The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

Henrietta and Day Lacks start their lives together as young people growing up in the "home-house," the family home of their grandparents Tommy and Chloe Lacks. It seems pastoral and idyllic, and in...

Because Skloot becomes a character in the Lacks' family story, she tells the story as though she's reporting on the scene. This means that she alternates between first-person (personal accounts, in...

Though Skloot becomes part of the story, her focus is always on telling the story of Henrietta and her family; she considers the book a biography of Henrietta and a biography of her cells. But it's...

Rebecca Skloot's a science reporter, and she's really very good at delivering her information succinctly, clearly and non-judgmentally. That's especially critical in this work, when there are so ma...

Skloot has two main jobs to do in this book: telling the story of the Lacks family and explaining the development of HeLa cells and their use in scientific research. For the most part, the writing...

Skloot's title intends to make us think about what Henrietta's immortality really means—for her, for her family, and for the scientific community. It's clear from the book that "immortality" mean...

We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of...

Because this is a biography, the ending is a bit of a wrap-up. Skloot describes what's happened to some of the important people in the book and describes the conclusion of her work on the book. We...

Rebecca Skloot's book was not a #1 New York Times bestseller for nothing: fascinating (painful) subject, clear explanations for all the non-scientists among us, family drama. In other words, a real...

Young mother Henrietta Lacks seeks help at Hopkins for a "knot" on her womb. She's got an unusual cervical tumor, and the surgeon takes some of her cells for research. Unlike most cells, they seem...

Here's an assignment you probably won't mind: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been selected for Common Reading at 150 universities. We're pretty sure it will help you start a conversation...

There isn't a whole lot of sex in this book, but there's a lot of scary fallout from sexual relations. Skloot mentions the sexually transmitted diseases passed to Henrietta from Day's flings, event...

Nuremberg Trials and The Nuremberg Code I Corinthians 15:35-38, Gary's explanation of the resurrected body (295).I Corinthians 15:40 , discussion of "heavenly bodies and earthly bodies" (295).I Cor...