Henrietta Lacks Doctors

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a nonfiction novel that follows a young African American womaen, and her battle with Cervical Cancer during the 1950’s. During the 1950’s there had been little done to research cCervical cCancer, and the known effects were often missguided. At this time Cervical Cancer was thought to be somewhat easily treated, but as the reader finds out later that is not the case. Through the entirety of the novel, there is always a particularly negative attitude about medical health professionals. From the overall mistrust of corrupted doctors to the equally unethical scientists, this novel covers a lot of controversial topics such as the use of human cells to gain monetary value without the patient's explicit request.
She makes the this clear to the reader by using harsh, often repugnant words to describe the doctors. As well as her recurring comparison between the American doctors and their Nazi counterparts. These representation choices help her to illuminate the Lack’s feelings of the doctors as well as to input her own opinion. Through reading the novel, there are several examples of this that especially stick out. One being the time when she describes the Carrel’s chicken heart. She says, “Tissue culture was the stuff of racism, creepy science fiction, Nazis, and snake oil.”(Skloot 62) The diction in the quote includes harsh words. The fact that they are something of science fiction helps to create an otherworldly portrayal of them. Additionally, by Skloot comparing the doctors of the time to Nazi’s it allows for the reader to understand how awful the doctors were. The interesting aspect to her comparisons of the doctors to the Nazi’s, is that she is able to make subliminal messages throughout the book by including a quote from Elie Wiesel in the beginning. Including the quote helps to create a bridge between the horrible ethics of both the Nazis and the doctors, and the innocence of the patients. The other quote that sticks out is when Skloot is talking about the Night Doctors. She mentions that they kidnap people during the night and conduct experiments on them. It says, “The Lackses aren’t the only ones who heard from a young age
She is able to compare the educational levels of the Lackses and medical professionals by changing the way they speak. To create an uneducated vibe from the Lack’s family Skloot exercises many slang words. This slang is then is able to be compared to the educated language of the doctors. In order to create a negative atmosphere surrounding the doctors, Skloot uses extremely cynical words to describe them. She also makes both direct and subliminal comparisons between the doctors of the 1950’s to the Nazi’s. Thus by using all of these techniques she is able to successfully portray her