Guided Reading Questions Pt. 4

Chapter Ten: The Other Side of the Tracks

1. What do the names of the creek and the river suggest about life in Lacks Town?
2. Cootie seems to know and understand a little bit about HeLa cells, but he believes that Henrietta's spirit is still present in her cells. What does Cootie think about the reason that HeLa cells were used to develop a polio vaccine?
3. Explain the meaning of the idiom "the other side of the tracks"

Chapter Eleven: The Devil of Pain Itself

1. Describe the progression of Henrietta's cancer int he eight months between her diagnosis and her death.
2. What did Henrietta's friends and family do when they found out that she needed bloos? Why do you think they were willing to sacrifice to help her?
3. What was Henrietta's final request? What does this request tell you about her?

Chapter Twelve: The Storm

1. What did Mary, Gey's assistant, realize when she was Henrietta's painted toenails? How was the timing of this realization ironic?
2. Henrietta's cousin says that Henrietta "was tryin' to tell us somethin' with that storm." What do you think she could have been trying to say?
3. Why did Henrietta's doctors need to ask for her family's permission to remove tissue samples after her death? How did day initially respond to their request?

Chapter Thirteen: The HeLa Factory

1. Explain the inherent irony of the fact that the Tuskegee HeLa production lab was operating at the same time that the infamous syphilis study was being conducted. What does the juxtaposition of these two projects reveal about race relations in the early 1950s?
2. Paraphrase the explanation of how a virus reproduces found on page 97. Why did the fact that HeLa cells are malignant make them particularly useful in the study of viruses?
3. Why was the development of methods of freezing cells an important scientific breakthrough?
4. Explain the contribution that HeLa made to the emerging field of genetics.