Importance Of The Black Race In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

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Recommended: Disparity in health care between blacks and whites

The black race, in the 1900 's, were treated very poorly from society, especially doctors in hospitals. The white race was seen as superior, where as the blacks were seen as the bottom of the totem pole. This is especially shown throughout the book 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" written by Rebecca Skloot. Skloot wrote the book in order to show how the Negros were treated compared to the Caucasians in the past. Since Henrietta was not part of the white race, in Skloot 's novel, her life experience and story was controlled by the way she was poorly treated and the way that everyone talked to her whereas if she was white they would have treated her differently.
Throughout the novel, Henrietta was treated differently then the Caucasians
For example, when Henrietta passed away due to her cancer, they had to find a place to bury her, but due to the poorness it took a minute to find a spot because all of the relatives already buried where buried "with no markers" (Skloot 91). This symbolizes the loss of the spirit because the point of a grave marking is to keep a persons memory around and to keep a spot to know where the body of the loved ones are. The loss of a grave marking makes the person become just another object being buried. It got to the limit where they "started piling graves on top of each other" (Skloot 121). This shows that each individual death did not have their own special spot in the ground that they shared the same piece of ground with any other dead body that could fit. This made each individual buried in the ground of the poor and Negros an object instead of a individual and loved
The hospitals had one of the biggest influences on Henrietta 's life along with the experiences in other places. The way that blacks are taken as a object instead of a person and the way that blacks are also seen as whores and nasty people overall helped to shape Henrietta 's life. Race is the overall influence that individuals build their lives off of. Her family, her doctors, and her friends all played a significant role in Henrietta 's life and all helped to shape the person she

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