Blog #3

What does it mean to be an author, to tell a story? Is the author the authority, or should the subjects have a say in their own lives? In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks writing about experiences in detail that she could neither have known about nor experienced. In the past, particularly in writings from the Anti-Slavery movement, this was a common practice, and was seen as a necessary tactic to combat the evil of slavery. However, we live in a very different world today, so, is this still fair? Or does this kind of book allow privileged outsiders to reap the benefits (this is a highly successful work) of another’s suffering?  Explain whether or not you think this kind authorship is appropriate. If yes, why? What “gives them the right”? If no, why not? Aren’t these stories important? If we didn’t hear them from these White women, would we hear them at all?

            An author is a person who has the ability to give existence to anything. Their words can imprint an image of what they are attempting to get across. With such power, comes an enormous amount of responsibility because define a person they speak about. When it comes to an author that writes about a persons life they are only able to express that individual life from their point of view. Therefore the reader may not be able to understand all the hardships and struggles that a character may face if the writer can’t fully understand and go through the same experiences as the character once did. A characters story may not be fully told if it does not come from the character own words. In the case of Henrietta Lacks, the readers can get a sense of her hardships, but the people who talked about her hardship could have had a mental block and were not able to fully express what she has really gone through. A main speaker on Henrietta Lacks was her husband, but it may have been difficult to express the hardships of the woman he truly loved because it is a difficult task to talk about therefore a persons mind tends to block it out.

            Although Rebecca Skloot never spoke to Henrietta Lacks individually, she truly tried to tell her story to the world by putting her self in the story as well. She never gave up on reaching Henrietta’s family and she risked her life travelling and searching for Henrietta’s family members all by her self. Not only did she risk her life but she developed a relationship with Henrietta’s family that allowed access to Henrietta’s personal life. It is much more valuable for writer to put themselves in the story because it gives the reader better understanding of Henrietta’s lifestyle.

            Telling someone’s stories may give the writer some benefit but I getting the story out there is much more important than one person gaining fame or money out of it. When the world and children read about Henrietta’s cells and the struggles she went through it is a lesson that everyone can benefit from just by sparking up a conversation about it.  This authorship should be appropriate if the character is not able to get their own story across. The only power a writer has is telling the story but it is up to the reader to believe it because everyone has the freedom to discuss their own opinions and find out about facts that may not be real. A writer has every right to talk about another individual life as long as teaches readers a valuable lesson that will help them in life. If we did not hear the stories we hear now then, it would minimize the amount of knowledge and concern people have now.