1. Carefully reread the speech Deborah gave at Morehouse College, paying particular attention to her repetition of the word “understanding.” Why do you think understanding HeLa was so important to Deborah? What obstacles does she mention as impeding her understanding?
On pages 220 and 221, Deborah seems most regretful about the fact that she doesn’t know much about her mother. She was baffled, like the rest of the Lacks family, by the explanation doctors gave, that Henrietta’s cells were still alive, while Henrietta had died, and that they were able to do all sorts of things with and to the cells. Deborah and the rest of the Lacks children didn’t even know what cells were when this story began, and they didn’t know who to trust, or what information was true and what was made up about their mother’s life, death, and immortality. They used their understanding of the world to create their views of their mother, and Deborah knew there was more to the story. Her use of the word “understanding” is primarily based on the fact that her entire relationship with her mother has been one of seeking information, and all kinds of different characters and events shrouded in mystery. She cites the fact that she couldn’t hear in school as the reason why she might ‘mispronounce’ some things. She wondered aloud what if would have been like to have her mother around in her life, and she expressed her displeasure with the fact that nothing was explained to her, even though her mother fell victim to aggressive cancer under their care. I think understanding HeLa was the closest Deborah would be able to get to knowing her mother in this world, and I think that since Henrietta died while she was such a young child, Deborah projected her longing for her mother onto the cells, which were still alive and tangible artifacts of her mother—evidence definitive that she had existed, and containing DNA that was connected to her own.
4. How did Skloot finance the research for her book? What did she promise to do for the Lacks family if and when the book was published?
Skloot, at Deborah’s demands to know who was paying her to write the book, disclosed that she was paying for her research and the time and resources for getting information with credit cards and student loans. She promised Deborah, instead of paying her for her information for the book, that she would set up a fund for a scholarship for Henrietta’s descendants to pursue higher education. Deborah was pleased by this; “Education is everything,” she replied to Skloot’s promise (p. 251).
6. Does the title of this chapter evoke an emotional response from you? Why do you think Skloot chose this title? Compare the connotations of the name “Crownsville” with the name “Hospital for the Negro Insane.” What do you think the directors were trying to achieve when they renamed the facility? Why was Skloot surprised by the appearance of Crownsville? What do you think she expected to find? Skloot carefully describes the photograph of Elsie. What specific things can you infer about Elsie’s treatment based on the description of the photograph? How does Deborah demonstrate that she is in control when her right to view Elsie’s records is questioned?
“Negro” and “insane” are definitely words that, for a person living in this time, illicit a response that is deeply emotional—even though they probably weren’t in the time that they were used. I think the word “negro” instead of “African American” is the most jarring, to someone who grew up in a climate of highly sensitive political correctness. I was reared in a household which was very aware and deliberately sensitive to that—maybe because we’re white and upper-middle class, we were especially sensitive out of some kind of guilt about the fact that we are exactly what society was built to endorse and support. “Insane” is another word that evokes strong emotions. When I read this chapter, I thought of the enlightenment-era hospitals for people who were considered to be crazy, like in the opening scenes and cutaways in the movie “Amadeus,” where the priest is visiting Salieri to give him his last confession and last rites, with all the people wailing and gnashing their teeth and flailing their limbs around the grounds. I think Skloot chose this title because of that emotional response—she clearly had an objective to make this chapter conjure up that visceral reaction of disgust and horror at the treatment of the patients at Crownsville by using verbage directly from the era, and now specifically designed by social paradigm shifts to be offensive, even, as people read it. Doctors were probably trying to change the impression people had of the facility from one of cruel treatment and hopelessness to something more benign by renaming it. They also made the grounds more beautiful and made the hospital itself more welcoming and less terrifying. Going even from the name “Hospital for the Negro Insane” to “Crownsville” makes a drastic change, but I think Skloot wasn’t expecting the grounds to be so altered from the bleak, cold, sterile and hopeless atmosphere that had been there when Elsie Lacks was admitted. I think she was expecting what I was expecting: a few nurses and doctors here and there, but without any sort of warmth in their interaction with patients, a bunch of imposing-looking walls and burly orderlies to restrain out-of-control attacks from crazy people. But when she arrived she saw a place where it looked like a person could sit outside underneath spreading trees and lush greenery and “sip mint juleps (p. 269).” Elsie is crying in the photo—the staff were obviously not gentle with her, and she’s frightened to be where she is, not knowing who’s touching her or why she’s there, and her head is being held in an unnatural position by a pair of white hands. The person is obviously a woman, with well-manicured hands. She clearly has time to care for herself, but she apparently has no spare thoughts for the patients she cares for. She might have been even beaten at the Hospital for the Negro Insane, because her face shows signs of trauma that are consistent with violence—swollen-shut eyes, lips also swollen beyond normal proportion, bruising around her face. Obviously, her life was inhuman and she had no capability to advocate for herself, so she was treated just as whoever was attending her felt like treating her. Deborah asserts her control over the situation when the unnamed person storms in and demands an explanation by staring daggers at him, wrapping her fingers more tightly around her cane, and silently, seethingly producing documents that proved her relationship to Elsie. She didn’t explode at him, but she made it clear that she was a force to be reckoned with anyway.
11. What physical ailments did Deborah suffer from as a result of the excitement and stress of seeing her mother’s cells for the first time, and learning about Elsie? Why did Deborah decide to go back to school? Why was Deborah unable to attend the National Foundation for Cancer Research’s Henrietta Lacks conference? Explain how Davon’s heroic actions saved Deborah’s life. What obstacle kept Deborah from realizing her dream of returning to school?
Deborah, who had always had underlying diabetic tendencies, had such high blood pressure and blood sugar that she was inches away from a major medical emergency after discovering more about Elsie and seeing the cells. She had had hives before, and was chugging Benadryl as she drove to Clover, but had ignored her body’s stress response in her need to know more about her mother. Deborah decided to go back to school because she wanted to learn more about the scientific benefits her mother’s cells had yielded, and to work with them to help people—she seemed to feel that she could be an extension of the good her mother’s cells had done in the world by becoming a dental assistant or a radiation technologist (p. 298). She wanted to know more about cancer, so she was more interested in the radiation technologist training, because it would help her understand her mother better (p. 298). When the September 11, 2001 attacks happened, the conference for the National Foundation for Cancer Research was cancelled, and Deborah was too terrified by it to fly anyway. Davon saved Deborah by keeping her awake, not letting her sink into unconsciousness as Pullum drove her to the fire station, where paramedics were able to attend her. He slapped her face and shouted at her, keeping her from closing her eyes beyond blinking. Because of her health, and more specifically because she didn’t have the money, Deborah wasn’t able to continue with her dream of educating herself; she barely had enough money to live on, much less buy books and pay tuition for classes. So, instead, she focused on getting the younger generations to go to school (p. 302).
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