NLMG Analysis #5

“Most importantly, we demonstrated to the world that if students were reared in humane, cultivated environments, it was possible for them to grow to be as senstivie and intelligent as any ordinary human being. Before that, all clones – or students, as we preferred to call you-existed only to supply medical science. In the early days, after the war, that’s largely all you were to most people.”

Kathy and Tommy learn from Miss Emily that people once overlooked the fact that they could be civilized beings. Hailsham offered an educated environment for these “students” to proove that if they learned and lived with culture, than they would grow up with humane instincts, and developed brains. It is true that their society was made soley to give donations to the ill. But the unique cases, like Kathy and her fellow students, were all given a chance at life. They were offered an outlet that would aid them in discovering what it was like to live as normal humans do. The thought that there are uncivilized clones in the world, after following Kathy’s mind, and seeing the world through her eyes, is unimaginable. Their community was all created to do one thing, but at least they were able to live with community. They were fed information, they were taken care of, they, for the most part, became genuine people. In the end, the Gallery was not there for something as simple as confirming two students’ love for each other. It was there to exemplify that Hailsham influences humanity.

NLMG Analysis #4

“Then there’s soltiude. You grow up surrounded by crowds of people, that’s all you’ve ever known, and suddenly you’re a carer. You spend hour after hour, on your own, driving across the country, centre to centre, hospital to hospital, sleeping in overnights, no one to talk to about your worries, no one to have a laugh with” (Ishiguro, 207).

Kathy, along with the rest of the Hailsham students and those who are to become carers and then donors, have grown up with their friends by their side every minute of every day. They know no other life than one with the people they love (and don’t love) right their life than one with the people they love (and don’t love) right their with them, all, in retrsospect, living the same life. Now she is alone to begin the first part of the job she’s always known she was destined for. But even though she is seperated from Ruth, and Tommy, and everyone else, she remains a part of the Hailsham gang. From the moment they are born to the moment they give their last donation they are all connected. When the day comes that they are scattered across the outside world, the only things they are leaving are each other. They can never leave behind Hailsham’s spirit. It will follow them, because they are all meant to do what they were raised to do. They all continue to follow their “bulletpoints;” go to Hailsham, go to the Cottages, train to be a carer, begin donations, etc. They are all individuals, who think in their own way, and travel to different places. But they are “seeds,” extracted and planted in the world to do what they were made to do. They know one day, quite soon, their lives with end, and they will all end in a similar fashion; with their last organ donation. It is a cruel world they live in. They cannot determine their own fate, or chose for themselves the life they want to lead. Hailsham is a ghost that haunts them, and Kathy’s story acknowledges the impact that the school truly has on its students. It will never be forgotten or overlooked. It was a breeding site, releasing more and more donors into the world each year.

NLMG Analysis #3

“I can see now, too, how the Exchanges had a more subtle effect on us all. If you thin about it, being dependent on each to produce the stuff that might become your private treasures – that’s bound to do things to your relationships. The Tommy business was typical. A lot of the time, how you were regarded at Hailsham, how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good you were at “creating”‘(Ishiguro, 16).

Hailsham has a thick culutre that is aesthetically based. Creation was a key factor in the students’ education. At the boarding school, something as materialistic as an artistic “exchange” had an integral affect on one’s social status. The way people were viewed heavily derived from their aesthetic skills. For Tommy, his lack of artistic ability was a social impediment. Over the years, the Hailsham students became convinced that the exchanges were a “special” event. Kathy and Tommy later believe it may have even been a way to express their souls. They all were compelled to create something worthy of being displayed and sold to their peers. It was a tradition, so to say, part of their rich culture. Everyone must be involved, because it is what they all believe in and value. Tommy was unrightfully punished for not properly exhibiting Hailsham’s caliber. He was harrassed simply because he was not inventive. It must have been difficult to be seen with such low regards on account of not fitting in with the culture that was forced upon him from the day he was born.

NLMG Analysis #2

“There was, incidentally, something I noticed about these veteran couples at the Cottages – something Ruth, for all her close study of them, failed to spot – and this was how so many of their mannerisms were copied from the television…And there was in particular this one gesture Ruth picked up from the veterans…At the Cottages, though, when a couple were saying goodbye to each other… you slapped your partner’s arm near the elbow… and Ruth was soon doing it to Tommy” (Ishiguro 120-121).

The veterans and the Hailsham students alike have all been shut out from the outside world. The television was a sort of a window, and as the veterans had no parents or gaurdians at the Cottages to look up to draw inspiration from, the various characters on the television is where they learned to act and behave. The Hailsham students would then pick up their manurisms from the veterans, who they looked at as their elders. It iss a pattern, a fake and copycat pattern that Kathy notices while living at the Cottages. She picks up on various details that her fellow Hailsham alumni do not, which exhibits Kathy’s unique way of viewing the world around her.  In a constant struggle to fit in in their new home, Ruth does as she sees, only trying to be like the veterans. But Kathy does not think twice about falling into such a romanticised routine. She will not become someone else. She is her own unique person, and she is bothered by the fact that Ruth will submit to such an appearance based way of life. Kathy has always stood out apart from her peers. She is not afraid of her opinions and she does not fall back into the crowd. She is a Hailsham student and accepts her fate, but she is also curious and hungry for answers. Kathy enjoys the endless activity of deciphering the world around her.

Never Let Me Go Anal. #1

“Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults, then before you’re old, before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do. You’re not like the actors you watch on your videos, you’re not even like me. You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided” (Ishiguro, 81).

As an adult, looking back on her mysterious childhood, Kathy reflects about her life purpose. She grew up in a place where everyone around her had the same destiny, where no one could make any unique offering to the world. Her entire life she’s been a part of this “elite” and isolated society. As children, her peers and herself are, in a sense, harvested to carry out one single purpose; to give donations. No matter how intelligent one student may be, or how creative another’s dreams are, there is no veering from the path that had been established specifically for their “kind.”  They are trapped in society’s grasp. The students of Hailsham are not allowed to dream of another life. When one child envisions himself as an actor, their teacher, Miss Lucy, retaliates with a powerful explaination of what society has planned for them. There are no choices. There is no way for a Hailsham student to escape their fate. It is permanent. In reality, it was a test to reveal that there were indeed souls within these children. But the true purpose of the seasonal exchange was stained by the young minds of the students; they saw it as a way to judge who was able and who was not. For how could they have known the truth?