How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #7
Deborah cried the whole way home to Bobbette and Lawrence's house, blood dripping from her split eyebrow, then leapt from the car and ran through the house, straight into the closet where she hid when she was upset. (115)
Deborah finds her self in a gut-wrenching situation. Although she wants her cousin Galen to stop molesting her, she's afraid to tell her sister-in-law Bobbette about the abuse. She fears that Bobbette will kill Galen and wind up in jail, and she just can't bear that. The failure of Deborah's immediate family to protect her from Galen and other predators will leave her vulnerable to abuse and suffering for the rest of her life.
Quote #8
"Them doctors say her cells is so important and did all this and that to help people. But it didn't do no good for her, and it don't do no good for us. If me and my sister need something, we can't even go see a doctor cause we can't afford it. Only people that can get any good from my mother cells is the people that got money, and whoever sellin them cells [...]" (246-47).
Zakariyya (a.k.a. Joe) sums up the Lacks family's anger about HeLa cells: wealthy white people get to use their mother's cells for fame and profit—and to help other rich people—while Henrietta's family struggles for basic necessities. Zakariyya also points out something more subtle: other people "got good" from his mother, when he never even knew her. Learning about their mother's cells just reminds them of that loss.
Quote #9
Her once-beautiful eyes bulge from her head, slightly bruised and almost swollen shut. She stares somewhere just below the camera, crying, her face misshapen and barely recognizable, her nostrils inflamed and ringed with mucus [...] She appears to be screaming. Her head is twisted unnaturally to the left, chin raised and held in place by a large pair of white hands. (273)
The Crownsville picture of Elsie Lacks not only shows how terribly the young girl suffered at the hands of doctors and scientists, it also pretty much destroys her sister Deborah's peace of mind. After seeing the picture for the first time, Deborah gets sick, since she can't do anything to change what happened to Elsie. She never gets over it.