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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

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Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

“Excuse me, ma’am/sir, can I interest you in a product?” Every time I visit the mall, the sales people at the kiosk always bother me, in hopes that they can sell me their product. I, personally, ignore these people and continue on with my day, but once I observed a man become persuaded into buying a summer home in Florida because of the “amazing offer” the sales kiosk worker offered him. Therefore, people can persuade others into doing things they would not normally do using the same techniques authors use to try and persuade their readers to believe their point of view on a topic. In the 21st century non-fiction biography, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, American author, Rebecca Skloot …show more content…

In the 1950’s black children received an education inferior to the education white children received. Consequently, to emphasize the lack of education black people of the time received, “Doctors knew best, and most patients didn’t question that,” Skloot used pathos to elicit emotions of sympathy from readers, “Many black patients were just lucky to be getting treatment, since discrimination in hospitals was widespread” (Skloot 64). Skloot revealed the gullibility of black people that the white people had conditioned them to think due to their lack of education. The white people had conditioned the black people to believe that if they received any treatment or diagnosis, they should consider themselves lucky. Skloot used pathos to make readers feel sympathy for black people in the 1950’s because they did not deserve unequal treatment. Skloot brought attention to the discrimination and unfair treatment of black people, because she believed no one should feel lesser than anyone else or treat anyone lesser than themselves. People should treat each other equally. Therefore, Skloot exposed the discrimination black people faced to show how we as a nation have become more accepting of people of other races, so much so that now laws prohibit discrimination and unequal …show more content…

She used pathos to elicit emotions from readers to connect with them on an emotional level because in doing so, Skloot could influence the reader’s feelings and make individuals see her points of view towards the characters and events revolving around racism and discrimination. Skloot wanted readers to see how our world has changed and evolved to adapt to our constantly changing acceptance policies. She believed that in order to strive for a more perfect world, people must learn to accept to treat other people equally without racial barriers to separate and divide us. Skloot wanted the readers to understand that in order to make progress, we must first go back to our roots where labels did not exist and the color of people’s skin becomes only a characteristic as insignificant as eye or hair

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