David Swain

Period 1
English 1010
9/17/14
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book written by Rebecca Skloot, was
published on February 2, 2010 in New York. This novel tells the true story of a woman,
Rebeccaa Skloot, who becomes interested in HeLa cells and begins an investigative
journey to find out what happened. She begins researching the events leading up to a
woman named Henriettas death and how her cells were taken from her and are now
being used to cure people of diseases, such as polio, around the world. All without her
true consent or any compensation to her family. Skloot uses rhetorical language such as;
ethos, pathos, logos, and Kairos in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in order to fully
and functionally convey her message to her audience.
Henrietta had her cells taken from her to be tested on which later ended up being
one of the biggest medical advances in history and she didnt receive one cent of
compensation. Her family lived in poverty and as a result there isnt even a grave marker
to signify where she is buried. This was a great injustice seeing as all the pain and
suffering not only her, but her family and friends went through. Skloots purpose in
writing this book is for attention to be put toward that injustice so that something may be
done.

Skloot was just an average college student who was taking a class about biology
when she first hear of Henrietta, she became so interested that she later went on to get a
degree in biology and write the novel, she began her investigative journey soon after.
Since Henrietta lived before her time she was able to gather much of her information
from articles, magazines, news clippings and family members of Henriettas. In writing
this novel it appears as if Skloot directed it toward the common man. She presents the
information in a way that is interesting and easy to understand while still allowing herself
the ability to educate the reader. With the information she presents, it is clear that this
book was written for people who do not have much of a background in this issue. A lot of
what is discussed you would need extensive knowledge in biology but because she
presents it in such a particular way, it becomes understandable to everyone.
Skloot uses many forms of rhetoric such as, logos as she presents many facts and
statistics throughout the whole novel. She does this to give herself credibility and help the
reader to gain a background. One example is when she discusses the difference in the
way black versus white patients were treated. She also uses Pathos as she presents the
issues of race and injustice done to the family, she describes the pain that Henrietta and
her family had fully gone through to help to touch the reader more. She includes a
description of Henriettas death and the horrible sexual things that happened to Debrah in
order to create an emotional tie to the audience. Ethos is one of the fewer forms of
rhetoric although it is still used as she presents her facts it helps make her more credible,
also the fact that she has a college degree in biology and this book discusses a lot of

biology. Kairos is a surprisingly strong form of rhetoric also, Skloot chose to present the
timeline in a way where it continues to jumps from past to future instead of the traditional
chronological way. This helps you understand situations more since you are able to see
what happened to Henrietta and what happened to the author at the same time. She
presents all of this information in a very understandable and interesting manner in order
to appeal to a larger demographic. By using the different forms of rhetoric, Skloot was
able to completely and efficiently convey her message to her target audience.