Never Let Me Go

A tale of dystopia & cloning, love & loss, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Gois set in a world in which clones are raised with the sole intent of harvesting and donating their organs, and follows the journey of clone Kathy H. from her days at premier clone boarding school Hailsham to her transition into adulthood and her life as a carer, while also touching upon her relationship with fellow clones Ruth and Tommy. The nature of the book is misleading; solely based off of the title one would assume that this is a sappy Twilight– esque love story, while based off of the premise one would assume that this is an archetypal work of dystopian fiction. The reality is far from that; Never Let Me Go tackles concepts such as morality, mortality, the ethics behind science, and lost innocence, ultimately begging the question: “What does it mean to be human?”

The soul and the question over whether we have one or not is one of the most debated topics out there, and this is explored in Never Let Me Go. The soul is often regarded as the very thing that makes us human; it gives us life, character, and purpose. In Never Let Me Go, the soul is essentially what determines the value of life, as those with souls (humans) have the ability to replace organs on demand, while those without souls (clones) are forced to live short lives with predetermined fates. However, this is the crux of the novel; Hailsham was created with the purpose of proving that clones do indeed have souls and that their ‘life’ has value to. This raises the question: “Who determines the value of life?” In the novel, the clones’ lives do ultimately have value to others and value to society, but there’s little value within itself; their ultimate goal is death. One could argue that we are all born to die, but the discrepancy lies in unlike humans, the clones are born with death in mind. How a clone handles this grave fact determines the course of their life, and the book deals with this. Throughout Never Let Me Go, there is a constant conflict between conformity and rebellion, clones accepting the system and clones fighting against the system. This is primarily accomplished through the use of secondary characters such as Miss Lucy and Miss Emily, who represent contrasting viewpoints regarding how much clones ought to know about themselves. Ultimately, Ruth and Tommy (Kathy’s love) both die as Kathy is left to wonder what could have been, signifying a loss of innocence. This loss of innocence is embodied by the writing style, which changes drastically from the Hailsham days of Part 1 to life post-Hailsham from Part 2 onwards. The early days were devoid of much concern for the future, while the future has Kathy yearning for the past, representing the cruel irony of a life half-fulfilled.

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is beyond a shadow of a doubt one of the most influential artists of all time, and his extensive body of work transcends time and culture, which is why he’s still listened to around the world today and is the first and only musician (to date) to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.