Henrietta Lacks Blog #5
After finishing up chapters 27-31 I saw a lot of related nature themes. Such as, talk about Henriettaās cancer, how she developed it, how her HeLa cells were immortal, and how scientists were in the process of figuring that out. What I thought was especially interesting is the scientists figuring out that HeLa cells were their own species because they were so different and unique in comparison to other cells. The book discussed the fact that HeLa cells donāt die because the cell contains an enzyme that allows the cell to renew the string of DNA, telomere, that usually shorten then eventually dies off. Aside from cells and the science aspect of the book, I also really liked the strong presence of family relationships shown in these last few chapters. When Deborah gives her speech about her mother and how much she loved her, itās really deep and itās saddening to see the way her mother was treated throughout this whole process. Skloot also talked about the drift between Deborah and herself because Deborah felt as if she was being taken advantage of. This was a common trend throughout the book, the fact they felt that they were being taken advantage of. The Lacks family has good reasoning for this as well. Everyone has benefited from HeLa cells except for the Lacks family.
Secondary Source #5
While reading the book, one thing I couldnāt understand is why this case was suddenly given attention to when a white person wrote about it. Sure there may have been news articles written by people of color, but nothing that was as major as this book was.
Ten authors on the most divisive question in fiction, and the times they wrote outside their own identities.
I chose this article as a secondary source because I think it gives insight on whether or not Rebecca Skloot was right in telling the story even though she didnāt/doesnāt face the same oppression as the black community. This article presents 10 cases in which the authors put themselves in different shoes of different groups in order to gain perspective. I thought this was an interesting approach and wonder if this was the thought process of Rebecca Skloot.
