Books: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishigura

“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro is a first person narrative told from the point of view by the protagonist Kathy H. At first, I thought the last name characterized by an initial, such as H., was an homage to Franz Kafka, but these simple identifications and other clues pulled me into the story.

Kathy is working as a carer and she is taking care of a childhood friend Ruth who was a donor. Kathy reminisces about their lives at Hailsham. Tommy is the third major character of the novel.

I thought it was interesting how Ishiguro used the word “carer” to describe Kathy’s profession instead of health aide, a term I am more familiar with. The term “donor” did not set off any alarms, but the author used the word “guardians” instead of teachers or professors. I started to suspect Hailsham was not a typical academy. This was not Hogwarts, my initial comparison, and these were not average students. Furthermore, the children never left the school grounds.

I also noticed the Kathy, Ruth, Tommy, et al, never had contact with the outside world.

The next word that raised my suspicions was “donations.” Miss Lucy, a guardian, said to Tommy that, “We weren’t being taught enough… about us… What’s going to happen to us one day. Donations and all that.”

The final clue that lead me to think these characters were unique was how Kathy never mentioned her parents. In fact none of the characters mentioned their parents. My first guess was that they were orphans, but Ishiguro discloses later that the children are clones.

I liked the way the author used simple words to create a mood. The words “carer” “donor” “donations” and “guardians,” the absence of last names provided enough clues for me to deduce Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were being raised so that their healthy organs could be harvested and transplanted into individuals with unhealthy internal organs. Hailsham is really a clone farm.

Ishiguro gave enough information for me to put together the narrative thread of the novel. The author was not afraid to challenge the reader.

The disclosure that Kathy and the others were clones did not end the suspense. I was waiting for one of the characters to assert themselves and rebel, or at least walk away from the destiny. It was frustrating, not in the “I hate this book” sense, how Kathy, Ruth and Tommy accepted their fates. I kept hoping Kathy would drive off and start a new life for herself, but she never did.

I found it interesting how the clones were not uber-men. Ruth was internally unpredictable, and very fickle. She could be close to Kathy in one moment, then angry with her immediately after, and then act as if nothing happened to make her angry.

Ruth was also cold, calculating and selfish. She knew Kathy had issues controlling her sex drive. Kathy thought it was because she was cloned from a porn model. Ruth could have told her she had the same problems. Instead, she allowed Kathy to believe there was something wrong with her.

Also, Ruth kept Tommy for herself, knowing Kathy would have been a better partner for him.

Tommy was prone to tantrums and fits of rage. He also could not draw and did not have any artistic talent. He also appeared to be slow-witted. Ruth used to make fun of him and talked down to him.

Ishiguro created a credible dystopian world in which humans decided to create, what they thought, an inferior form of life to exploit in order to prolong their lives and cure diseases. They were inferior because they did not have souls. The clones are called “students” to make them feel like part of society, but Miss Emily and Madame call them “poor creatures.”

The clones were never misinformed. They understood and accepted their purpose. They are taught to believe donating organs is their purpose in society. Society even created a euphemism for their death. If a clone dies in the process of donating organs, then it has “completed,” as in completed its purpose.

The clones were not only exploited for their organs. As children, they were encouraged to draw and write poetry. Their works, the ones that were judged to be exceptional, were sent to the gallery. At first, I thought Hailsham was selling the artwork to fund the school’s expenses. I was wrong. Instead, the artwork was used to promote the quality of clones that were being produced.

In a scene late in the novel, Miss Emily expressed society’s perception of superiority over the clones. “We’re all afraid of you. I myself had to fight back my dread of you almost every day I was at Hailsham. There were times when I looked down at you from my study window and I’d feel such revulsion…”

Notice how the author frames Miss Emily’s hatred in the last sentence, “I looked down at you… I’d feel such revulsion.” Racism is based fear. She is the personification of this dystopian society.

Miss Emily’s contempt for Kathy and Tommy is also demonstrated when she talks about other clone farms and how the “students” are raised in deplorable conditions. Miss Emily’s argument reminded me of the argument rationalizing slavery. Slave masters would argue African American slaves had a better life in the United States than their “uncivilized” native countries.

And that is how I started to see “Never Let Me Go,” as a metaphor for immigrants living in a new society. I’ve never visited England, and cannot testify to the quality of life of recent immigrants.

But I am a child of immigrants in this country. Puerto Ricans are American citizens by an act of Congress, but we are a distinct and separate culture.

My parents came to New York City in the 1950’s and they settled in a Puerto Rican enclave in lower Manhattan. My father’s uncle was married to my mother’s aunt and that is how they met.

This is the first step towards integration into American society, settling in an community with other Puerto Ricans who have lived longer in New York City, like the “veterans” in the novel. Becoming a citizen is a process. The “veterans” teach the new arrivals about the new country, will help them find jobs, and direct the new arrivals to community organizations, like settlement houses, that will teach them how to be American citizens.

But the novel implies there is another aspect to being different from the greater society. The clones do not interact with anyone else, except for anyone who is connected to Hailsham. The “donors” are taken care of by the “carers.”

The clones are invisible. There is a sense of alienation. Society deliberately keeps the clones in the shadows. Kathy and Tommy do not feel alienated because they do not have a point of reference. They have a child-like innocence. They believe society is protecting their best interest, but are not fully aware they are being exploited. Furthermore, they are discouraged from leading normal lives.

Immigrants associate within their own groups, and sometimes are on the periphery of society. Society exploits them for their labor. We don’t notice them until immigrants start demanding their rights. Afterwards, they become a societal problem and a threat.

Even within the clones, there is social stratification. Ruth and Tommy keep reminding Kathy she is not a “donor.” If she was a “donor,” then Kathy would be able to understand them better.

