As a journalist, Skloot is careful to present the encounter between the Lacks family and the world of medicine without taking sides. How would the story have been different if it were told chronologically?ħ.
Discuss the significance of the titles given to each part: Life, Death, and Immortality. Though it’s not told chronologically, it is divided into three sections. If you were in Deborah’s situation, how would you react to someone wanting to look into your mother’s medical records?Ħ. Think not only of her words, but also of the physical reaction she was having to delving into her mother’s and sister’s medical histories. On page 284 Deborah says, “Everybody in the world got her cells, only thing we got of our mother is just them records and her Bible.” Discuss the deeper meaning behind this statement. Deborah shares her mother’s medical records with Skloot but is adamant that she not copy everything. She never intrudes on the narrative, but she takes us along with her on her reporting.” How would the story have been different if she had not been a part of it? What do you think would have happened to scenes like the faith healing on page 289? Are there other scenes you can think of where her presence made a difference? Why do you think she decided to include herself in the story?ĥ. In a review for the New York Times, Dwight Garner writes, “Ms. How would you react? What questions would you ask?Ĥ. Imagine discovering similar information about one of your family members. As much as this book is about Henrietta Lacks, it is also about Deborah learning of the mother she barely knew, while also finding out the truth about her sister, Elsie. What impact did the decision to maintain speech authenticity have on the story?ģ. Throughout, Skloot is true to the dialect in which people spoke to her: The Lackses speak in a heavy Southern accent, and Lengauer and Hsu speak as nonnative English speakers. One of Henrietta’s relatives said to Skloot, “If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that’s dishonest” (page xiii). What does Skloot say on pages xiii–xiv and in the notes section (page 346) about how she did this?Ģ. Imagine trying to re-create scenes such as when Henrietta discovered her tumor (page 15). No names have been changed, no characters invented, no events fabricated.” Consider the process Skloot went through to verify dialogue, re-create scenes, and establish facts. On page xiii, Rebecca Skloot states, “This is a work of nonfiction.
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