miserable speciman
Jeremiah Gates
The Good Life Inter 135
10/18/13
A miserable Specimen
In chapter eight of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the author Rebecca Skloot named it “a miserable specimen”. I believe this an accurate title for the reading because throughout the chapter they talk about how miserable Henrietta Lacks was. She always had to come back to the hospital complaining of pain and every time the doctors would always tell her that was she was fine and that they didn’t see anything. Then a few weeks after saying she was healthy the doctors found a huge tumor in her abdomen. A quote that really backs up this title is this one right here, “Sadie would later describe Henrietta’s decline like this: “Hennie didn’t fade away, you know, her looks, her body, it didn’t just fade. Like some peoples be sick in the bed with cancer and they look so bad. But she didn’t. The only thing you could tell was in her eyes. Her eyes were telling you that she was not gonna be alive no more.”(page 64) Henrietta throughout the chapter had more and more tumors grow filling the inside of her abdomen, one on the uterus, one on each kidney, and one on her urethra.” No one knew except Sadie, and Margaret and Day knew Henrietta was sick, and then suddenly everyone knew. Each shift they could hear Henrietta from a block away, wailing for the lord to help her.”(Page 65) These two quotes right back up the title a miserable specimen by telling how much pain she is in from the cancer and how much it affects her even being the strong women that she is already. She may not show the pain as much as a normal person would but deep down you can see how much pain it really causes her even the people who didn’t even know she was sick are not starting to be able to tell that she is sick. All she does now is periodically in and out of hospitals always in stirrups getting examined and tested. Her life has become full of pain and hospital visits. This is to me is a miserable specimen
The Good Life Inter 135
10/18/13
A miserable Specimen
In chapter eight of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the author Rebecca Skloot named it “a miserable specimen”. I believe this an accurate title for the reading because throughout the chapter they talk about how miserable Henrietta Lacks was. She always had to come back to the hospital complaining of pain and every time the doctors would always tell her that was she was fine and that they didn’t see anything. Then a few weeks after saying she was healthy the doctors found a huge tumor in her abdomen. A quote that really backs up this title is this one right here, “Sadie would later describe Henrietta’s decline like this: “Hennie didn’t fade away, you know, her looks, her body, it didn’t just fade. Like some peoples be sick in the bed with cancer and they look so bad. But she didn’t. The only thing you could tell was in her eyes. Her eyes were telling you that she was not gonna be alive no more.”(page 64) Henrietta throughout the chapter had more and more tumors grow filling the inside of her abdomen, one on the uterus, one on each kidney, and one on her urethra.” No one knew except Sadie, and Margaret and Day knew Henrietta was sick, and then suddenly everyone knew. Each shift they could hear Henrietta from a block away, wailing for the lord to help her.”(Page 65) These two quotes right back up the title a miserable specimen by telling how much pain she is in from the cancer and how much it affects her even being the strong women that she is already. She may not show the pain as much as a normal person would but deep down you can see how much pain it really causes her even the people who didn’t even know she was sick are not starting to be able to tell that she is sick. All she does now is periodically in and out of hospitals always in stirrups getting examined and tested. Her life has become full of pain and hospital visits. This is to me is a miserable specimen