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Question 1

Bildungsroman (AO3)

Answer 1

“Coming of age” genre - Part one, two and three mimic how the clones are rapidly aging and getting closer to “completion” much closer than typical humans would.

“Before you’re even middle aged”

Kathy is “Thirty-one years old” when she is nearing “completion”
- Deviates from the traditional bildungsroman genre as typical endings end with the protagonist entering the world a stronger and more independent individual but in this twisted retelling of this genre, Kathy’s death in incoming and she has lost everything which she once held dearly to her - only holding her memories

Question 2

Dystopia (AO3)

Answer 2

• Conformity of the clones
• Deviated vocabulary within opening “completion” “donation” “you might get resentful - about my bedsit, my car”
• “my car” - she has a means of escape but never chooses to - emphasises Halishams “ schemes and plans” - and their effective indoctrination of the clones in believing that their purpose is to serve others in the underclass Ishiguro has created

Question 3

Science fiction (AO3)

Answer 3

• “ghosts in test tubes”

science fiction element is not widely explored as much as a typical dystopian novel would to emphasise how similar they truly are to humans
realistic elements “England, 1990s” “Walkman” - which takes away from the science fiction element of the entire novel and enhances the realism and dystopia

Question 4

Cloning and Organ Harvesting (AO3)

Answer 4

“your lives are set out for you […] you’ll start to donate your vital organs”

• Societal concern of the 90s and 00s, “Dolly the sheep”, Ishiguro is debating the societal concerns and the personal relationships of which may be explored if we took this route in society and explores the morals and ethics of an underclass created

“We didn’t have time to take stock” - implies that everything was advancing too quickly (mimics the arms race in the 1960s) and that we DO have time to take stock
- could be an allegory of nuclear weapons - Ishiguro grew up in Nagasaki after the atomic bomb

Question 5

Speculative fiction (AO3)

Answer 5

• what COULD happen

links to the advancements in science and the personal relationships of clones, large focus on the dystopian aspects and the underclass created

COMP WITH FRANK
- Frankenstein is a speculative fiction novel which focuses more on the advancements in science and the dangers that the Age of Enlightenment could bring to the world - death
- Mary Shelley as a Romantic, nature > science