Rebecca Skloot is the hero in her own story. She didn’t travel to a mystical land, or slay a dragon, but she is still the archetypal hero in this story. She spent years recording information she uncovered, eventually publishing her work in the book The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks. She might not be your everyday save the world kind of hero, but
Skloot did overcome everything that stood in the way of her getting the real story of
Henrietta Lacks. She clearly went through many of the stages Joseph Campbell presented in the Hero’s Journey.
Her call to adventure happened while she was in school and first learned of Henrietta Lacks during a lecture. She was vaguely mentioned and then her name was wiped from the chalk board with no further explanation. “That’s it?” asked Skloot “that’s all we get? There has to me more to the story.” Throughout college, and graduate school, Skloot scoured through magazine articles, the internet, and any other information she could find about Henrietta Lacks (Skloot 2-4). Even though she turns up very little information on Henrietta she writes, “I became fixated on the idea of someday telling Henrietta’s story” (6). She continued her search for information and continued to try and locate living Lacks family members.
The next stage …show more content…
“The plan was that I’d page Sonny [David] when I got to Baltimore, then he’d pick me up and take me to his brother Lawrence’s house to meet their father and - if I was lucky -Deborah” (67). When Skloot arrived in Baltimore she couldn’t get ahold of Sonny. She eventually ended up talking to Henrietta’s cousin Cootie. Cootie told her, “no one ever talks about Henrietta. Not when she was sick, not after she died, and not now” (118). Even though she is told that no one will talk to her about Henrietta by everyone she speaks with, she doesn’t give up on trying to contact the family
Life of Henrietta Lacks. She might not be your everyday save the world kind of hero, but
Skloot did overcome everything that stood in the way of her getting the real story of
Henrietta Lacks. She clearly went through many of the stages Joseph Campbell presented in the Hero’s Journey.
Her call to adventure happened while she was in school and first learned of Henrietta Lacks during a lecture. She was vaguely mentioned and then her name was wiped from the chalk board with no further explanation. “That’s it?” asked Skloot “that’s all we get? There has to me more to the story.” Throughout college, and graduate school, Skloot scoured through magazine articles, the internet, and any other information she could find about Henrietta Lacks (Skloot 2-4). Even though she turns up very little information on Henrietta she writes, “I became fixated on the idea of someday telling Henrietta’s story” (6). She continued her search for information and continued to try and locate living Lacks family members.
The next stage …show more content…
“The plan was that I’d page Sonny [David] when I got to Baltimore, then he’d pick me up and take me to his brother Lawrence’s house to meet their father and - if I was lucky -Deborah” (67). When Skloot arrived in Baltimore she couldn’t get ahold of Sonny. She eventually ended up talking to Henrietta’s cousin Cootie. Cootie told her, “no one ever talks about Henrietta. Not when she was sick, not after she died, and not now” (118). Even though she is told that no one will talk to her about Henrietta by everyone she speaks with, she doesn’t give up on trying to contact the family