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- QUESTION
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author reveals that Henrietta did not wish to donate her cells for research and that the family was not exactly pleased with the manner in which her body was used for science. Choose one of the following people from the text and write a 400 word minimum narrative from his or her point of view. You should include some of the facts and information from the text, but mostly this will be a fictionalized account of what happened based on your imagination.
Character Perspectives:
Deborah Lacks (Henrietta's daughter)
David Lacks (Henrietta's husband)
If you need help getting started, consider the following ideas as food for thought:1) What time period do you wish to set your story (when Henrietta was living or after her death?)
2) Perhaps you'd like to write from Deborah's perspective as a teenager living with an ailing mother.
3) Consider writing from David's perspective as he realizes his wife is dying or when he finds out that science has taken her cells without his knowledge or approval.
There are many more ways to approach this assignment; feel free to be creative based on the text. Since this is a narrative, your paper will be assessed on descriptive elements such as dialogue, interesting adjectives, vivid verbs, figurative language, etc. You'll want to consider the elements of a narrative (setting, characterization, plot, style).
| Subject | Literature | Pages | 2 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Narrative Based On Non-Fiction: Deborah Lacks’s Perspective
It is in the middle of the 20th century in racial and discriminatory America. Together with my four siblings, we wake up to the idea that our mother is no more. I do not know what has happened to her and how life is going to be without her. I grow up seeking to find out the events that led to the demise of my mother. 20 years later in 1973, a family friend; who is also a researcher, admits that he; at one time, worked on HeLa cells. At that moment I realize that a part of my mother’s cells are still alive. I later learn that my mother cells had been used in scientific studies about tissue culture. However, this is not my main issue; I want to know more about my mother.
In 1975, a journalist named Michael Rogers from Rolling Stone contacts my father and the rest of my family. The soft-spoken man explains to us how other people were immensely profiting from my mother’s cells by making billions of money. I was immediately drawn back to how people from the African American community have been used to conduct unethical research. I wanted to know more. My body was thirsting for information! A BBC documentary film comes along to help us learn more about our deceased mother. However, Sir Lord Cofield, a conman, makes it impossible to achieve this dream. He poses as a lawyer and even threatens to sue us if we expose him. We are terrified, but not down.
I get a breakthrough in 1999 when Rebecca Skloot contacts our family needing the authorization to research about my mother. We initially rebuffed her advances because white journalists had a history of contacting African American families for stories without actually being transparent and only seeking to benefit. However, Ms Skloot seems to be genuine. She agrees to share all information with us. She entices me into her idea by leaving messages in my phone about what happened to my mother. We start the research and even travel together on research trips. The best moment was when we were invited in 2001 by a researcher at Johns Hopkins to see; in real-time, how my mother’s cells were dividing. However, I also learn that my mother had been subjected to abuse. Immediately, my blood spikes up and I begin to behave erratically. I continue to follow the story about my mother from Skloot. I cannot wait to see the final manuscript! I hope it finds me breathing.
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