I’ve often read immigrants in Europe have had a harder time integrating, compared to immigrants in the US. I thought the novel was sad, and if the author’s experience growing up in England lead to this novel, then “Never Let Me Go” is even sadder.

Books: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Having read “No Country For Old Men,” I was familiar with Cormac McCarthy’s writing style. “The Road” was not as disorienting as the other novel because I was already accustomed to reading McCarthy’s style – the absence of quotation marks.

The point of view (POV) in “The Road” is clear. The transition from narrative to dialogue and back to narrative is easy to follow.

“The Road” is a post-apocalyptic novel. Mr. McCarthy does not explain the chain of events that led to the setting, but there are hints along the way as we follow the man and the boy to their destination – the coast.

Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” reinforces the concept that less is more. Mr. McCarthy did not embellish the setting in the beginning of the novel to create a sense of place. He gradually added layers so that the reader had a complete sense of time and place by the end.

There is the constant presence of ash. The atmosphere is covered in ash. The boy was not even born when the disaster occurred, but years later the ash has not dissipated. The disaster was not a local phenomenon, but a worldwide calamity.

The narrator said, “The clocks stopped at 1:17.” Whatever caused this post-apocalyptic world was sudden and powerful enough to disrupt society. The man did not have time to plan for it.

The man and the boy encounter incinerated bodies indicating people were killed where they stood with little time to flee from the disaster. The fully stocked bomb shelter also indicates the suddenness of the calamity. The owner of the shelter did not have enough to time to seek refuge.

There is the complete absence of life, except for humans and the occasional stray dog. No birds, cattle, horses, reptiles, and insects. Either these life forms perished in the disaster, or were consumed by the survivors.

Towards the ends of the novel, the man and the boy walk through what appears to be a major city. The narrator mentions melted glass on a building, and this is a clue indicating the blast originated in the major city. The narrator also mentions melted rubber tires, another indication of extreme heat.

These clues provide a sense of place, where the man and boy lived relative to the disaster. They lived on the outskirts of the blast radius, and were walking through the epicenter of the devastation.

The sparse language added to the desolate environment. The road was deserted. The trees were bare. Life was burned off. Mr. McCarthy did not have to embellish the setting. He let the sparse language define the sparse setting.

The dialogue between the man and the boy also reflected the desolation. They are exhausted, starving, struggling to survive. There is almost nothing left to say except, “We have each other.”

Mr. McCarthy does not give proper names to the main characters. They are known as the man and the boy. They see the world as a struggle between good guys versus bad guys. The good guys could be simply defined as people who will not eat other people. The bad guys are cannibals. In this world, there is no political or economic ideology to fight over, just humans who will resort to barbarism just to survive.

The absence of proper names does not mean the characters lack depth. The boy was born and raised into this post-apocalyptic world. However, he was instilled with values, specifically respect for human life.

The man is mostly concerned with their survival, but the boy is concerned for health of the man who was hit by lightning, the old man and the thief. The man continues on his journey, but the boy tries to remind the man of his humanity.

The boy wants to help the man who was hit by lightning, but the man says, “He’s going to die anyway.” The boy refuses to believe the best course is to walk away from a person who is dying.

The boy wants to share some food with the old man. At first, the man refuses, then he agrees, but says the old man cannot spend the night with them. The man relents and agrees to share a meal with the old man.

Their meager property was stolen and the man and the boy catch the thief. The man degrades the thief by making him undress and turning over his clothes and shoes. The boy protests. He argues that they retrieved their property, and there is no need to take his clothes. The boy is concerned over the safety of the thief.

The man tells the boy they are the good guys because they are carrying the fire. The fire represents the best of humanity. The man said he would not live if the boy dies because his sense of humanity would die with the boy.

In a sense, the ash, the road and death are secondary characters and constant companions. The ash speaks to and reminds the man and the boy about the level of destruction. The road is the only hope they have for survival. Death hovers over the man and the boy because it is the only solution they have if they encounter and outnumbered by evil.

“The Road” is a metaphor of the present. We are not cannibalizing each other in order to survive, but we are consuming ourselves through greed, and sometimes it feels like we are losing our humanity.

But, just as the boy kept his humanity in a post-apocalyptic world, we can be comforted in knowing that as young people expose themselves to different ethnic groups, different ideas, different lifestyles, they will become immune to the various isms that threaten to destroy us as a species.

The ending is controversial. The man mentioned the boy carried the fire, and the fire represents humanity. The man lost a portion of his humanity because of his concern over the boy’s safety. The safety of others is not a consideration.

The boy was born and raised in this world, but the man instilled the value of life into the boy. The man may have forgotten, but the boy constantly reminded him of his lost humanity.

The man is suspicious of others, but the boy has an innate sense of who to trust. It was the boy who told the man not to enter the house where the captives were held. The boy wanted to join the other boy because he wanted to be around someone his own age, someone he could relate to. He did not believe the other boy was a threat. The boy wanted to be part of a community and not a wandering nomad.

In the end, the boy had to make a “gut” judgment call, and go with the other man, based on that man’s word that he had a family of his own. The boy trusted his instincts and joined the family.

Mr. Vives, (my 10th grade science teacher in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico), said there is no such thing as a perfect extinction, a situation everything completely dies out. Something always survives.

The cannibals would eventually become extinct because cannibalism would not be able to sustain itself, but the community the boy sought had a better chance of thriving because community is based on shared sacrifice and burdens.

Maybe that was Cormac McCarthey’s message. Man can survive the apocalypse as long as man retains his humanity.

The question is, can we find our humanity to prevent the apocalypse.