Never Let Me Go

--"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day." Albert Einstein--

Reading Never Let Me Go brought me back to the first day of class when we discussed social norms and somehow started listing things that would break social norms, such as showing up to class naked, singing on the desks, or reversing the roles of teacher and students. It was very strange to read from the perspective of growing up with knowledge of the outside world, but never questioning the boundary that contains the Hailsham students. These children are raised to be intelligent and somewhat normal children, but are raised in such a way that even after they leave Hailsham, they never try to escape or make a life different from what they've been 'programmed' to be. In fact, they seem to be stuck in an immature perspective of the functioning of the world (even as grown adults, they think as immature children). This begs the question of whether they ever really have freedom of choice. I obviously stand as an outsider (outside the novel) on the side that thinks raising people for their organs is an unjustifiable practice. And I was very frustrated as I read the novel, as I continuously hoped for just one of the characters to question, or just one of the characters to break out of the assumptions of their world. They even have a method of escape - access to vehicles - and how would anyone be able to tell between a 'normal' human and a 'clone'?

More importantly, the novel brought me back to the question of whether a freak is born or made. On the surface, the clones can be considered as the freaks. True, they are born different, because they are clones destined to be used as organ donors. Yet they are entirely made. They are designed as clones, they are raised as clones, and they are made to be clones. However, it is clear that if one of these clones were to be raised as a normal human, there would be no distinction between him/her and the next human over. Thus, there is nothing less 'freakish' about the humans that contrived this world of clones than the supposed freaks themselves. Perhaps this novel has more to say about the value of the human soul than anything else as the distinction of freak is shattered through the subtle and quiet nature of the text.

The novel places the reader in the view of the Hailsham children, but as soon as the reader steps away from the novel, he or she is placed in a position of the 'other.' While writing the first part of the blog, it dawned on me how frustrated I was over the Hailsham characters never questioning or trying to escape, yet I was much more removed and less frustrated at the idea that humanity could create this mess in the first place. I think it is as this 'other' that I am unable to fully grasp the position of the Hailsham characters; as an other I want freedom for the characters, yet when placed in their shoes through the narration, I still view the world as an other, causing my frustration for their inability to question the world.