Never Let Me Go Flashcards
“We’re modeled from trash. Junkies, prostitues, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren’t psychos”
Ruth- in Norfolk, after discovering the office woman was nor her possible.
believes no respectable person would allow themselves to be cloned.
shows ruths low self esteem
“My name is Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years.”
lack of last name shows that the clones do not have a family, anything to link themselves to, encourages their lack of identity
“Ruth was standing just in front of me, so I couldn’t see her face, but her whole posture froze up. Then, without a word, she turned and pushed past me out of the cottage. I got a glimpse of her face then, and that’s when I realised how upset she was.”
Ruth when it seems as though the trip to norfolk to try and find her possible might not happen - she is extremely disappointed as part of her still believes that seeing her possible would reveal a part of who she was - which would help her strengthen her own identity and feel more unique.
“Looking back now, I can see why the Exchanges were so important to us. For a start, they were our only means, aside from the sales… of building up our own personal possessions.”
students attempt to personalise reinforces the fact that they are looking for ways to add individuality to their lives, as they realise this will help them create their own identities.
“Jackie’s giraffes,” Ruth said with a laugh. “They were so beautiful. I used to have one.”
Jackie became known for her ‘beautiful’ giraffes. this allowed her to have her own identity, and so it is easy to see why her peers would want the same for themselves. since the clones don’t even have individual surname, to be known to others for a particular talent would allow them to have their own identity for the first time.
“is she afraid of you? We’re all afraid of you. I myself had to fight back my dread of you all almost every day I was at Hailsham. There were times I’d look down at you all from my study window and feel such revulsion…”
Miss Emily, who was the closest thing the clones had to a parental figure, admitted to being disgusted and afraid of them. a huge knock to their identity they had fought so hard to create throughout their lives. even those closest to them still see them as inhumane or monstrous.
“That’s why I started thinking, well, it has to come from somewhere. It must be to do with the way I am.” I stopped, but then Tommy didn’t say anything, so I went on: “So I thought if I could find her picture, on one of those magazines, it’ll at least explain it. I wouldn’t want to go and find her or anything. It would just, you know, kind of explain why I am the way I am.”
Kathy is looking through porn magazines to try and find her possible. shows how little a sense of identity the clones have. any ‘undesirable’ traits they have, they blame on their possible because they can’t possibly imagine that these traits come from themselves, when in actuality, who their possible is likely has little to no impact on who they are as a person.
“Nevertheless, we all of us, to varying degrees, believed that when you saw the person you were copied from, you’d get some insight into who you were deep down, and maybe too, you’d see something of what your life held in store.”
this is almost definitely a myth. the students desperation to find their possible to try and explain away why they are the way they are just shows how they do not believe themselves to have a unique personal identity.
“explaining to her how it was copying something from a television series. ‘It’s not what people really do out there, in normal life, if that’s what you were thinking,’”
Ruth and some of the other clones at the cottages had taken to copying the mannerisms of television characters, as this is their only depiction of who people their age might act int he outside world,showing their desperation to be human
