Essay on What Is Hailsham in ‘Never Let Me Go’

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Never Let Me Go is set in a dystopian world of late 1990s England, in which human clones are created, so they can donate their organs as young adults. It gives a thought to the issue of organ donation. The organ donors are obtained from human clones. Never Let Me Go – tells about the lives of cloned children, who have to donate their organs when they are adults. All donors receive care from designated ‘carers’, clones who have not yet begun the – donation process. The clones continue to donate organs until they ‘complete’, which – is a euphemism for death, after the donation of three or four organs. The novel explains the time at which the world legalized organ donors of human clones. Although Kathy’s narration is often nonlinear, the novel’s three parts roughly align with three stages in Kathy’s life. In part one Kathy remembers her childhood at Hailsham. She describes her friendship with Ruth, whose temperamental personality contrasts with her quiet demeanor. At Hailsham, Ruth often annoys Kathy by pretending to have special knowledge and privileges. Kathy also describes Tommy, a student known for throwing violent temper tantrums. Tommy is initially an outcast among his peers because he lacks artistic ability, which the Hailsham staff and its students value highly. Part 2 covers Kathy’s two or three years at cottages from age 16 to about 18 or 19. Part three comes up to the present and covers the latter stages of Kathy’s caring years. All of this 03 counted with frequent time shifts asking at the seams to sort and share her memories, although Ishiguro is being very selective as she drives backward and forward across the years.

In the beginning, Kathy. H merely introduces herself as a 30-year-old carer. She has been a carer for nearly 12 years. She was trying to boast about herself in the name of her job. She says that her patient’s recovery times have been impressive and hardly any of them have been classified as ‘agitated’ even before the fourth donation. When driving around the country, she still sees things that will remind her of Hailsham. Then, she recaps those memories. At first, she reminds their sports pavilion where they used to hang out with their friends. The pavilion was big enough to take two separate groups without bothering each other, a third group could hang out on the veranda. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy stayed at the cottages. They also lived with two other donors named Chrissie and Rodney. They had already been living at the cottages. Although the students learn vaguely about the donation program, their guardians shield them from a full understanding of their future. A guardian, named Miss Lucy disagrees with this indirect approach, and often exhibits strange behavior in front of the students as a result, in one instance telling them explicitly about their future. After Miss Lucy speaks with Tommy about his artwork, he and Kathy theorize that creativity may be connected to donations. They speculate about Madame, a woman who visits Hailsham to collect the best student artwork. Madame’s rumored to keep this art in a personal gallery. Kathy later encounters them in the girls’ dormitory, While Kathy dances to the song Never Let Me Go. The song is Kathy’s favorite track on Songs After Dark, a Judy Bridgewater album that is one of her most prized possessions. when the song ends, Kathy sees Madame Crying in the doorway. Shortly afterward, Kathy loses her tape. Tommy’s temper returns during their last summer at Hailsham. Kathy thinks that he’s upset about his recent breakup with Ruth, Whom he has dated for six months. But Tommy is upset about Miss Lucy, who recently told him that he was wrong to dismiss the importance of creativity. Miss Lucy departs Hailsham abruptly and Tommy mends his relationship with Ruth.

In Part 2, Kathy moves with Ruth and Tommy to where transitional housing facility known as a cottage. They are just to their new lives, becoming acquainted with the ‘veteran’ students living there already. Ruth Often ignores Tommy and Kathy in her efforts to blend in with the veterans, who are not from Hailsham. Kathy notices that the veterans regard the Hailsham students with awe. One couple, Christy and Rodney, are especially interested in Hailsham. They convince Ruth to go with them to Norfolk, where Rodney claims to have seen Ruth’s ‘possible’ in an open-plan office (a ‘possible’ is a human that resembles a specific clone and from whom that clone’s DNA may have been copied). Kathy is skeptical of Rodney’s story, especially since it features Ruth’s ‘dream future’ of working in an open-plan office. In the end, Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, Rodney, and Chrissie – all drive to Norfolk.

In Norfolk, Chrissy and Rodney ask about a rumored exception allowing Hailsham couples in love- to defer their donations. Ruth pretense do you know something about deferrals, which surprises Kathy and Tommy? The students eventually find the open-plan office. Rodney points to a woman in the window and they all agree that she could be Ruth’s legitimate possible. They follow her to an art gallery, where they realize that the woman does not resemble Ruth. In her disappointment, Ruth says that the students are modeled only on ‘trash’. Ruth – goes off with Chrissie and Rodney. Meanwhile, Tommy and Kathy find a copy of Kathy’s lost tape in a second-hand store. Tommy tells Kathy that he has begun drawing pictures of imaginary animals. He thinks Madame uses the student’s artwork to determine if couples applying for deferrals are truly in love. Tommy shows his drawings to Kathy who finds them puzzling but captivating. Meanwhile, Kathy’s friendship with Ruth grows increasingly tense. Ruth reveals that she knows that – Kathy likes Tommy, but says that Tommy will never return Kathy’s feelings. Shortly afterward, Kathy submits her application for carer training and departs.

Part three focuses on Kathy’s time as a carer. While Kathy is good at her job, – the work is both difficult and lonely. She unexpectedly runs into a Hailsham friend named Laura, who is also a carer. They talk about Ruth, who had a bad first donation. They also talk about Hailsham, which has closed. Kathy becomes Ruth’s carer, but their relationship is strained and guarded. One day, Ruth expresses a desire to visit a beached fishing boat near Tommy’s recovery center. They pick up Tommy on the way to the boat, which they find bleached and crumbling in a marsh. The marsh reminds both Tommy and Ruth of Hailsham. – They also discussed Chrissie, who completed- her second donation. On the return trip, Ruth apologizes for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart. She encourages them to pursue a deferral, revealing that she has discovered Madame’s home address. In the weeks that follow, Kathy and Ruth reminisce – peacefully about Hailsham and the cottages. Ruth also encourages Kathy to become Tommy’s carer.

Ruth completes after her second donation. Tommy gives his third donation, and Kathy becomes his carer. They spend their days reading and talking at his recovery center. Eventually, they also begin to have sex. Hoping to pursue a deferral, they go to visit Madame at the address Ruth provided. Madame invites them inside and listens to their request, after which Miss Emily appears from the next room. Miss Emily says that deferrals do not exist. She explains that Hailsham was – part of a progressive movement committed to raising clones more humanely. Madame used to exhibit the student’s artwork to show the outside world that clones had souls. Although the movement once had many supporters, changing public opinion eventually forced Hailsham to close. On the drive back to his recovery center, Tommy asks Kathy to pull over. He walks into the woods and begins screaming. Kathy goes to Tommy and holds him. Soon after, Tommy gives his fourth donation and completes it. Kathy drives to a field in Norfolk, where she allows herself to imagine Tommy on the horizon. Then she drives away. At the end of the story, Kathy said that although she lost both her friends, she would never lose their memories with them in Hailsham.

Never Let Me Go – is – an amazing novel with Ishiguro explaining the relationships of individuals under a short time limit, with the knowledge that they do not have long to live. Even though the characters Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth know their fate, but they fall in love and hope for an extension of life. But neither love nor art can redeem them from the inevitable fate that the supremely sophisticated medical science has invented for Kathy’s friends are now all dead and she will embark on her path to the same fate in just a few months – nearly 12 years as a carer means that she knows precisely what the final stage of her life involves. The last paragraph of the novel reveals the absurdity of the days gone and of the vagueness of the days – yet to be lived. Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.

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