How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #7
The dividing line between Lacks Town and the rest of Clover was stark. On one side of the two-lane road from downtown, there were vast, well-manicured rolling hills, acres and acres of wide-open property with horses, a small pond [...] and a white picket fence. Directly across the street stood a small one-room shack about seven feet wide and twelve feet long; it was made of unpainted wood, with large gaps between the wallboards where vines and weeds grew. (78)
Skloot experiences firsthand the effects of poverty in Henrietta's hometown. The Lackses literally lived on the wrong side of the tracks; no white picket fence version of the American Dream for them. Skloot invites us to imagine what the future of the Lacks family might have been if they'd lived just a few yards away across the street. Can't imagine it? That's because they probably wouldn't have been allowed to live there.
Quote #8
[…] Sonny and Lawrence were still busy trying to figure out how to get money from Hopkins. They didn't know that on the other side of the country, a white man named John Moore was about to begin fighting the same battle. Unlike the Lacks family, he knew who'd done what with his cells, and how much money they'd made. He also had the means to hire a lawyer. (198)
Henrietta's sons focus their frustration on what they need most—money. While some readers might fault them for being motivated by money, Skloot reminds us that John Moore, a white man from whom a lucrative cell line had been generated, also went after monetary compensation. It's not about money-grubbing: it's about making the scientific community sit up and listen to patients. Moore had what the Lackses didn't—money to hire a lawyer, and enough education to understand what was going on. And being white, he probably wasn't as afraid to challenge the powers that be.
Quote #9
At some point, Zakariyya noticed an ad seeking volunteers for medical studies at Hopkins, and he realized he could become a research subject in exchange for a little money, a few meals, sometimes even a bed to sleep on. When he needed to buy eyeglasses, he let researchers infect him with malaria to study a new drug. (208)
The great irony of Henrietta's youngest child having to sell his body to science isn't lost on the reader. Infected by malaria?? That's desperation. The cycle of poverty in Zakariyya's case is made worse by early abuse and psychological and physical problems, most of which started because of his mother's death. No wonder he feels anger at everyone else profiting off his mother except him.