grade 9 ideas Flashcards
ishiguros language
elements of science fiction juxtaposed with colloquial language as to normalise the violent, extraordinary actions
legal system ideas
ishiguro positing ideas about the legal system and ethics - would the utilitarian principle of sacrificing one life in order to save five others be a profitable approach for the law to adopt or would it be a harmful and dangerous approach
the clones themselves + art
the clones are reduced to their bare life as only their physical and biological integrity are being paid attention to. clones are exiled from society living in Hailsham and without knowledge of purpose in it
the art provides proof of personhood and so art preserves not only human dignity but human life
Giorgio Agamben’s concept of homo sacer
the way Ishiguro presents clones has many parallels with Giorgio’s Agamben’s concept of the homo sacer - we as human beings as subjects are the embodiement of the homo sacer. just like the homo sacer kathy and her clones have to donate their organs and die without anyone in society disapproving
the medicals
medicals to check their vital organs were still healthy and functioning, this may suggest how selfish we are as a society as we will do anything to help ourselves.
we never see what happens if a clone was to have unhealthy organs which perhaps implies how easily this could be hidden or to show how much control the dystopian society has over the clones as they instil fear into them so they don’t drink or smoke, suppressing their desires.
world war 2
hailsham like the WW2 concentration camps - held like prisoners
the nazis did horrific experiments on humans without their consent and killed and sterilised those considered substandard. like this, all clones are sterilised and organs harvested without their consent. teachers taught jewish captors to express themselves through art before taken up to gas chambers and this was collected and this is extremely similar to nlmg and the importance of art
social determinism
clones at the bottom of society compared to humans
literary allusions
the clones are like Frankenstein - how scientific progress can be taken too far and result in downfall and corruption. the monster doesn’t have any family very isolated
Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World have settings that are intended to be futuristic with the past only referenced in order to create a sense of distance with the present, similar to NLMG hailsham
rights and ethics
deontological rights and ontological ethics - do clones have rights or are the similar to animals in the societal hierarchy
corrupt government
corrupt government controls its citizens of society through propaganda - propagandist language ‘completion’ and the government uses the clones for their benefit but they don’t want to see it happen - hailsham away from everything
ishiguro’s purpose
wrote NLMG to imply that our minds have been conditioned to work in one way, the only acceptable way through society’s eyes.
this is demonstrated through the exclusion of the clones, they’re manufactured or as dystopian society puts it ‘completion’
