It is difficult to discern if Miss Lucy or Miss Emily possess the correct logic in regard to Hailsham’s disclosure tactics to its students because of the innate immorality associated with the donor system. Miss Emily’s view provides the foundation for a more fulfilling childhood, while Miss Lucy seeks to provide her students with a fulfilling adulthood.
Until this point in the book, Miss Lucy is portrayed as the only guardian who has found a moral dilemma with the donor system; however, Kathy and Tommy’s visit to Madame reveals that both Madame and Miss Emily have been in conflict with the system for years but believed the best way to instill change was within, by opening Hailsham, a more humane method of raising clones. Miss Emily does not attempts to defend this inhumane system; instead, she seeks to explain how their efforts were an attempt to make the best of a dire situation. During Kathy and Tommy’s visit, Miss Emily explains, “‘I can see...that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game...But think of it. You were lucky pawns’” (266). This contrast is evident throughout the book from Cathy’s donors’ pleads to tell about her times at Hailsham to the constant interest in Hailsham at the Cottages.
Until this point in the book, Miss Lucy is portrayed as the only guardian who has found a moral dilemma with the donor system; however, Kathy and Tommy’s visit to Madame reveals that both Madame and Miss Emily have been in conflict with the system for years but believed the best way to instill change was within, by opening Hailsham, a more humane method of raising clones. Miss Emily does not attempts to defend this inhumane system; instead, she seeks to explain how their efforts were an attempt to make the best of a dire situation. During Kathy and Tommy’s visit, Miss Emily explains, “‘I can see...that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game...But think of it. You were lucky pawns’” (266). This contrast is evident throughout the book from Cathy’s donors’ pleads to tell about her times at Hailsham to the constant interest in Hailsham at the Cottages.
Miss Emily further defends Hailsham’s strategy by emphasizing its importance as a shelter for its students. Hailsham’s focus on the art and literature worlds distract the students from their true purpose. Miss Emily defends this enforced ignorance through its creation of an authentic childhood for the students as well as its ability to cultivate ambition, hope, and a sense of purpose within the students. Miss Emily argues against Miss Lucy’s logic questioning, “‘Why should you have done, knowing what lay in store for each of you? You would have told us it was all pointless, and how could we have argued with you?’” (268). By preventing the students from knowing their ultimate purpose, Miss Emily was trying to maintain as human of a life for them as possible.
In contrast, Miss Lucy believes in power of the truth. Like her colleague, Miss Emily, Miss Lucy’s beliefs were created with the students’ best interests at mind. When she witnesses the students professing their hopes and dreams, she doesn’t believe it is fair to allow them to hope for the impossible, ultimately ensuring their dreams are crushed. In her following outburst, Miss Lucy proclaims, “‘If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you’” (81). Miss Lucy believes that an early knowledge of their identity will allow the students to comprehend this before leaving Hailsham, thereby allowing them to live fully upon departure.
Ultimately, the debate between Miss Emily and Miss Lucy is a matter of prioritizing the life lived as child versus as an adult.
I agree with you that the debate between Miss Emily and Miss Lucy comes down to when you would prefer to hear the truth about your life. I also think that a big factor in the method that Miss Emily uses is what she thinks will impact the donation system as a whole. If the kids at Hailsham were to learn early on their fate, the artwork that they produced may not have been at the same caliber as when they had not worries about their future. The art though served as a way to prove that the clones "'had souls at all'"(260). By taking their art and keeping the clones in the dark, Miss Emily believed that she was working to improve the greater good. If the students had been told of the true purpose of the artwork, they may not have been willing to participate and the Guardians at Hailsham couldn't take that chance, not when there was so much at stake.
ReplyDeleteMiss Lucy believed that even though there was the possibility to change the donation system if the students at Hailsham were kept in the dark, it was immoral to do so. She believes that this gives the students false hopes and will cause them later in life to become resentful and angry about what has been done to them.
This argument holds true to the end of the novel, except in the idea that Miss Lucy had the students' best interests in mind. While Miss Emily treated the students well and was very nice, this did not stem from the fact that she believed the students were actually important. She wanted the best for them and did the best she could to support the experiment being held, despite being somewhat disgusted with the students.
ReplyDeleteMiss Lucy on the other hand did have more of the student's well being in mind. In class we talked about how Miss Lucy did not seem to fit in and how she should walk out if she was free to leave. She did walk out, which is concerning when regarding this project, because it seems she was the only one who thought that the students should be better educated on their fate. Miss Emily even says that Miss Lucy shared this view and that they," [C]onsidered her view and concluded she was mistaken"(267). By the end of the novel it is clear that, while all of those associated with Hailsham were creating a better environment for the clones, few of those associated with the project actually believed that they were more than bodies for organs.
Miss Emily’s and Madame’s whole thought process for treating the students better at Hailsham was that the ends justify the means. They felt that the clones should have better lives because, ultimately, they are created purely for their organs. Miss Emily’s use of verbiage in chapter 22 consists of verbs like “sheltering, fooled, lied, protected”, and to her these all mean the same thing—keeping the students from knowing what will really happen to them, and preventing them from fighting for themselves. Miss Emily even goes on to say how they were all disgusted by the students; not a very good way to be a humanitarian for clones.
ReplyDeleteMany of us can appeal to Miss Lucy’s method of teaching. As most young adult fictions today are about some form of rebellion, we are more attracted to her stance on the issue. The author chose to have her removed from Hailsham stemmed from his desire to not make it a story about rebellion. Miss Lucy’s methods would allow the students to have some form of reflection on their whole purpose for life, and as we have seen that the clones are very similar to normal humans, with enough time they would come to realize that they want something more—maybe an office job without the risk of having vital organs removed. That being said, I agree with Miss Lucy's viewpoint more than Miss Emily's.
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