Question

Assignment 1: Narrative based on Non-fiction

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author reveals that Henrietta did not wish to donate her cells for research and that the family was not exactly pleased with the manner in which her body was used for science. Choose one of the following people from the text and write a 400-word minimum narrative from his or her point of view. You should include some of the facts and information from the text, but mostly this will be a fictionalized account of what happened based on your imagination.

Character Perspectives:

Deborah Lacks (Henrietta's daughter)
David Lacks (Henrietta's husband)
If you need help getting started, consider the following ideas as food for thought:

1) What time period do you wish to set your story (when Henrietta was living or after her death?)

2) Perhaps you'd like to write from Deborah's perspective, growing up without her mother and later learning about her HeLa cells.

3) Consider writing from David's perspective as he realizes his wife is dying or when he finds out that science has taken her cells without his knowledge or approval.

There are many more ways to approach this assignment; feel free to be creative based on the text. Since this is a narrative, your paper will be assessed on descriptive elements such as dialogue, interesting adjectives, vivid verbs, figurative language, etc. You'll want to consider the elements of a narrative (setting, characterization, plot, style).

Answer 1

Deborah Lacks: A Daughter's Heartbreak

I remember the day Mama got sick like it was yesterday. I was just a little girl then, barely six years old. Mama had been feeling poorly for a while, but we didn't think much of it. We didn't have much money for doctors, so we just let her rest at home. But one day, she collapsed in the kitchen, and Daddy had to take her to Johns Hopkins Hospital.

It wasn't long after that Mama died. I didn't understand what was happening then, but now I know that she had cervical cancer. I wish I could have been with her at the end, but they didn't let children visit the hospital back then.

Years passed, and I grew up without Mama. I always wondered what she was like, what she sounded like, what she smelled like. I missed her so much, it felt like a part of me was missing too.

Then one day, my brother Sonny told me something that shocked me. He said that Mama's cells were still alive, that they had been taken without her permission and used for research. I didn't know what to think about that. It seemed wrong somehow, like someone had violated Mama's body.

I started asking questions, trying to find out what had happened to Mama's cells. I learned that they were called HeLa cells, and that they had been used in all kinds of research. It was like Mama was still alive in a way, but not in the way I wanted her to be.

I went to Hopkins to try to get some answers, but no one would talk to me. It was like they didn't care about Mama, like she was just a thing to them. I was so angry and frustrated, I didn't know what to do.

But then I started to learn more about the research that had been done with Mama's cells. I found out that they had helped develop vaccines for polio and other diseases. They had even been sent up into space to study the effects of zero gravity on human cells. It was amazing to think that Mama had played a part in all of that.

So now, even though I still feel sad and angry about what happened to Mama, I try to focus on the good that has come from her cells. I know that she would have wanted to help people, even if it meant her cells were used for research. And I hope that someday, the scientists and doctors who use her cells will remember that there was a real person behind them, a person with a family who loved her and still misses her every day.