Henrietta Lacks Sparknotes

Rebecca Skloot, however, used a different perspective in her portrayal of Lacks. This is evident in the way in which she conducted her research and the way she wrote the book. Skloot’s book, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, included both the “scientific element concerns the origin and the subsequent uses of the HeLa cell line of cultured cancer cells” (Harper, 2011, p. 463) and the social and

The book starts of by telling us about the life of Henrietta Lacks, or as referred to by scientists HeLa. Henrietta is a poor African American tobacco farmer. When giving birth she finds a tumor on her body and is immediately hospitalized. She stays in the hospital for a few days, she comes out and resumes her normal life without disclosing to anyone that she has cancer.After Henrietta Lacks’s treatments were complete, doctors saw no tumors in her body. Henrietta did not believe that she was cured, only that her cancer was multiplying and spreading in her body. They told her that she was fine and

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot is a book filled with drama and ethical dilemmas. The book is broken into three sections which focus not only on the story of Henrietta Lacks, but the life of her family following her death. Part one, Life introduces readers to Henrietta and her family before she was officially the woman behind HeLa. In this section, it is discovered that Henrietta was born in Roanoke, Virginia, but due to her mom dying while she was young she relocated to Clover, Virginia. While in Clover, she fell in love with her cousin Day and they went on to get married and had five children. The Lacks children are Lawrence, Elsie, Sonny, Deborah, and Zakariyya who were all greatly affected by the loss of their

The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is the result of years of research done by Skloot on an African American woman with cervical cancer named Henrietta Lacks. Cells from Lacks’ tumor are taken and experimented on without her knowledge. These cells, known as HeLa cells, are the first immortal human cells ever grown. The topic of HeLa cells is the topic of many controversial debates. Despite the fact that her cells are regarded as, “one of the most important advancements in the last hundred years” (4), little is actually known about the woman behind the cells. Skloot sets out on a mission to change this fact and share the story of the woman from whom the cells originate and her family as they deal with the effects these cells have on them.

In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Henrietta the purpose of the book is to tell the story of Henrietta Lacks, her illness, and how she completely changed medicine. The speaker is the author, Rebecca Skloot a prolific freelance writer. The audience is a wide variety of readers, since the book is extremely popular and is now often taught in schools and universities. The subject is Henrietta Lacks, a woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. and HeLa, the line of cells taken from Henrietta that were the first line of cells to reproduce and survive in the lab indefinitely.

“The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was written by Rebecca Skloot. Rebecca was raised in the pacific North West and received a BS in biological sciences from Colorado State University and a MFA in Creative nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh. She ended up teaching creative writing and science journalism at the University of Pittsburgh, New York University, and the University of Memphis. Her first book “the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” won over four-teen awards including the #1 New York Times best-selling Book of 2010. Skloot spent over ten years studying, researching, and interviewing to make her dream of getting the whole story of Henrietta Lacks into a book a reality. I believe the purpose of her writing this book is to tell

Throughout the novel, we learn about the medical treatment that Henrietta received as an African American woman in the 50’s. Additionally, Skloot writes about the experiences that she had when contacting the Lacks family to learn about Henrietta. While the reader learns about

The first part of the book was titled Life and it is like a biography of Henrietta’s life, it shows when and where she was born and how she grew up and it also lets us know what race she was and how black people were treated especially in the John Hopkins hospital. It also explains how Henrietta got

I like how Rebecca tries to make you feel like you are experiencing this with Henrietta and her family. I did not like how Henrietta was treated by the doctors because she was a poor black tobacco farmer. Also, I do not like the vocabulary that is used in this book. To me it is just wrong that Rebecca and her husband Day are first cousins. Henrietta had a lot of cousins so therefore it is hard to keep up with all of the names and who is who. If my family was in Henrietta’s shoes, I would be furious that the doctor’s did not think to tell me or my family that they took my cells. But I think eventually I think my family would be okay with because my cells would be helping people around the world. I think that is how Henrietta’s finally felt after a couple of years after they found out about “HeLa” cells. I think the main person who stands out so far in this book is Henrietta’s daughter Deborah because she would get so mad about the doctors taking her mom’s calls that she would have to take medicine to calm herself down. I hate the fact that Henrietta had to live in a time period where white people and black people were segregated. White people had nice fancy bathrooms while black people had nasty bathrooms. I thought that it was a little weird that Henrietta and her family had to kiss the Jesus statue’s toe before they saw the doctor. I wonder why his toe (Skloot

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

“The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot exposes the truth about a colored woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died from cancer leaving five children and a husband behind. Before her death doctors took her cells,without her or her family consent, to do there own research and experiments. They discovered that her cells were immortal, they became the first immortal cells known as the HeLa cells..After the discoverment the Lacks family were never told that Henrietta Lacks cells were used, bought and sold. Through the HeLa cells the scientist had made money while Henrietta kids were mistreated and were in poor situations.It wasnt till 25 years later that the Lacks family found out about the HeLa cells doing miracles. Rebecca Skloot though “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was able to explain the unethical situations that the Lacks family faced after Henrietta’s death.

This research paper is based on the findings from the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. What you will read and come to know is nonfiction. I wish I could put the pictures of what I have seen and read together here for you to perhaps get a better understanding. A story based on not Henrietta’s life being that of immortality, but rather cancer cells removed from her body without her knowledge. These were the first cancer cells to reproduce outside of her body. You will come to know about Henrietta, her cancer, her cells, and her immortal life. Perhaps we can all learn to appreciate life in greater means of appreciation after reading and knowing the life and immortal afterlife of Henrietta Lacks. You will learn about a woman, who like us, had a family, and ended up not being able to truly live life to its fullest. Making us all realize just how cancer is and the amazing research that came from being able to reproduce her cells. Not just for cancer but for various other illnesses that plague so many of us. My hope is that you take away from this a better understanding of a time we do not know, for the ups and downs of science and the possibility of immortal life.

The family feared what they believed were "night doctors who abducted black people for medical research"(Skloot). Because there was still discrimination then, they feared the worst. In my opinion the Lacks family was angry with the scientists using HeLa cells from Henrietta without the family's consent. I think they wanted everyone to know that Henrietta didn't donate her cells, they were taken without asking and without telling the family what was going to happen to them.

The non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, details the happenings and life of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman and tobacco farmer who became a medical miracle in the 1950’s. The book is written in an attempt to chronicle both the experiences and tribulations of Henrietta Lacks and her family, as well as the events that led to, and resulted from, research done on Henrietta Lacks’ cells. Henrietta was a very average African American woman in this period; she had only a seventh-grade level education, and followed traditional racial and gender roles by spending her time has a mother and caretaker, as well as working on farms throughout her life until the involvement of the US in World War II brought her and her husband, “Day” Lacks, comparatively better work opportunities in industrial steel mills. However, after her death in 1951 Henrietta became much more than average to doctors at John Hopkins when the discovered that cells extracted from her cancerous tissue continued to live and grow much longer than any other tissue samples. Further investigation and isolation of these thriving cells led to the creation of the first ever immortal human cell line in medical history. The incredible progress in medicine made possible by Henrietta Lack’s tissue cells were not without downfalls, though. The treatments and experiences received by Henrietta and the effects it had on her and her family demonstrate both racial and gender

Henrietta Lacks is not a common household name, yet in the scientific and medical world it has become one of the most important and talked names of the century. Up until the time that this book was written, very few people knew of Henrietta Lacks and how her cells contributed to modern science, but Rebecca Skloot aimed to change this. Eventually Skloot was able to reach Henrietta’s remaining family and through them she was able to tell the story of not only the importance of the HeLa cells but also Henrietta’s life.