It is obvious that Never Let Me Go portrays a
non-traditional view of slaves under a harsh government that differs from many
other popular novels of this genre. Ishiguro, as we have discussed in class, confirms
that he wanted his characters to never even consider the idea of rebellion in
order to create a new kind of story. I think it’s great that Ishiguro wanted to
be creative with his story by giving his characters an unconventional outlook
on their situation, but my question is, does this seem plausible as a demonstration
of how real people would act in this situation?
Near the end of the novel, Kathy says, “We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time” (280). It’s this kind of resigned acceptance that makes me question how realistic it is for every clone to have this attitude. Kathy has known her fate as an organ donor for a long time now, but even back when she was a teenager, neither her nor her friends ever question the system that they have been thrust into. My problem with this is that in our society today, we complain about everything. From homework to traffic to weather, when we don’t like something, we voice our opinions to others. Even if Ishiguro believes his characters wouldn’t want to rebel against the system, we rarely, if ever, hear any of the clones at either Hailsham or the Cottages even complain about their pretty horrible situation, and that seems pretty questionable to me.
Near the end of the novel, Kathy says, “We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time” (280). It’s this kind of resigned acceptance that makes me question how realistic it is for every clone to have this attitude. Kathy has known her fate as an organ donor for a long time now, but even back when she was a teenager, neither her nor her friends ever question the system that they have been thrust into. My problem with this is that in our society today, we complain about everything. From homework to traffic to weather, when we don’t like something, we voice our opinions to others. Even if Ishiguro believes his characters wouldn’t want to rebel against the system, we rarely, if ever, hear any of the clones at either Hailsham or the Cottages even complain about their pretty horrible situation, and that seems pretty questionable to me.
It is true that Kathy and other
people at the Cottages are interested in extending their time they have before
their service as carers and donors begins. Chrissie clearly expresses her
desire to spend more time with Rodney by mentioning another couple whom they
have heard received a deferral. “Three years just to themselves, because
they could prove they were properly in love” (153). However, it still seems
strange to me that if Chrissie and Rodney want to not follow the system, this
delay is their ultimate goal, nothing more.
One possible answer to this
conundrum that I came up with is that the clones avoid mentioning their fates
in order to keep themselves from feeling hope. Hope is definitely not a major
motif of the novel, and about the only example of hope that I can think of is
Ruth’s dream of working in an office one day. When Ruth sees the magazine cover
of the open-plan office in the road, she expresses to Kathy how she’d like to
work there, but then realizes what she is doing and becomes embarrassed in
front of Kathy (144). This sort of dream-hope mixed with denial reminds of
doublethink from 1984, which is the
idea that you can hold two contrasting ideas in your mind and believe them both
to be true. Ruth knows have the dream that one day she will work in an office
while simultaneously knowing it could never happen, and that half-hope feels
just a bit unrealistic in the real world.
Maybe I’m completely wrong, and it
makes perfect sense for these characters to behave this way. I can only know
how I would feel in this situation, after all. Let me know what you think.
I think that the main reason the characters never rebel against their fate is that they have never known any better. None of the characters truly know what life not as a clone is like, so they do not have the same longing as we probably would if we were put in this situation. I do agree with you that as a society we complain about everything; however, I think this is a trait that is engrained into us from a very young age. Children grow up hearing their parents and other adults complain about everything, and as a result they begin to copy this way of thinking. They grow up in a society where they are told what is expected of them from a very young age. For example, none of the children truly question why they must create artwork. When Miss Lucy tells Tommy that he does not have to be artistic, this is so shocking to Kathy that she is angry and immediately calls Tommy a liar. Kathy says, “I was genuinely angry, because I thought he was lying to me, just when I deserved to be taken into his confidence” (Ishiguro 24). However, Miss Lucy eventually takes this statement back, showing that this society is one that does not go against the norm. Complaining would be going against the norm of society, and I believe that this is why none of the characters complain about their fate-they do not know any better.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the novel gives a perspective on what happens when certain knowledge is limited. The way the clones are to live, that is being born and dying by donating vital organs, has been pre-constructed for them. The concept of “rebelling,” if they have any at all, was wiped out at an early stage. I believe that to the clones, rebelling is an impossible term, because to them, “completing” after donating is as inevitable as death is to us. We believe that we are born to die at the end of our life, and the clones think the same concept; they are born to complete at the end of their lives. Though the situation is relatively horrible, having an office job like Ruth wants is like a five-year-old dreaming of becoming a fairy princess. To see such contrasts, it is important to put oneself in the shoes and minds of the clones, to look at how much their worlds have been limited to what they know. Just as we cannot become Voldemort and make horcruxes to rebel against death, the clones see no possibility in revolting against their own fate, as unbelievable as it may seem from our social context. Ruth admits, “It felt right [becoming a donor]. After all, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it?” (Ishiguro 237). So, while it feels wrong to our standards, it could still be perfectly normal a thought for the students of Hailsham.
