Henrietta Lacks Pathos Analysis

Does the name Henrietta Lacks ring a bell? To most people not a single individual comes to mind and the fact that she helped change science and medicine forever remains unknown. Rebecca Skloot wanted to spread public awareness of this woman; the woman who’s cells were stolen from her without permission and grown immortally still to this day. A typical young adult that recently graduated college uses their money for paying off classes and selfishly for themselves, but this was not the case for Skloot. She used her student loans and credit cards, piling herself into debt, to research a poor African American family about their mother in order to reveal their story to the world. Within The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Skloot exemplifies ethos most effectively by her personal involvement and knowledge; however, pathos and logos are presented as well through details …show more content…
Deborah wrote diary entries expressing her feelings towards her mother, one of her passages stating, “…my mother went through all that pain all by herself with those cold hearted doctor. Oh, how my father, said how they cooked her alive with radiation treatments. What went on in her mind those short months” (Skloot 195). By stating the details of Deborah’s personal diary entry Skloot is able to draw the readers into the story and getting them to imagine the intolerable pain Henrietta faced. The pathos appeal makes the reader emotionally involved by displaying the lack of empathy from the doctors, extending on the idea that the doctors only saw Henrietta as potential immortal cells and not as a real person fighting to see her newborn babies one last time. However, the ethos appeal still overrides pathos because Skloot’s time learning about these passionate stories gives her further credibility as an author thereby grasping the reader’s undivided