Transcript Never Let me Go - English at Montrose

Never Let me Go
Guide to writing an essay at Nat 5
What is this book about?
• There are lots of themes to work with for the
essay let’s deal with identity.
Identity
• Never Let Me Go is a powerful and thought provoking novel where
the main characters suffer from an identity crisis.
• The children raised at Hailsham school, are desperate to
understand the purpose of their own lives, bodies, and minds. The
children attain a sense of identity through their treasured
collections, creativity, artwork and delicate social structure.
• Kazou Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go presents a dystopian
society that focuses on the search for identity and meaning through
curiosity and self-expression.
• This novel demonstrates how disease and human imperfection can
disconnect people from the external world, often causing them to
forget the present and lose themselves in the future.
Cloned humans
• Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, is a gripping portrayal of humans
who are being stripped of their identity and labelled as mere
copies.
• The novel, set in Britain during the mid-1990’s, portrays a bleak
world, where cloning humans is socially acceptable solely for the
purpose of becoming organ donors for “real” people.
•
Ishiguro focuses on three distinct characters, Kathy, Tommy, and
Ruth, all of whom are clones. These three students – among others
–are considered advantaged because they are fortunate enough to
be raised at Hailsham, under the protective eye of “the guardians”
and allowed certain privileges.
A sense of individuality
• Early on in Never Let Me Go, there is a sense that Hailsham
students create art in order to make their identities tangible.
• The students desperately try to hold on to a sense of individuality
through small collections, and their ability to create beautiful and
meaningful pieces.
•
Growing up, Kathy felt that how one was “regarded at Hailsham,
how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good
you were at creating” .
• This suggests that humans often attempt to create self-image
through means of creation in other aspects of their lives. The
students are raised to seek validity in the things they create,
whether that be paintings, sculpture, or poetry.
Self-identity
• Ishiguro also portrays the troubling possibility that our
self-identity is incredibly fragile, and can transform
itself when others impose judgments upon us.
• All of the students at Hailsham diligently attempt to
improve their art in order to have their pieces selected
for “the gallery,” which is an extensive collection of
their best works.
• Consequently, this changes the students’ perception of
their own self-worth, causing them to doubt their
individuality and meaning.
A cold moment
• Since Madame, curator of the gallery always keeps a peculiar
distance from the students, Kathy and a group of friends conceive a
plan to test her reaction to their presence.
• For the students, this begins as a light-hearted experiment fuelled
by curiosity, but this feeling quickly disintegrates when Madame
reacts in horror causing the students to acknowledge that
something about them is unacceptable.
•
Kathy explains her feelings by saying “the first time you glimpse
yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it’s a cold moment” .
•
This causes Kathy and her classmates to suddenly doubt everything
they once viewed as concrete.
human consequence of self-doubt
• Before this incident, the students were seemingly
unaware that they terrified the general population.
• This scene provides the students with the
consciousness to realize they are completely distinct
from the people in the outside world.
• This strikes fear into the students, as they too must
face the human consequence of self-doubt. Kathy
explains
• “it’s like walking past a mirror you’ve walked past
every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you
something else, something troubling and strange”
The role that prejudice can have in
identity
• Kathy’s image illustrates the struggle for selfacceptance and the truths that we all face.
• The image that Kathy presents is an altered
reflection of herself.
• . Overall, their experiment was successful in
discerning Madame’s reaction to their company,
but her reaction caused them to understand the
role that prejudice can have in identity.
The universal desire for personal
identity and uniqueness.
• The students find this reassurance in their small
collections of personal items that represent
pieces of themselves. Kathy recalls this in saying
“maybe we all had little secrets like that – little
private nooks created out of thin air where we
could go off along with our fears and longings”
• Here, Kathy’s yearning to “go off” demonstrates
her desire for individuality and distance from the
group.
A purpose does not give life a meaning.
Everybody has to cope with doubt, the students come to
realize they are “different from the normal people outside; we
perhaps even knew that a long way down the line there were
donations waiting for us. But we didn’t really know what that
meant”
• In this quote, Ishiguro suggests that a purpose does not
give life a meaning.
• Despite knowing their purpose in life is to make donations,
the students remain unfulfilled and continue to search for
something that feels meaningful to them.
“completion”
• Throughout the novel, Ishiguro uses the euphemism
“completion” for death, and the students are often
confronted with the reality that this will eventually be
their fate.
• The word completion suggests that they are fulfilling a
sense of duty, but the characters do not really take it
in.
• This idea is not far from what most humans realize;
namely, that at some point in time we are going to die.
What makes our lives complete ?
•
Ishiguro suggests we need to find out what makes our lives complete before the
“end.”
•
He makes us think of everybody's desire to put off death when Kathy and Tommy
desperately search for a deferral. They hope the ability to demonstrate their true
love to Madame and another Guardian will ultimately save them from
“completion.”
•
While Tommy undergoes the donation process at the hospital he rejects the
identity that illness attempts to give him. He refuses to accept the truth of the
situation—that this was a step closer to his completion.
