Henrietta Lacks Theme

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The novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot deals with the theme of quest for discovery, which is evident through point of view in the novel. Skloot’s main purpose of the novel is to inform the reader of the two sides of the story behind the HeLa cells. She accomplishes her purpose by constantly searching and interviewing for information about others point of views, which relates to the theme of quest for discovery. The theme of quest for discovery has characteristics that makes stand out much more than others, it links to many scenes in the novel, and relates to each of the six levels which are me, my family, peers, community, country, and humankind. The theme of quest for discovery stood out much more to me than any …show more content…
An example of the theme quest for discovery in the novel occurs in chapter 6 page 55 when Day Lacks states “ ‘I had enough’a you people.’ Then he hung up.” Skloot didn’t give up her quest for discovering the story behind the HeLa cells even after she had been ‘rejected’, she kept finding ways to contact them and eventually gets their story out. Another example was in chapter 23 when the doctors call the family about taking blood samples from Henrietta's children. These two examples relate to the image of the telephone on the concentric circles poster, however there are two other images that relate to the theme of quest for discovery. The image of the petri dish relates to the birth and discovery of the Hela cells in chapter 4 page 40 and 41 when Skloot states “They kept growing like nothing anyone had seen, doubling their numbers every twenty-four hours, stacking hundreds on top of hundreds, accumulating by the millions.” The image of the syringe represents the polio vaccine since scientists’ and or doctors’ had the quest of discovering a cure for polio in chapter 13 page 93 which states “In February 1942, Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh announced that he’d developed the world’s first polio vaccine…” This theme does not only relate to the novel, but it often occurs in real …show more content…
They all relate to the theme by me, my family, and peers trying to discover their own interest and what they want to do or become. People make up each of the circles, and those people are bound to find something the like to do, which leads to more discoveries of technology, sciences, or themselves. Community, country, and humankind relate to the theme by discovering how they can improve certain problems, or discover and create new technologies in engineering and science. Rebecca Skloot had gone through a quest for discovery, as she was curious of HeLa cells in college and began researching the story behind it, she discovered her interest or a least an interest. The process she went through to discover her interest can be very similar to how other students, adults, or you discover

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