Comparison between “the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and “Life on the Mississippi”

Introduction

The paper is designed to compare the two works, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Life on the Mississippi East St. Louis, Illinois. There are number of similar element in both art works, such as poverty of African-America, racism, discrimination and health issues. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is written by Rebecca Skloot, which is about an African- American lady, Henrietta Lacks. The book defines the contributions made by Henrietta in microbiology and medical science without any intention. On the other hand, the Life on the Mississippi East St. Louis, Illinois is penned down by Jonathan Kozol, who defines a story of a poor city that has no such medical and health services. In this paper, we will be discussing the comparison of poverty, prejudice, medical treatment and poor education.

Discussion

The reading of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks defines the origination of Henrietta's cells which becomes universal. The theme of the novel is majorly based on poverty, racism, medical research, for which an African-American woman sacrificed. In the post period of American slavery, African-Americans and other socio-economic and minority groups have had riotous connection with the community of science research. At that time, few scientists and racial discriminator had set to show superiority on few groups. In the year 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a poor young black woman was analyzed with cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Cells were taken without her knowledge for developing the first immortal cell line. Later on, the cells were given the name HeLa and became the significant device in medical research; cloning, developing the polio vaccine, and the mapping of gene (Skloot, p. 35). It is important to notice that Henrietta, who was the basic source of these cells, was completely unaware about this research and not her family was informed about the using of her cells. However, the cells of the Henrietta were sold and bought in billions, but the family of Lack did not receive financial support and nor even the medical insurance. However, East St. Louis is a destructed city that has no hospitals or doctors which could care for garbage removal and pregnant women services. The similar element of both stories is poverty and medical eruption. We can understand by the story of Life on the Mississippi that how poor Blacks have been abandoned from financial aids, and proper medical treatment due to less money support and unawareness. It is important to notice that racism has taken place since centuries in United States, but discrimination between Black and White does not entirely seem to end. The elite society in Mississippi were White, but these affluent citizens do not contribute any funding for the cleaning of lower areas, where majority Black people lives.

The most notable comparison between these two stories is poverty. Poverty and racial discrimination is the key force in both works that defines each style in a similar context. For instance, in East ...