Sean, a couple weeks ago in class we started discussing the book Never Let Me Go. We were on the topic of the Ruth, Kathy, and Tommy and Hailsham when you said, “Why the hell don’t they just leave?” Your tone made it sound so obvious that they should leave Hailsham. I agreed with you because I read the entire book and knew what was in store for the three children. But within seconds after you said that people were responding with reasons why they would not want to leave. The three children, along with other children at Hailsham, were essentially in Heaven. Why would anyone want to leave a place like the Garden of Eden? After looking at the triptych in class last night it reminded me of your quote. Everyone looked so joyous and peaceful in the first phase of that picture but things got dramatically worse in phase two, earth. In the last phase, Hell, people were definitely against each other and two sides were separated. If the people in the first phase had any clue what they were getting themselves into, they would obviously want to leave. But children in phase one basically get “hypnotized” into believing what they are told by a higher level of hierarchy.
What you said, “Why the hell don’t they just leave,” makes me think about different media and real life situations. So many popular movies and books follow a different triptych then Never Let Me Go. Rather then starting in Heaven, going to earth, and ending in Hell, popular books and movies start in Heaven, go through earth and come back to Heaven. In popular movies and books why the fell would they want to leave Heaven early in their lives if they are going to end up there? The more bogus a story is now the more popular it becomes. Stories that end with a tragic death or sadness are ones that rarely reach high levels of popularity among society. Is it because people in our current day and time are so blind to realize what they are going through?
I am sure many elderly people think, “why the hell don’t they just leave,” towards the younger generation. They have gone through Heaven and earth and are currently retired and bored with their lives (stuck in Hell). But our generation hears this from people either living in Hell or the end of their earth phase and chose not to believe it. We are already hypnotized by what media and society wants us to believe that we do not want to hear what our elders have to say. I always hear adults talking about how they just want to retire and be done working. Why would they want to leave earth and go to Hell? High school students always say they cannot wait to get to college, or college students talking about getting into the real world. The media portrays these different stages in life as progressively getting better, when realistically it is the start to a slow death.
Joey,
ReplyDeleteThis is really great insight. The idea of Kath being afraid to leave due to the fact that she had already experienced a heaven-like arena makes complete sense. Why would she want to go farther out on her own if in fact Halsham was her personal heaven and the more she separates from there the worst her life gets? This seems like a more than adequate answer to that question. For argument’s sake though, I will say that maybe if Kathy had the courage to run from her preset lifestyle and attempted to live life in her own terms she could have found happiness somewhere out “there.” Of course, you could then argue that she had already found paradise at Halsham (and seeming they mysteriously cannot every find their way back there) then no matter what she will never find the happiness she once had when she was younger.
Also, the fact that you tied my actual words of “why the HELL didn’t she just leave,” with an actual heaven, earth, and hell is brilliant. Your point would have been valid had you even paraphrased my statement by saying “why didn’t the clones just leave?” But, you tied my literal words with a more abstract meaning of the same word! This is seriously incredible work! Joey, you should be proud of this post.