Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"

The book I read,  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, has one main focus that is seen throughout the entire work. That is, telling the story of Henrietta Lacks. In short, the speaker is the author, Rebecca Skloot, the audience is the general population, anyone interested in science/ethics, and people who don't know the story of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who lived from 1920-1951. Her life was cut short by an incredibly virulent from of cervical cancer, which quickly killed her, but also just happened to launch a medical revolution. A sample of her tumor was taken against the wishes of her family, and it just happened to end up in the hands of George Gey, a tissue researcher that was attempting to grow immortal human cells, ones that replicated forever - and so he did. The HeLa cell line was born, transforming into a multi-million dollar industry, not which one single dime went to the Lack's family. More than that, the cells also caused the medical revolution, leading to the momentous creation of the polio vaccine. Does the cells usefulness justify the fact they were taken without permission, should the Lack's family receive a cut of the profits made off her cells, and who was Henrietta Lacks? These questions provide the general basis of the purpose of this book.    

Skloot establishes her ethos heavily in the first few pages. She establishes herself as an average high school student, and then an average biology student in college, but one who had a particular interest in the HeLa cell line, and more importantly, where they came from. She continues to make herself sound very average, simply a person with a great curiosity in a particular story. She also paints a very specific image of herself, "I grew up in a safe, quiet, middle-class neighborhood...." (Skloot 7), further expounding on her average-ness. Despite this, towards the second half and end, she herself enters the story, and begins narrating her actions as a character, developing herself along with the story and other characters.        

Logos is employed in this work mainly in a sort of section were the author digresses from the current narrative and goes on to explain scientific or statistical back story, such as explaining the basic function of cells, or giving statistical information such as "One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons" (Skloot 2). The book remains story and character driven, though, and the employment of these sections wane as the book progresses, and the story goes more into the modern day, and the authors experience essentially finding out this story.    

The elicitation of pathos is something that happens often in this book, and with good reason. Henrietta grew up in the 1920-1930's, where a combination of poverty and racism made life very difficult for the Lack's family. Most reasonable people would agree that racism is unacceptable, and in fact a bane upon society, and as such the massive inequality between black and white people in those days is sure to stir some sympathy. Later on in her life, in the 1940's and 50's, she gets a super-aggressive cancer of the cervix, which metastasizes throughout her entire body, choking her from the inside, and eventually causing her painful death due to uremic poisoning, after her kidneys failed. Skloot's very vivid medic terminology, as well as her acute, and frankly at some points disgusting imagery truly captures her conditions horror, not to mention the emotional pain felt by her family and friends as they watch her die. Henrietta's personal story is not the only way the book elicits pathos, however. Later in the book, as Skloot actually gets close to the surviving members of the Lack's family, and their struggles with Henrietta's cells, it becomes more and more apparent that they are all caught in the middle of something that they wanted no part of in the first place. "It's not only the story of HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks, but of Henrietta"s family-particularly Deborah- and their lifelong struggle to make peace with the existence of those cells, and the science that made them possible." (Skloot 7).          

Would I read another?

I absolutely would read another book by this author. This book was a pleasure to read, and though it may have been dry in some of the heavily historical/scientific areas, I still wanted to read it through to the end. After I had finished it, stood back, looked at the notes, thought about the amount of time it took the write, I realized it was an absolutely prodigious work of journalism. "The source materials I relied on to write this book filled multiple file cabinets, and the hundreds of hours of interviews I conducted ...fill several shelves worth of notebooks." (Skloot 338). I would go as far as to say that it's one of a kind, and needs to be read. In a way, though, I feel almost like we will not be getting another book from her like this. By profession, she's not a novelist, she writes for publications like Popular Science and is a journalist for PBS's Nova. I feel that it's perfectly possible for her to continue journalism, and not write another book. If she ever writes another book however, I will be first in line to get it.     

Effect on thoughts and theories

This book did not directly effect my thoughts theories, views of the world, etc. That being said, it certainly taught me an important lesson. That is, humanity and empathy must be at the center of science and medicine, always. It is imperative that scientists especially must keep in mind that when dealing with people that they are people and not just cells or numbers or enzymes. The book also brings up a related problem that is not easily solved with empathy and understanding. That being, the borderline nefarious world of tissue banking and research. All throughout the book and especially in the afterword Skloot exposes the reader to the fact that when doctors remove things from your body, they don't have to tell you where it's going for what its going to be used for. Everything from tonsils to blood samples are kept, stored and possibly experimented on. On the plus side, experimentation on tissues like these has led to modern medicine as we know it. On the down side, not knowing where your tissues are going and the fact that you have no ownership over something when it's removed from your body means they can be used for things you do not want them to be, and also means you do not get any money made off of them, such as in Henrietta Lacks' case. Companies made millions selling vials of her cells to researchers, and yet her family did see a cent of it. Overall, it opens the reader's eyes to a world usually hidden from public view, and also teaches the lesson that ignorance can be bliss.   

Patterns

Throughout the book I am reading, I have noticed one main pattern. Saying that, that pattern is not particularly subtle, nor do I believe it was meant to be. The pattern is simply that every few chapters or so the perspective changes from the narration of historical events to the author's, Rebecca Skloot's, experience tracking this story down, as well as her experience leading up to her investigation into it. This dual narrative works quite well, as her search for the story is almost as important as the history aspect. I have seen dual narratives like this before in books, and in some ways it is a personal detriment to my experience of the book. What happens is I very quickly start to enjoy one narrative over the other, so the time I spend reading the narrative I less prefer, I am waiting to start reading the other one. My personal preferences aside, in reality it is an excellent technique for telling this story.        

Distractions

What mainly distracts from the book's overall effectiveness is the anecdotal side plots often explored. Many of them don't have a whole lot to do with the what the book is actually about. Though they are often very interesting, and a few do supplement the text well a lot of them just distract from what the passage/chapter is about. The other main distraction is the number of people talked about throughout the book, and the way they are introduced. Rather than giving them a strong introduction, many of them are just thrown out, often in one of the aforementioned anecdotes. This can result in confusion when characters that were poorly introduced earlier in the book are brought up, and one does not have a very clear idea of who they are. It's not a huge problem, and certainly does not significantly detract from the overall quality of the book.      

Reaction to the text

My visceral reaction to the text was surprise, and immediate interest. Before this book, I had, like most people, never heard of HeLa cells, or Henrietta Lacks' story. Finding this book was like finding a hidden little pocket of history, one that I had been totally oblivious to before. That, combined with the fact I have always been very interested in science, especially in biology, and this book is certainly a journey down the murky annals of scientific ethics, especially considering the racism of the time that Henrietta Lacks lived in. More than just piquing my interest with science and it's related morals, the story of Lacks' life, as well as the anecdotes about her relatives and the places they lived instantly drew me in. It is a book that not only has enough surprise and mystery to make me want to pick it up, it is deep and fascinating, certainly enough to make me want to read it though to the end.          

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.