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Definition of Pathos
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Prologue: The Woman in the Photograph
Explanation and Analysis—Wrap Around the Earth:
Rebecca Skloot highlights the global impact of Henrietta Lacks’s cells by contrasting their unimaginable proliferation with the humble reality of Henrietta’s own body. The juxtaposition appeals directly to readers’ emotions with pathos, forcing them to reckon with both awe at scientific progress and sorrow at the human cost behind it:
There’s no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta’s cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons — an inconceivable number, given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing. Another scientist calculated that if you could lay all HeLa cells ever grown end-to-end, they’d wrap around the Earth at least three times, spanning more than 350 million feet. In her prime, Henrietta herself stood only a bit over five feet tall.
The passage appeals to pathos by drawing an emotional contrast between scale and intimacy. The hyperbolic numbers—millions of metric tons, hundreds of millions of feet—evoke astonishment at the scientific scope of HeLa cells. But this awe quickly turns to sorrow as Skloot narrows the lens back to Henrietta’s body: just over five feet tall, finite, and mortal. Readers are left with a visceral sense of imbalance between the immensity of HeLa’s scientific legacy and the smallness of the woman who never consented to her role.
The emotional impact comes not only from scale but from injustice. Henrietta’s cells have been packaged, sold, multiplied beyond measure, even launched into space, while the woman herself was forgotten, buried in an unmarked grave, and left out of the wealth her cells generated. By contrasting endless proliferation with finite humanity, Skloot humanizes an abstract scientific achievement and makes readers feel the inequity at its core.
The appeal to pathos is heightened by the careful placement of the final sentence. After presenting dizzying statistics, Skloot grounds readers in a human image: Henrietta’s modest stature. This detail invites empathy, redirecting attention from faceless numbers to the woman behind them. It ensures that readers never lose sight of Henrietta as a person rather than a specimen.
Through this juxtaposition, Skloot demonstrates how pathos works alongside logos in her narrative. The statistics provide logical evidence of HeLa’s impact, but the emotional force comes from the reminder that all this began with a single woman whose body was exploited and erased. The passage exemplifies Skloot’s larger strategy: combining data with emotional appeal so that readers not only understand the scope of HeLa but also feel its moral weight.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2: Clover
Explanation and Analysis—Separate Sides:
Rebecca Skloot evokes Henrietta Lacks’s childhood not only through descriptions of family and farm life but also through her education under Jim Crow segregation. This scene, in particular, appeals strongly to readers’ emotions using pathos, by juxtaposing innocence with cruelty and deprivation:
During the school year, after taking care of the garden and livestock each morning, she’d walk two miles — past the white school where children threw rocks and taunted her — to the colored school, a three-room wooden farmhouse hidden under tall shade trees, with a yard out front where Mrs. Coleman made the boys and girls play on separate sides.
The emotional appeal arises from the injustice of a child enduring humiliation and violence simply to attend school. The long two-mile walk underscores both the physical exhaustion and the determination required of Henrietta at a young age. Her journey past a well-resourced White school—where students insulted her—toward a small, underfunded “colored” school highlights the stark inequalities of the segregated South.
Pathos also emerges in the sensory detail of the “three-room wooden farmhouse,” which emphasizes the poverty of her educational environment. Readers can picture the shade trees and the divided yard, details that might otherwise seem quaint, but here they underscore inequity: this was all Henrietta’s community could access, while White children had modern facilities only steps away.
The innocence of children forced into these divided roles intensifies the emotional impact. The cruelty Henrietta faced is not abstract but personal, tangible in the image of rocks thrown at a young girl on her way to learn. The description appeals to readers’ empathy by making segregation’s injustices immediate and concrete rather than distant historical facts.
This passage exemplifies how Skloot uses pathos to connect systemic racism to Henrietta’s lived experience. Rather than presenting segregation through statistics or generalities, she grounds it in one child’s daily walk, one child’s resilience in the face of mockery and deprivation. Readers are moved not only by the hardship but also by Henrietta’s endurance—an early sign of the strength that defined her life.
By invoking pathos here, Skloot ensures that readers feel the injustice of segregation as more than background context. It becomes part of Henrietta’s personal story, shaping her identity and reminding readers that the miracle of HeLa was rooted in a life marked by hardship, endurance, and systemic inequality.
Related Themes:
