Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
參賽者：張〇誠（應外四）
名次：第一名
書名：Never Let Me Go
得獎作品：
Thirty-one-year-old Kathy H. unfolds this story with her monologue-like narration. She grew up with her friends, Ruth and Tommy as her closest ones, in a school named Hailsham, then moved to the Cottages during their teenage years, and after the days in the Cottages, they are required to be either a “donor,” a person who donates his/her organs to the “normals” until the end of life, or a “carer,” a person who takes care of donors. Even if they choose to be a carer, they still doomed to, sooner or later, donate their vital organs to normal people, and then they will all “complete,” or die because that’s why they are created. This genre of this novel arguably belongs to Quasi-Sci-Fi and the time of this story sets in late 1990s. Ishiguro depicts a world developing clone technology in order to prolong human lifespan and to achieve longevity since World War II. Therefore, clones are made for donations, and Miss Emily founded Hailsham so as to prove the world that clones have souls at all.
The depiction of emotional struggles in this novel is so remarkable that readers are pulled in to ponder over and gain spiritual growth. Along with this story line, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy demonstrate a strong emotional bound to one another. Moreover, during their dealing with the ordeals they have encountered throughout their lives, an enormous sense of loss is shown. On the one hand, they exhibit a very human-like way of interacting with others, while on the other hand, they also illustrate an almost wholeness as a human but something is missing. The biggest reason dividing humans and clones in this story is the way they’re reared. Accordingly, two themes are selected: one is regarding their being deprived of deeper education and the other is about their loss of identity. After brief discussion of the selected themes, the focus will be on Ishiguro’s message to this real world.
The first theme chosen is about their being deprived of further education. Though they grew up in a school and created artwork and poetry, they were never enlightened. They sense something weird and sometimes question, but they never think further, or they are blocked to do so. They were told enough to know that they are one day to donate, but they were never told enough to understand the true meanings of donation and why they have to donate. Therefore, since their childhood, they know their only mission is donation. However, some might get the answer at the very end of their lives, while others remain completely innocent when they die. Without enlightenment, they can think on the surface instead of think critically. When encountered with predicaments, like young children, they passively accept it, remain gloomy for a while, or sometimes shout desperately simply trying to drain their powerlessness out. They are not aware to change not because they are really that impotent, but because, with every clone fulfilling their mission, none of them think about escaping and being abnormal as their life mission as a donor has been internalized into their mind. As a result, education itself is a double-edged sword. It enables educated people to think critically if they receive enough nurture of quality education. However, it also paralyzes one’s thinking system if it only teaches talent-oriented subjects, such as creating artwork and poetry.
Another theme is their loss of identity. An important clue is their desire to find their own “possible,” the one who donate genes so that they can be made. A scene describing Ruth’s outrage after they know that the fine lady in the office is not Ruth’s possible best exemplifies their subordinate attitude and inferiority complex.
‘I didn’t want to say when you first told me about this. But look, it
was never on. They don’t ever, ever, use people like that woman.
Think about it. Why would she want to? We all know it, so why don’t
we all face it. We’re not modeled from that sort… We all know it.
We’re from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe
just so long as they aren’t psychos. … If you want to look for possibles,
if you want to do it properly, then you look in the gutter. You look in the
rubbish bins. Look down the toilet, that’s where you will find where we
all came from.’
This scene can be regarded as their epiphany, a moment when they realize that they will never be a decent person as they once dreamed of. Since their childhood, they dreamed their own dreams. Some dreamed to become a Hollywood actor, while others dreamed to become their ideal profession. The fantasy that they had clung to suddenly collapsed. Their desires are never to be fulfilled; even their eagerness to find their own identity and the position in the world failed. They are rootless. Moreover, at all time, they view themselves as subordinates of human beings; therefore, it drives them to seek their identity from their possibles, even though the two parties do not have any strings attached except for genes. In addition, when Kathy worked as a carer, Hailsham was closed. Upon knowing this, Kathy thought about the students who she had grown up together, now all over the country as carers or donors. They were all separated but somehow still linked by the place they were from. Hailsham, a place where their common memories took place, was shut down, and nothing they’re related to will remain. All of them will complete. All of them will leave the world without any traces. They are born and dead without identity.
Ishiguro depicted Never Let Me Go in a slightly gloomy fashion; all the miseries leak through the lines and shroud your heart with a thin layer of sadness instead of striking you directly with a powerful sentimental bomb. It is remarkably written and enchanting. Not only does it provide immense pleasure for a reader, but, with the first person narration, it leads readers to be the one whom Kathy talks to. In this way, the real world and the fictional world seem to merge, and it makes readers to ponder whether in this real world exist this group of minorities who suffer to make life of the majority more pleasant.
Based on my knowledge of this novel, Ishiguro indeed tried to make the world think, to think what can be done and what can’t. Throughout the whole novel, Ishiguro’s detailed depiction of clones’ misery triggers readers’ sympathy. It is certainly not humane to treat a life like that. Even if some argue that clones are not humans, people don’t do that on animals. Accordingly, there must be a distinction between the forbidden and the debatable. Some issues welcome all parties to present their arguments, while others should remain undone because morality should never fade and always be the priority.
In one of Ishiguro’s interview, he pointed out that one of the most important themes in this novel is limited lifespan. No matter clones or humans, they all live through the periods as a child, as a teenager, and as an old man. Though the life of clones is limited in around 30 years, they experienced discomfort as a suffering patient as well. Ishiguro himself also assisted in shooting the adapted film and at the very end of the movie, unlike the original novel, Kathy has a new line: “What I’m not sure about is whether our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. And none of us really understand what we’ve lived through. Or feel we’ve had enough time.” By reading this novel, readers gain catharsis through the haunting predicaments of the characters, thereby understanding that life is never long enough, not even when we try various means to prolong our lifespan. We all spend our lifetime exploring the true meaning of life. With the dandelion of this well-knotted plot landing in readers’ brain and mind, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy provide inspirations and encouragements whenever one feel defeated. What’s more, it also invites readers to thoroughly ponder over the true meanings of life and the distinction between what should do and what shouldn’t.
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