•
Kathy notes that Tommy was “always fully clothed because he didn’t want to ‘be
like a patient’” Tommy needs to reject being seen just as a donor-patient, during
his struggle to find meaning. In this novel’s context, the mere mention of “donor”
implies clone, which leads us to the inevitable question-
•
since these students are clones, do they possess a unique identity?
love as a part of identity
• Before seeking the deferral, Kathy feels a calm sense of
hope. At one moment, Kathy feels “relief, gratitude,”
and “sheer delight” . These feelings appear to be
because of the love that has grown between Kathy and
Tommy.
• The writer presents love as a part of identity and a way
of fashioning it. Love is something that cannot be
labelled, but it helps us develop meaning in our lives.
• Despite all of their questions regarding identity, the
students never doubt that they have a soul.
Did someone think we didn’t have souls?”
.
• When Miss Emily tells them “we did it to
prove you had souls at all,” Kathy answers out
of complete shock, “Why did you have to
prove a thing like that, Miss Emily? Did
someone think we didn’t have souls?” .
• The couple seems completely baffled that
their souls were ever a matter of question.
Art shows the students had souls
• In this novel the main characters are sure they have a soul until they
are told why they were asked to create art.
•
The Guardians had hoped art would demonstrate the students had
souls, when in reality you could see their humanity in everyday life
through the emotions that often overwhelmed them.
• Both Tommy’s excessive rage and Ruth’s desperation for control are
ways they have of coping with life.
•
On the contrary, Kathy handles her emotions in a different manner,
constantly trying to keep everyone happy and at peace, often
disregarding her own emotions and mental state for the benefit of
her friends.
Experiences and relationships matter.
• Since Tommy and Kathy were denied the deferral, it
seems apparent that for the writer, artwork and
creativity are not sufficient in making life meaningful,
and that it is our experiences and relationships that
truly matter.
• This novel is stressing the importance of creating
meaning and holding on to the moments and people
we love, before it is too late.
• The writer is also saying we should make the most of
the life we have.
The past and the present
• Kathy, Tommy and Ruth desperately search for
answers to the questions that make up their
life. The Hailsham students often find
themselves more interested in the past than
the present.
“trash.”
• Another interesting idea in the novel is the fear
the students have of being created from “trash.”
• The student’s wonder if they will turn out like
their genetic donors.
• The normal people tend to judge the clones in
one of two ways; either believing them to be
human, with unique identities, or labelling them
as sub-human and only serving a scientific
purpose.
Think about your own life.
• By looking at the role of identity and humanity
throughout Never Let Me Go, we can think about
our own lives.
• Through his novel, Ishiguro is warning us to find
what makes our individual life meaningful before
our own “completion.”
• Ultimately, the clone’s search for identity and
purpose has no clear answers at the end of the
novel, which is the way many people feel in
today’s society.
So to the essay
•
•
•
•
A good essay at Nat 5 has:
An introduction
5 points in support of your answer
A conclusion
The introduction
• Name of the text
• Name of the author
• A brief answer to the question
Like so…
• Kazou Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go
presents a dystopian society that focuses on
the search for identity and meaning through
curiosity and self-expression. The novel tackles
that universal human issue; what makes a
good life?
The points
•
•
•
•
Use the PEE technique:
P Point
E Example… quote
E Explanation… explain what the quote is
suggesting to the reader.
Do this 5 times to make up the bulk of the essay
Plan
• Point 1
• The science fiction idea of clones to provide
body parts for transplant is very imaginative
but makes us think about who they are.
• Setting it in a school like a 1970s boarding
school fools us into thinking they are normal
or just like us.
Plan
• Point 2
• Identity… the students start to wonder who
they are. Madame's fear of them makes them
realise they are different
• Kathy talks about seeing yourself in a mirror
and finding something different from what
you had thought to see.
Plan
• Point 3
• The school try to give the students a sense of
their identity through art and poetry but in
the end it is relationships and shared
experience that matter
Plan
• Point 4
• The shock of the meeting with Miss Emily where
the gallery’s real purpose is revealed and the
question of whether they have souls is
highlighted.
• The writer is saying it is obvious that we all have a
soul but it is our relationships and experience
that matter. Kathy and Tommy’s relationship is
more important than his art. The experience of
visiting the boat stands out more than the false
experience of the Hailsham years.
Plan
• Point 5
• The importance of living the present rather
than dwelling on the past. In today’s society
we are confronted with differences in race,
religion, class and wealth and we judge others
by all sorts of superficial ways. The novel
suggests that like the cloned students turned
donors it is not where you come from that
matters it is what you do and how you live.
The conclusion
• This is the real answer to the question
• So in conclusion Ishiguro's novel is about a
universal social issue and that is; who are we
and what should we do to make our lives
worthwhile? In following the imaginary lives
of these clones the writer gives us an insight
into our own need for identity and purpose.
• Best of luck