Never Let Me Go Essay On Identity

Finding identity is a difficult task that anyone faces; some triumph and discover their true selves while others find themselves in a hole, clutching onto anything that gives them a sense of identity. In the case of Kathy, the protagonist of the novel Never Let Me Go, the crisis of identity is a prevalent one. Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go vividly tells the story of Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, students of Hailsham, who were created purely to donate their vital organs. Kathy faces the issue of identity because she is a clone, stripped of any real human identity; she is viewed as walking organs. Sadly, unless Kathy is to overthrow science and its advancements, there is no pragmatic solution to her dilemma due to humanity’s unwillingness
One of the most important requirements in Hailsham, a school specifically designed for donors, is to be creative. Early on, the idea that students at Hailsham create art in order to have tangible personalities is introduced early on. When talking about this topic, Kathy remarks, “regarded at Hailsham, how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good you were at creating [...]” (Pg. 16). In order to have an identity that is unique, Kathy felt that the only way to achieve that was to be creative. Hailsham goes even farther to enact identities among the students with sales. Kathy states that sales were important because, “that was how we got hold of things from outside” (Pg. 41), through sales and tokens, a currency Hailsham students would use to buy other students’ art, students developed collections. Through the collections, Kathy would attempt to conjure up an identity she could call her own. She went as far as bringing her collection with her once she left Hailsham in an attempt to have something that she could represent herself. Kathy always attempts to find an identity through material items. Later on in the novel, Kathy moves on to seek an identity related to Hailsham itself. She finds that if anything, she is distinctive through being a Hailsham student. She recognizes this when she says, “[...] all the students who’d grown up with me and were now spread across the country,
Kathy’s only solution is to overthrow science and its’ achievement in cloning, but that is infeasible due to all the benefits cloning has provided modern society. When Kathy and Tommy go to Madame’s house in hope to get a deferral for donations, they were met with the hold truth from Miss Emily; she discusses the ethics behind the donations and comments, “‘Suddenly there were all these new possibilities laid before us, all these ways to cure so many previously incurable conditions. [...] There was no way to reverse the process. How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to go back to the dark days? There was no going back. However uncomfortable people were about your existence, their overwhelming concern was that their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends did not die from cancer, motor neurone disease, heart disease”’ (Pg. 262-263). Once the idea that clones could save lives, there was no destroying it. Although people were uncomfortable and unsure, as noted by Miss Emily, they were able to look beyond the ethics for the sake of themselves and their loved ones. Despite how much Kathy attempted to become her own person, it would never last because at the end of the day, she is still due for donations and cannot escape that. The donations that she