There are countless “coming of age” stories within our culture. Most of us have seen Disney Channel Original Movies, read sappy teenie-romance novels, or experienced some other sort of media production that captures the journey a character from youth to adulthood. The vast majority of these pieces of literature attempt to show some sort of growth usually from the “ugly duckling”, and through good morals and usually a quircky best friend, the transformation into the “beautiful swan.” Kazou Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go offers an extremely unique look at this literary genre.
The repetition of the phrase “I don’t know how it is where you are but…” throughout Ishiguro’s novel helps encompasses many of the reasons his book differs from previous coming of age tales. For one, it reveals the extreme uncertainty of the narrator, Kathy, in determining not only who she is, as in classic coming of age stories, but also WHAT she is. The narrator is drawing a distinct separation between herself and the readers of this book. When Kathy reuses that phrase and states “We certainly knew-though not in any deep sense-that we were different from our guardians, and also from the normal people outside” (69). This is the author both showing that she does not fully understand her situation, but certainly proves it may be similar but definitely not exactly the same as the reader’s. This is what makes Never Let Me Go’s perspective so unique.
Not only does the phrase I don’t know how it is where you are but…” that there is a separation between “us” the readers of the story, like myself and other humans, and the “them” of the story, which are the distinctly different (yet eerily similar) to the clones. Most of all though, the phrase acknowledges the “it” of the story which in my opinion encompasses the emotions, feeling, and memories that both “us” and “them” experience in our lives. It is clear to me that the “us” in this story are supposed to pull away similarities in Kathy’s upbringing and our own. It is hard to read this story and not reminisce about my own elementary life. But once the author grows, we become more detached from “them’s” lifestyles but still throughout the book there are strong resemblances of our own lives. I think we as readers are supposed to draw opinions on love, friendship, and how we treat each other from perspective of a non-human. It is so strange but still so familiar!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
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I think you make a really interesting distinction between this book and the other coming of age tales that I didn't think about while reading this book. What's interesting though, is that like you mention, even though I can't relate to the experience of trying to determine "what" I am, I did find it fairly easy to relate to Kathy's story. While she tries to ake the distinction like you point out,I think that it only works out to a certain extent because everyone has felt alienated at one point or another.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you use a comparison that every one of us has heard about, but I personally never related that to this story. It is funny how relevant it is even though this is such a different book, and you definitely make that point well. I also think that it's interesting that you point out how we are supposed to feel love and friendship as a non-human. This story really tells how there were a few people that couldn't let the "donors" grow up to die; they wanted to show that they are people, they had souls. This story shows things from two different perspectives, and I think we become, at the end, become more sympathetic to the side taht is trying to help the donors, because we are human, and we obviously feel its taboo to "harvest" people.
ReplyDeleteThis story is very screwed up, but I love that you can see it in a very contemporary way, and its gives a very new perspective on how we can choose to react to eh subject matter.
What a thoughtful post! I never thought of many of the points you brought up. I was so focused on trying to figure out what the big secret was the whole time I was reading that I never really paid too much attention to some of the other things going on. It's interesting how you relate Kathy's (and Tommy and Ruth's) life story to Disney Channel Movies and the Ugly Duckling. YOu are right, though, their story is one of transition- from elementary to adolescent, then adolescent to young adult, and young to mature adults. I think it is thoughtful the way you interpreted her repetition of the phrase. I thought it was just because she was trying to help the readers relate, but I think you're thoughts on it- how she is trying to determine who and what she is- seem pretty accurate. Finally, I like your interpretation of Us, Them and IT. I thought of different things, but I like how you labeled It as everyones emotions and feelings. I think this is very insightful.
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