In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, there is a conflict inside the story about how the title character’s cells should be handled. Outside of the story is the conflict over who the person is that goes through the hero’s journey, is it Skloot or Deborah Lacks? Skloot was a student who became curious about Henrietta Lacks, a woman who had her cells taken away from her without her acknowledgment, and Skloot searches for answers with the help of Henrietta's daughter, Deborah. When everything from the book is taken into consideration it becomes overwhelmingly clear that the hero between these two characters is without question Rebecca.
One of the key items that make up the hero’s journey is how the character starts in a setting that has been familiar to them their whole life and then suddenly a realization-bomb dawns upon them or a mission beckons for an adventurer. Rebecca Skloot starts off the book detailing how she was in a class and when they encountered these cells of great scientific importance no one knew anything about her outside of the basic info (Skloot 2-5). This part of the story details how no one, including herself, knew anything important about this woman who
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After discovering that Rebecca lied to her about what she knows she refuses to continue and in fact runs away from what is trying to be achieved (Skloot 239-240). While this does point to her refusing the quest which is what the hero does in the hero's journey, it is still part of a chapter in which the primary idea is that she is an aid to Skloot. She taught Rebecca about who her mother truly was, and her running away shows just how powerful this act of not caring about who gave the cells really is. So instead of it being viewed as Deborah refusing the quest, it could be viewed as Deborah showing Skloot just how traumatizing this whole ordeal truly
In this paper, I will analyze Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, concentrating on Henrietta Lacks’ life, as well as ethical controversies and sociological impact surrounding the HeLa cells. First, I will discuss the author’s main arguments and the type of evidence used throughout the paper. Then, I will summarize the life of Henrietta Lacks focusing on her diagnosis and treatment up to her death. After, I will describe the ethical debates that the author presented and how they relate to Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells. Finally, I will examine the impact HeLa cells have had on the society, specifically regarding the medical community, as well as the effect HeLa cells had on Henrietta’s family.
In the novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author, Rebecca Skloot, tries to convince the audience that her argument regarding, Henrietta and her cells is worth thinking about. Skloot argues that the woman whose body contained these life-changing cells deserved to be recognized. While trying to prove her side of the argument, Skloot uses logos within the novel to emphasize to the audience just how important her cells are, by providing the science behind the cells and their accomplishments.
All I can say is amazing information of your glorious and late Henrietta Lacks. This incedible women bettered our society in ways no common human could understand at the time because of how complex this matter was and still very much indeed is. I know there is much contraversy with the matter of how scientists achived immortal cells from your late relative, and I do strongly agree with the fact that it was wrong for these researches to take advantage of this incredible women, but I know it is not for me to say nonethless it must be said that even though it was wrong to take Lacks’ cells when she was dying sometimes one must suffer to bring joy to the entire world.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I”, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr. Wharton removed a sample of her cervix tumor and a sample of her healthy cervix tissue and gave this tissue to dr. George Gey, who had been trying to grow cells in his lab for years. In the meantime that Henrietta was recovering from her first treatment with radium, her cells were growing in George Gey’s lab. This all happened without the permission and the informing of Henrietta Lacks. The cells started growing in a unbelievable fast way, they doubled every 24 hours, Henrietta’s cells didn’t seem to stop growing. Henrietta’s cancer cell grew twenty times as fast as her normal healthy cells, which eventually also died a couple of days after they started growing. The first immortal human cells were grown, which was a big breakthrough in science. The HeLa cells were spread throughout the scientific world. They were used for major breakthroughs in science, for example the developing of the polio vaccine. The HeLa-cells caused a revolution in the scientific world, while Henrietta Lacks, who died Octob...
Imagine that you were Douglas Mawson, along with two other explorers exploring unknown Antarctica, when everything goes wrong. Douglas Mawson suffered more adversity than Henrietta Lacks and Phineas Gage. Henrietta Lacks is about a woman who died from cervical cancer and her cells were extracted; later to find that her cells were immortal. Phineas Gage was a normal man when an extraordinary thing happened—he had a iron rod go through his skull. Phineas gage didn’t go through as much hardship, but he did go through more than Lacks. Half way through Mawson’s journey, both of his partners died, and it was just him, all alone in Antarctica. So, as anyone could see, Mawson experiences the most adversity among the three figures for many reasons.
