'The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks'

Lucas Dial Alt English 111 10 January, 2018 The Other Wes Moore The Other Wes Moore is a story of two different lives, but with the same name, and how their journeys have been shaped by their decisions in the past. Through the book, there are many recurring themes. An individual's choices has consequences, Discipline and violence, the influence of family and friends are all common themes shown by author Wes moore throughout the book, shining light on each of their life journeys.

In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author demonstrates the harsh realities that many African Americans faced in the medical and scientific field during the mid 20th century. The author shows the unjust practices of this time period through interviews with the Lacks family and medical professionals. These harsh realities are proven when Skloot talks to Henrietta’s family. Henrietta’s husband, Day, explains how they took samples from Henrietta’s body without consent when Skloot writes, “Day clenched his remaining three teeth. "I didn't sign no papers," he said.

Henrietta Lacks was a thirty-one year old African American who had five kids and married her cousin David Lacks. Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the doctors never informed Mrs. Lacks that her cells were to be tested on. The Lacks family was certainly not advised that Henrietta 's cells were growing at an incredible rate. Because of this, the cancer cells were shipped and bought across the world. The last 8 months of Henrietta’s death became a piece of history nobody would ever want to forget.

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.

In Disney princess movies we often find that in order for the viewer to effectively sympathize with and care about the main character, bad things must happen to good people, and these bad things are made as awful as they possibly can be for the viewer to really and truly care for the character. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a biography by Rebecca Skloot, Skloot uses a pathos appeal in order to almost force the reader to sympathize with the characters, namely Deborah. Though Skloot masterfully pulls at the reader’s heartstrings throughout the book, she does so especially when Deborah passes away. The reader find that on the day of Deborah’s death, Sonny had come to check on Deborah, as he always does, to find her with her arms folded

Medical Racial Inequality The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a non-fiction book by Rebecca Skloot, shows the issue of racial inequality, most specifically, in the medical side of things. This book is a powerful narration of Henrietta Lacks’ life, death and everything that came after. Henrietta Lacks is an African American woman whose cervical cancer cells were taken in 1951 by doctors at Johns Hopkins. They were used without her permission or knowledge, which would then turn into the first ever immortal cell line that would be known as HeLa.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was published in 2010 and instantly became a New York Times bestseller. The book is a summary of Henrietta's life, including the medical history and issues with bioethical she faces. The book contains a lot of obvious issues with this topic that the reader can see instantly. Skloot does not come out directly and point them all out, as they were presented to the reader by telling the story with a violation of Henrietta's rights and tying bioethical issues within them. Henrietta Lacks’s life and human rights get violated throughout her lifetime due to bioethical issues, selfishness, and by others injecting her own cells into thousands of people without her knowledge and consent.

Peter Strople once said, “Legacy is not something one leaves to people, it's something one leaves in people.” Henrietta Lacks’ legacy is her cells and how they helped hundreds of people. Henrieta Lacks is an African American woman who died from cervical cancer and her cancerous cells were taken from her without her consent. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot expresses the central issues of ethics and race through various literary devices. Henrietta’s story highlights the systemic racism and exploitation that has occurred in the medical field.

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.

The author Wes Moore had a superior upbringing than the other Wes Moore due to having more support from his family, friends, and community. The support and motivation of

Wes realized that his job wasn’t a real ‘job’, it was a source to feed addictions like Cheryl’s. In an attempt to revise his life, he entered the Job Corps program, sadly, it didn’t last very long. He wasn’t making much money from the low paid jobs that he was offered through the program, he needed to take care of his children with both financial and parental support, with all of these situations happening one after the other, he was feeling very overwhelmed. Although Wes knew he didn’t want to stray back to his old habits, it took the best of him, the one thing that Wes took away from his childhood was the easiest way to make money, and that consisted of one thing; the drug business, the chapter ends with him preparing a bag of cocaine with tears welling in his eyes, with disappointment for

They overcame their challenges, although, they struggled along the way. Alexie and Douglass show their story to represent to others that may be in their position to have faith in all you do. Despite the fact that things get hard, it is how you finish that keeps you

How is it that two men that come from identical backgrounds end up being completely opposites? Wes Moore takes us back to his childhood growing up, and also introduces us to a character sharing the same name as him, and similarly, the same lifestyle. Both of the young men shared the absence of a father figure, living in poor neighborhoods, bad influences, and lack of education. While reading, we question “how?” and “why?”

After having his first child the other Wes Moore had been missing school, and later dropped out. Having a child put a lot of strain on the other Wes Moore. And without a high school diploma and a criminal record it would be nearly impossible for Wes to find a job. For the time being, however, Wes was able to stay with his aunt Nicey. Nicey told him “to either get a job or go to school” (110).

Rebecca Skloot develops the idea that poverty comes with many difficult situations, in the book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". True, Henrietta and her family were poor, could barely afford their medical bills, and they didn 't get the extended care that they deserved. You will learn how being poor can change your life and what is done with it . In the book, Henrietta 's daughter, Deborah, has many medical problems and she has to spend all her money on not even all her medicine.