Analogies to Racism in Never Let Me Go

               Race is not significant in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.  We don’t know the races of the main characters and side characters alike, with the only clue we can go on would be the cover of the book, which I assume is Kathy.  Instead, the only perceivable difference between people in the dystopian society of Never Let Me Go is that of clone and human.  So what are the differences between clones and humans?  They have emotions, desires, and relationships just like humans do.  Biologically, their organs are similar enough to be used in transplants.  They would even have the same lifespans (I would assume from their similar rate of aging) if it wasn’t for organ donations.  The guardian, Miss Emily, even affirms this saying that Hailsham “demonstrated to the world that if students were reared in humane, cultivated environments, it was possible for them to grow up as sensitive and intelligent as any ordinary human being” (Ishiguro 261).  The only differences between clones and humans are those imposed by society or humans, much like racism in the real world.  In this post, I wanted to highlight some analogies I found throughout the novel.

               Firstly, I wanted to discuss how even as children the clones are kept subordinate through normalization of donations and segregation from society.  One of the points we often discussed in class is how clones completely accept their fate without question.  This comes from a sort of brainwashing that takes place throughout their “education”.  Since the clones are segregated from society as children, their idea of how the world works is entirely molded by their masters, the guardians.  Their reality and purpose as organ donors are introduced to them gradually early in their lives as:

“the guardians had, throughout all our years at Hailsham, timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us, so that we were too young to understand properly the latest piece of information [. . .] but of course we'd take it in at some level, so that before long all this stuff was there in our heads without us ever having examined it properly” (82).

Clones accept their purpose, and even take a disturbing amount of pride in their abilities and skills as donors and carers such as Tommy saying "’I'm really fit, I know how to look after myself. When it's time for donations, I'll be able to do it really well’" (108) or Kathy bragging on the very first page of the novel about how “[Her] donors have always tended to do much better than expected” (3).  The clones’ blindness towards their own abuse is what allows the structural discrimination to proceed without problems in Never Let Me Go.

               The second analogy I’d like to demonstrate would be the metaphor that the Cottages present.  For students of Hailsham, the Cottages are their first taste of some freedom and independence, which goes a long way to prevent them from realizing their status of second-class citizens.  The parallel being drawn here is to migrant camps in Britain around the same time.  The conditions are similarly subpar, with Kathy remembering “a lot of the time, outside of the summer months, being chilly.  You went around with two, even three jumpers on, and your jeans felt cold and stiff” (117).  They are cut off from the outside world with their only human contact being Keffers, a “grumpy old guy” (116) who didn’t offer much at all.  Though rarely mentioned, the “Culture Briefing” classes reminded me of the citizenship tests required of new immigrants to introduce them to the foreign culture.

               I’m sure there are far more analogies throughout the book that I didn’t mention, and I look forward to hearing what everyone comes up with!