Never Let Me Go Essays (by Kazuo Ishiguro)

Never let me go is a dystopian science fiction novel published in 2005 which was written by Kazuo Ishiguro, a author born in Japan (Nagasaki). At the age five, he moved to with his parents in 1960 thus giving him influence for the awards winning novel ‘Never Let Me Go’.

Through the eyes of Karl Marx,in a capitalist society,the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat,which enlarges social class division as the oppressed ultimately remain at the hands of the oppressors with very little levels of freedom under all the scrutiny.This refers to Hailsham,which is an special educational institution removed away from the outside world that is monitored by the Guardians and in society the students are objectified as dehumanised products in order to carry out certain societal needs but,Hailsham raised clones in humanely ways,in order to allow the students to come to an acceptance with the internalisation brought upon them,as they have been socialised into a set of norms and values different from the outside world.

On one hand, the students know themselves,that they retain a very small amount of freedom which cannot be changed,as they have been very isolated and confined under Hailsham for a long period of time.This is due to the fact that,they are deemed as exceedingly valuable because the Guardians prevent them from being harmed in order to preserve their health for the future in order to carry out the role of efficient donors.Miss Lucy states that It’s just as well the fences at Hailsham aren’t electrified. You get terrible accidents sometimes.

In order words,this infers that the electrified fences are put in place to act as a form of deterrence,in order to scaremonger the students from escaping and entering the outside world without physically inflicting any sort of pain on them that could cause any damage to their functioning organs.However,it seems that Miss Lucy is referring to the past where curiosity got the best of some Hailsham students resulting in terrible accidents that have been left untold by no explanation was given of the truth behind what really happened.

On the other hand,the cottages that Kathy,Ruth and Tommy arrive at, symbolise the metamorphosis between childhood and adulthood,however their freedom is still limited at the cottages even whilst growing up,but not as much as they withheld at Hailsham School.Now that the Hailsham students are living at the Cottages,it gives them the ability in order to choose whether to travel by driving and explore Norfolk the lost corner of if they pleased in doing so,without a restriction being placed upon them.Ruth states that we could always go and find it again in Norfolk which infers that she views this limited amount of freedom as an objectification for a considerable amount of comfort that she sort of relies on to keep her from carrying out the societal needs that are inflicted upon her due to the fact that,she believes that when they all have grown up there will be a time where they will be no longer placed under the barriers of hegemonic control,giving them the freedom to be humans and allowing them to decipher their own futures.

The clones are put into a capitalist society in order to in the end only provide organs for the bourgeoisie middle class without question,due to primary socialisation at Hailsham School making them feel a sense of humanity as clones by allowing them to create art which inturn expresses their creativity as an individual however, in reality the art acts as a distraction (hidden curriculum) to differ their minds away from rebelling and questioning their fates that are already written in stone before they had even first set foot on earth your lives are set out for you.

This contrasts to the Handmaids in the Handmaid’s Tale which is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood, as whereas the clones in ‘Never Let Me Go’ are seen as organ banks, the Handmaids are seen as walking wombs and in turn both have been the victims of ideological exploitation by the ruling-elite in dystopian societies.

The clones are degraded towards others in society,which causes the widening of social class division,as this inturn strengthens the control that Hailsham has over them,resulting in the students becoming passive and allowing them to come to acception with their fates as they do not not acquire any concept of a world in which they can escape Their circumstances seem normal to them therefore they feel a sense of duty-Kazuo Ishiguro.

Also,the people the clones were modelled on (possibles) were part of the proletariat class in society,which could have had an effect on the studentsclones attitudes and views towards the dystopian society they are in as they fail to discover liberation because they lack perspective which resembles the attitudes and views of the working-class in a capitalist society who accept that they cannot be on a par with the middle-class in society as they lack economic capital.