most of her life she has been taking care of her child and birthing five

Read More

Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

774 Words | 4 Pages

Statistically, African American women in the United States suffer from complications or death 243 percent more than white women during maternity. This is a common occurrence that many women and children face, but shouldn’t have too. Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is an example of the inequality shown to African-American women in the medical world. Specifically, the unequal medical care Henrietta Lacks received, which many other black women experienced. In her book, Skloot suggests that African-American women suffer from psychological effects after receiving unequal medical care, do not receive equal medical treatment during maternity, and are more likely to die from maternal complications.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks

477 Words | 2 Pages

In August of 2013, Talha Khan Burki wrote “Righting a Long-standing Wrong for Henrietta Lacks” for Lancet Oncology. Burki’s purpose was to highlight the problem with the sequence data of patients’ cells (namely, Henrietta Lacks) being publicly released and to inform people of the privacy risks involved. Burki did a very good job at explaining what the issue was, what had been done about it and what needed to happen. Generally, readers struggle and become overwhelmed when they see a large sum of information all at one time. However, while this article provides the reader with several facts, it makes the reader think and Burki did a very well at writing in a manner that prior knowledge of certain terms or concepts are not critical to comprehending.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1146 Words | 5 Pages

Since Henrietta lived in a time when discrimination was not uncommon, the reaction of the public today would differ greatly from if the book had been published in the 1950s. For example, on the treatment of African Americans, Skloot states, “they recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis, then watched them die slow, painful, and preventable deaths, even after they realized penicillin could cure them”. Clearly, this quote demonstrates the racial discrimination present during the time of Henrietta because African Americans were often treated as test subjects, instead of as human beings. In addition, doctors were considered to be trustworthy individuals because of their high degree of education. Even if African Americans were aware of their unfair treatment, they accepted racial segregation as common practice and were grateful to be receiving any form of treatment.

Read More

Stylistic Analysis Of The Payoff By Susan Perabo

794 Words | 4 Pages

In order to fully understand the story it must be evaluated to show what lesson is to be learned from the reading. The story has an epiphany implemented into the writing which gives a new realization in the importance of this part. A major evaluation to this short story is to fully understand the main characters in it. One significant character in this story is Louise.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

989 Words | 4 Pages

Bushra Pirzada Professor Swann Engh-302 October 4th 2015 Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks who has her cervical cancer. It further goes to tell the audience how Henrietta altered medicine unknowingly. Henrietta Lacks was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951; however, the doctors at John Hopkins took sample tissues from her cervix without her permission. The sample tissues taken from Henrietta’s cervix were used to conduct scientific research as well as to develop vaccines in the suture.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Lack Of Education

276 Words | 2 Pages

In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, education plays a substantial role in what occurs throughout the book. Many major events are related to people not understanding what is happening to them. Skloot brings up the topic ’Lack of Education,’ frequently and this affected Henrietta's treatments, and how her family viewed the situation, and how the black community viewed scientist overall. In many occasions lack of education causes a major event to happen, “she didn't write much, and she hadn't studied science in school,”(pg 16) with little education Henrietta had no idea what was wrong with her. Without Henrietta or her family knowing symptoms of certain diseases Henrietta does not go to the hospital till the end.

Read More

Critical Lens In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

1247 Words | 5 Pages

It might surprise readers to know that, by the use of this lens, traces of these subjects can be found in almost any work despite the original nature and intent of the tale. A prime example demonstrating the power of the Marxist lens can be seen when the lens is applied to Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”. This short conte depicts the brief sentiment of freedom felt by the fictitious character Mrs. Mallard as she learns that her husband has been killed in a railroad accident. However, her blissful reverie is put to death by death itself when her husband, alive and well, walks through the doors of their home to meet her. On the surface, this would appear to be a tale void of social, political, or economic association; how could such logical themes develop in such an emotional tale?

Read More

Henrietta Lacks: A Literary Analysis

1727 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

Story Of An Hour Character Analysis Essay

940 Words | 4 Pages

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone.

Read More

Isolation And Loneliness In Miss Brill By Katherine Mansfield

256 Words | 2 Pages

In the story Miss Brill, author Katherine Mansfield advances her theme “ isolation and loneliness can cause one to imagine distorted realities that they wish were true” through the use of action, third-person omniscient point-of-view, characterization, diction, and dialogue. Examples and proof of her techniques appear throughout the story in the textbook, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, although modern readers may find that few people in this world seem to be out of touch with reality and live their lives through their dreams like the character Miss Brill. While not enough evidence exists to suggest that Mansfield believes the theme she is “auctioning,” modern readers can take away, through the central character 's internal monologue,

Read More

More about Henrietta Skloot's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Related Topics

Open Document