Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Significance of the title

The significance of the title, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", is that despite the fact that Henrietta Lacks has been dead for over 60 years, her cells are still alive today. More than just being still alive, they have been cultured and spread to an unimaginable degree. "One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons." (Skloot 2). There is also a wordplay in how instead of her immortal life being that she is immortalized for her contributions to science, her immortal life is in how her cells are grown and spread all over the world. We can not conclude much from the title, or at least the layman can not. Most people do not even know what a HeLa cell is, much less the history of where they came from. Perhaps some people with a higher education in biology or medicine would notice how "HeLa" is stylized out of Lacks' name in the title, but the large majority of people will not conclude much from the title. As we read, we learn the aforementioned significance of the title, along with some details about Henrietta Lacks, her life, and the circumstances which the cells where discovered.    

2 comments:

  1. Excellent insight. You are a true gentleman and a scholar.

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  2. I dodged this question myself, couldn't figure out how to handle it. I looked back at you first post here and went "Oh, that's how to handle it"
    It took a few days, but I too noticed how HE and La slightly pop out on the title

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