On page 162 Lawrence, Henriettaâs son, asks Skloot, âCan you tell me what my mamaâs cells really did? I know they did something important, but nobody tells us nothing.â This quote shows that Henriettaâs family knows about what she did, and knows how important of a role she played, but that nobody ever came forward and gave them the full story of their mother. Instead, they only received a half-truth. This idea of only getting a half-truth when asking about a family history reminds me of Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. When Luke Skywalker meets Ben Kenobi, Ben tells him that his father was a Jedi Knight alongside him in the Clone Wars. However, when Luke asks about his fatherâs death, Ben replies, â A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.â In a similar way to the Lacks familyâs explanation of their mother, the explanation Luke receives is only half of the truth. While his father did fight alongside Kenobi in the Clone Wars, he was not murdered by Vader. Instead he became him. This relates to the abstract topic of âPassion vs. Responsibilityâ because Ben Kenobi decides that he knows whatâs best for Luke instead of being honest with him about his family history. In both scenarios, the ones with the knowledge of the whole story chose to withhold information because they thought that it was better that the recipients were left in the dark.
