This book is probably one of the best representations of multiple them’s and us’s that change frequently throughout the story. The reoccurring words of “I don’t know how it is where you were, but...” makes me think of a collective of people, all being brought up in different places and taught different things. And, as you finish the book, it makes almost complete sense. There were two kinds of places a “student” could be brought up in Kath’s time: a place that valued the “students,” that cared for them, or a place that, as it says, put the donors into shadow and made them inhumane. Here is one representation of us and them; in Kath’s view at the end of the book, Hailsham is an “us” whereas the other places were a “them”.
Maybe this makes no sense whatsoever, but the point I am trying to make, I guess, is that there are so many us/them/it/him/her possibilities in every situation, and it can change at a moments notice. Even at the end of the book, one moment Kath is combining Tommy and herself into an “us” category by not driving on “the big glittering motorways with their huge signs and super cafes [that] were for everyone else,” and the next moment she is being “divided...of yet again, not just from all the other donors, but from [Tommy] and Ruth.”
And I guess I am also trying to say that Kath’s intended audience, I would like to think it’s anyone who feels different, or thinks different, is being persuaded to except whatever group you are put in, and that you can’t fight it. Maybe its best just to leave it alone. Which is completely depressing in its own right, and also agrees with the entire tone of the novel as a simple, disturbing story with a simple, disturbing end.
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You make a great point. There is a constantly changing perspective of us, them, and it within this story. It's all a matter of perspective and throughout the story Kathy's perspective constantly changes. That's sort of how it is for me within my life though. Sometimes I have people that I think I associate with whether it was friends in elementary school that grew apart from me and now we live completely different lifestyles. Maybe for someone it is an ex-boy/girlfriend, where they used to be the ultimate "us" but now after a nasty breakup they are the ultimate "them" to each other. It gives me you something to think about.
ReplyDeleteI definitely got the feeling of us, them, and its that change through out the book at one point or another. One of combinations I felt that there could have been depending on where I was in the story were students of Hailsham, the other non-experimental donors, and non-donors. Then I felt as if it could have been those to are fighting for the humane treatment of clones and those who continue to see them as inhuman.
ReplyDeleteI really got lost in who was us, them, and it. I think you are totally right in that all these are changing throughout the whole book. I could be wrong but at one point I felt that Tommy was a part of "them" for awhile until Kathy brings him in. I couldn't make out whether or not people outside hailsham were it or them. I think in my oppinion what Kathy wanted to do was with all the shifting in roles maybe she was trying to address a broad scope of people and maybe those that were it or them could be us potentially.
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