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ReplyDeleteI think, while maybe somewhat realistic that the clones never complain about their lot in life, it is not unrealistic that they would not question it thoroughly. Oppression in the real world continues to exist for a great many reasons, one such reason being the oppressed group being kept complacent over their own oppression. They are made to believe that that is simply how their lives are meant to be and they never truly question the system. The system is the status quo, and even if that status quo hurts them, some people would rather it go unchanged since it is what they have always known. They have grown up in the world of oppression and it is what they have learned to adapt to. This is exactly how I think the clones feel. On some level, they want to complain but they know their fates are inevitable if they do not rebel, which they don't want to do because of the previously stated status quo.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the fact that the clones were always given information about their fates before they could truly understand what they were being told:
Tommy thought it possible that the guardians have, throughout all our years at Hailsham, timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us so that we were always just too young to understand properly the latest piece of information. But of course, we'd take it in at some level so that before long all this stuff was there in our heads without us ever having examined it properly. (Ishiguro 82)
This has a huge effect on their complacency. Instead of the fact of their fates being presented as information to be learned, it was strategically fed to them to make it seem more like ingrained knowledge. This would have brought feelings of inevitability and made it seem pointless to rebel.
(I tried to indent the block quote but it didn't translate to this blog site.)
I think that it's realistic that the clones don't question their fate because it's all that they know. In our world, the information that isn't given to you freely can still be accessed through many means, such as the internet. At Hailsham, there's no information available to the clones other than what the guardians give them, and they don't openly disclose the fact to the children that they're clones. Kathy mentions how she would notice Ms. Lucy's behaviors, and looking back on them, they were clues as to what Ms. Lucy wanted to tell the children, but couldn't: "It's even possible I began to realize, right back then, the nature of her worries and frustrations...[but], at the time, I noticed all these things without knowing what on Earth to make of them" (79). Even though Kathy is starting to suspect things aren't what they see to be at Hailsham at this time, she lacks the basic knowledge to question Ms. Lucy or any of the other guardians with any real conviction or intelligence.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that it seems as though the clones keep themselves from creating any hope. I understand this, because in experiences I've had in my life, it's always more painful to become hopeful, only to have your hopes shattered, rather than accepting your fate in the first place. This may be how many of the clones feel, and to protect themselves from any further pain, they stay away from hoping for anything other than what their provided faith is.
I think that the clones experience an element of fear as they do not know what is beyond the school, Hailsham. The guardians, who are the only adults they interact with, do not tell them what is beyond the fences of Hailsham. The idea of life beyond the fences is very vague. In one of Kathy’s memories she says “The Sales were important to us because that was how we got hold of things form outside. … That’s where ewe got our clothes, our toys, the special things that hadn’t been made by another student” (41). Kathy referred to the real world as the outside as the students did not have any information about what the outside was actually like. I feel as if the student were comfortable with their lifestyles as they didn’t have anyone to push them out of their comfort zones. The students of Hailsham speak about the woods behind the school in a fearful manor as year after year stories about students dying and finding students without their hands and feet were passed down from class to class (50). While the students do not have any confirmation that these stories are true, they are enough to keep them from attempting escape. I think that a combination of rumored stories and fear of the outside world keep the students from becoming too curious about life beyond Hailsham.
ReplyDeleteThe clones don't rebel because most people don't rebel. In real life people passively exist within society and very few try to change it. Everyone likes to think that they are a free-thinker who would always do the right thing but the truth is that in real life situations, like the Holocaust, or in laboratory settings, like the Stanley Milgram experiments or the Stanford Prison experiment, most people passively go with the flow- even if what they know what they are doing is wrong. Scientific data suggests that two thirds of people will blindly follow instructions even knowing that they are killing another person as long as they are told too by an authority figure. This statistic was the same for men and women. The only differences found between the demographics studied is that the 1/3 of women who stopped the Milgram experiments stopped significantly earlier than the 1/3 of men who stopped.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason why the clones don't rebel is because they are incredibly sheltered. They don't really have a frame of reference for what a normal life is- this is why they imitate things from novels and television. The only "real" people they interact with are the guardians at Hailsham. If we can't expect educated participants to disregard authority then it seems foolish to expect children who have been brainwashed from an early age to disregard the authority figures who served as surrogate parents.