The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Feminist Literary Perspective

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is an excellent example of the power, unity, and strength that all women can represent if they put their minds to it. The novel revolves around several women’s lives and demonstrates all of these attributes and more. View the video below for more insight.

For those who haven’t read the novel, click here for a summary!

 

 

Thoughts on Rebecca Skloot’s portrayal of these incredibly strong female characters? How do they compare to the female characters presented in the other novels or films?

Let me know in the comments!

 

 

Works citied

Allen Brizee, J. Case Tompkins, Libby Chernouski, Elizabeth Boyle. “Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)” The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab, 21 Apr. 2010, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/ Web. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Deborah and her cousin Gary Lacks standing in front of drying tobacco, 2001”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Deborah Lacks at about age four”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Deborah Lacks”. Hackday, 31 Decemeber 2017, https://hackaday.com/2018/01/09/henrietta-lacks-and-immortal-cell-lines/deborah-lacks/. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Deborah with her children, LaTonya and Alfred, and her second husband, James Pullum, in the mid-1980s”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Even Oprah can’t breathe life into ‘Henrietta Lacks’”. CNN Entertainment, 21 April 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/entertainment/immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-review/index.html. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“George and Margaret Gey”. Shmoop, https://www.shmoop.com/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/george-margaret-gey.html. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Henrietta and David Lacks, circa 1945”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Henrietta Lacks – Photo courtesy of tuskegee.edu”. The Caribbean Current, 20 April 2017, https://thecaribbeancurrent.com/glimpse-henrietta-lacks-immortal-heroine-modern-medicine-medical-miracle-wonder-woman/. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“How to Bless a Grieving Friend”. iBelieve, 2 December 2013, https://www.ibelieve.com/relationships/how-to-bless-a-grieving-friend.html. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Margaret Gey and Minnie, a lab technician, in the Gey lab at Hopkins, circa 1951”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Margaret Gey 2017.” Nhshenrietta.blogspot, 18 Apr. 2017, nhshenrietta.blogspot.com/2017/04/margaret-gey-2017.html. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Multiphoton Fluorescence Image of HeLa Cells Stained with the Actin Binding Toxin Phalloidin (Red), Microtubules (Cyan) and Cell Nuclei (Blue). Nikon RTS2000MP Custom Laser Scanning Microscope.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“No Need to Explain”. Spirituality and Health, https://spiritualityhealth.com/. Accessed 18 July 2019.

“OPRAH & HBO ACCUSED OF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HENRIETTA LACKS … SO SAYS LACKS FAMILY.” Eur Web, 18 Mar. 2017, http://www.eurweb.com/2017/03/oprah-hbo-accused-of-taking-advantage-of-henrietta-lacks-so-says-lacks-family/. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Rebecca Skloot, Author of ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,’ Pictured in 2000 with Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s Daughter. (Photo: Rebecca Skloot/Facebook).” Mother Nature Network, 18 Apr. 2017, http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Royalty Free Music”. Audio Blocks, https://www.audioblocks.com/royalty-free-audio?srch-type=music&moods=4&genres=27&search-origin=filter. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Sadie Sturdivant – Henrietta’s cousin and close friend”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Crown Publishing Group, 2010.

“The American Electorate Is Losing Their Minds”. Odyssey, 7 February 2016, https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-american-electorate-is-losing-their-minds. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“The Crew (Rebecca and the Lacks family)”. Rebecca Skloot, 18 April 2017, http://rebeccaskloot.com/news/. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_Life_of_Henrietta_Lacks. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“The Lacks family in 2009”. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks-ebook/dp/B00338QENI. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“The Tissue Culture Laboratory of Dr. George Otto Gey 60 Yrs Ago as Recalled by a Former Student.” Semantic Scholar, 2016, http://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Tissue-Culture-Laboratory-of-Dr.-George-Otto-as-Ambrose/be5be85f1b07c9b110b306c63f343858df2c02ab. Accessed 19 July 2018.

Turner, L. “Writing & Publishing Tips : What Is Feminist Criticism?”, YouTube, 18 May 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-e6Izn26f0. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Women Heroes and Villains series at FLP”. Quad Cities Daily, 17 September 2017, http://quadcitiesdaily.com/?p=409483. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Women in Business”. Waltham Chamber, https://www.walthamchamber.com/women-in-business/. Accessed 18 July 2018.

“Women in the 1950s”. Kahn Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1950s-america/a/women-in-the-1950s. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“Voices of Women”. Blogs.Sacha, https://blog.sacha.ca/2016/02/23/voices-of-women/. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“1960s SAD CRYING BOY RUBBING HIS EYES IS COMFORTED OR DISCIPLINED BY HIS CARING MOTHER.” Master File, http://www.masterfile.com/image/en/846-05646580. Accessed 19 July 2018.

“5 Female Heroes Who Risked Life and Limb to Save the Day”. EntityMag, 9 June 2017, http://www.entitymag.com/female-heroes-who-risked-life-and-limb/. Accessed 19 July 2018.