The fact that she directs this phrase directly at us (“where you were”) means that she wants us to relate to her story on a personal level. I think it shows us something about her intended audience. It shows that her story is directed at people who have somewhat similar backgrounds, but she obviously doesn’t expect them to be too similar because she says, “I don’t know how it is where you were.” She usually uses this in the first part of the story; the part where she describes what her school was like. Because of this, I think she is directing her story to an audience that has attended elementary, middle, and high school. I think she is making the assumption that her audience went to a school as a child. She assumes that they went to school with many other classmates and that they spent a lot of time together and were close like the children at Hailsham.
As far as ideas, messages, or arguments she is trying to convey, that is not so clear to me. I can see in her writing that she wants us to relate to her. She wants to help us understand her story better by describing all the details of conversations and interactions with other students. This means to me that she wants us on her side. But what is her side, and her side of what? Well, I think this has to do with the fact that they are clones created for the purpose of giving donations. I also think she is against this idea, so I think she wants us to realize how very horrible this really is. They way she does this (how she conveys her message)is by telling us her whole life story and having the readers relate and empathize with her. She does this by (like I said) pulling us into her world by giving us many details so that we can better understand her (and empathize with her).
Why is it important for these things to be conveyed? A book should have a purpose. I think some books might be written simply for the pleasure of reading a light-hearted story. Even those books have some sort of moral or something to take away from it. People reveal their arguments, passions, and beliefs through writing, and I think a book is an appropriate place for a person to convey his message. So why is it important for Kathy to convey her message? I think it is important for everyone’s voice to be heard. It is important that she tells her story and inserts her message because she needs to speak her mind and people can learn from her story.
Monday, December 7, 2009
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I've had a little different perception of this saying. I think by this phrase she (Kathy) is separating her world with the rest of us. She aknowledges that her life is different, and she has no way of knowing what is our life feels/seems like. She says that because she never had an opportunity to live in our world, see what we see, feel what we feel, and yet by that phrase, it seems like, she wants to know/feel/see all that. It's like this is my story, what is yours?
ReplyDeleteI think it's important for these things to be conveyed, because this story is an allusion/analogy to our present world.. Because we , I mean people who live in the world with accessable and affordable goods, services, advanced medical care, without knowing how it's all becoming possible and accessable to us. There are many horrible things happening in other worlds like famine, starvation, ruined environments, wars, etc.. Some of those horrible things may have happened, so we could have what we have. Some of us may realize that and still don't want to think about it and talk about it. Because it's all good as long as we and our significant others are healthy and happy..