Most people live in capitalist societies where money matters a lot. Essentially, ownership is also of significance since it decides to whom the money goes. In present days, human tissues matter in the scientific field. Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, shows how Henrietta Lacks’s cells have been used well, and at the same time, how they have been a hot potato in science because of the problem of the ownership. This engages readers to try to answer the question, “Should legal ownership have to be given to people?” For that answer, yes. People should be given the rights to ownership over their tissues for patients to decide if they are willing to donate their tissues or not. Reasons will be explained as follows.
Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, depicts the violation of medical ethics from the patient and researcher perspectives specifically when race, poverty, and lack of medical education are factors. The novel takes place in the southern United States in 1951. Henrietta Lacks is born in a poor rural town, Clover, but eventually moves to urban Turner Station. She was diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins hospital where cells was unknowingly taken from her and used for scientific research. Rebecca Skloot describes this when she writes, “But first—though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting sample or asked she wanted to be a donor—Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta's cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish” (33). The simple act of taking cells, which the physicians did not even think twice about, caused decades
The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, was a nonfiction story about the life of Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Henrietta did not know that her doctor took a sample of her cancer cells a few months before she died. “Henrietta cells that called HeLa were the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory” (Skloot 22). In fact, the cells from her cervix are the most important advances in medical research. Rebecca was interested to write this story because she was anxious with the story of HeLa cells. When she was in biology class, her professor named Donald Defler gave a lecture about cells. Defler tells the story about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells. However, the professor ended his lecture when he said that Henrietta Lacks was a black woman. In this book, Rebecca wants to tell the truth about the story of Henrietta Lacks during her medical process and the rights for Henrietta’s family after she died.
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
... her: “I’ll bring them medical records out on my own terms and when I think is right.” (Henrietta Lacks; ch. 31, p. 251). This was usually because of the people around her. On more than one occasion, they would convince her that she should not trust white people. This shows that peers can influence the way you react to people of a different ethnic background. Throughout the book, you can see that Deborah is kind of a submissive character who almost always goes along with the opinion of others such as her family. It’s at this point you can see that she has decided to act on her own in trusting Rebecca. I can clearly see Deborah’s reason for this. Whenever I see someone for the first time, I always try to be friendly towards them. I never let anyone influence my actions no matter who they are because Racism has always been more of a motivator than a problem for me.
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot’s interpretation of the HeLa phenomenon gave the readers a glimpse into her opinion of biomedical research during Henrietta’s time. The great leaps in scientific research caused many scientists to become excited for what was to come. However, this excitement caused Henrietta’s doctors—and many others— to neglect their patients’ rights. Namely, many patients, including Henrietta, were oblivious to what the doctors were actually doing to them. Consequently, the doctors held all the power in their relationship with their patients. Skloot’s depictions of Henrietta and Moore’s battles show the readers the harm that was done due to this power. By and large, Skloot’s portrayal of the biomedical field is dim, but has promise for the future. And this promise for the future can only come from more pro-patient regulations.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
In the pages of “A Conspiracy of Cells” that were available to us, there were several differences in both writing style and content, compared to Skloot’s, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” One of the biggest differences is in Michael Gold’s, “A Conspiracy of Cells,” he focuses more on the Hela cells and the research, while in Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” Skloot focuses more on the Lacks family.
The credibility and trustworthiness of a person can be achieved through their achievements and titles. Writers have the ability of achieving this by appealing to the rhetorical strategy ethos. Rebecca Skloot’s inclusion of her knowledge in science to provide her credibility and numerous information of all her characters in the novel helps develop the rhetorical strategy of ethos. Skoot’s implementation of appealing to ethos aids in emphasizing on the credibility of both herself and all the other characters in the novel. She demonstrates this rhetorical strategy by indicating titles and achievements her characters in the novel. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot develops the rhetorical strategy of ethos through the use of her characters in the novel consisting of Skloot herself, George Gey, and the virologist Chester Southam.
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.