NVLMG settings Flashcards
Hailsham
Description: Hailsham is a seemingly idyllic boarding school where the main characters—Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth—grow up. It’s a picturesque, countryside institution with sprawling grounds, gardens, and an atmosphere of peaceful isolation.
Symbolism: Hailsham represents innocence, childhood, and a controlled environment. The beauty of the school contrasts with the dark truth that the students are clones raised for the purpose of organ donation. It symbolizes a protected bubble where the clones are kept in ignorance of their fate, creating a false sense of security.
Themes: The setting of Hailsham plays into the theme of illusion versus reality. The students are sheltered from the harsh truths of their existence, much like the setting itself is beautiful on the surface but hides a more sinister purpose. The emphasis on art and creativity in Hailsham is also symbolic of the characters’ struggle for identity and humanity.
The Cottages
Description: After leaving Hailsham, the characters move to the Cottages, a group of run-down farm buildings where they live semi-independently during their late teenage years. The Cottages are cold, isolated, and far removed from the controlled environment of Hailsham.
Symbolism: The Cottages represent the transitional phase between childhood and adulthood, as well as a more direct confrontation with the reality of their futures. The physical decay of the setting reflects the emotional and existential decay of the characters as they come to terms with their impending fates as donors.
Themes: The setting emphasizes themes of freedom and restriction. Although the characters have more freedom at the Cottages, they remain confined by their role in society. Their growing awareness of the world outside, their exploration of personal relationships, and their attempts to understand deferrals all take place in this setting, which mirrors their growing awareness of their mortality.
The Road Trips
Description: The characters take road trips from the Cottages to explore the outside world, including trips to Norfolk and other surrounding areas.
Symbolism: These trips symbolize a search for identity and meaning. For example, the characters’ belief that Norfolk is the “lost corner” of England reflects their sense of being lost and searching for something meaningful in their lives. These trips also highlight their detachment from the rest of society, reinforcing the theme of isolation.
Themes: The road trips offer a glimpse of the outside world but also emphasize the characters’ separation from it. They are outsiders, confined to their fate, and these excursions only deepen their understanding of how little control they have over their lives. The idea of searching for lost items or people, such as the trip to find Ruth’s “possible,” ties into themes of hope and futility.
The ‘Recovery centre’
Description: The recovery centers are the places where clones go to recover after their organ donations. They are sterile, clinical environments, and Kathy works as a “carer” in these centers, tending to other clones.
Symbolism: The cold, impersonal nature of the recovery centers reflects the dehumanization of the clones. These settings strip away any remaining illusions of normalcy, revealing the harsh reality of their purpose as organ donors.
Themes: The setting emphasizes the theme of mortality and inevitability. These centers are where the clones approach their “completion,” a euphemism for death. The sterile environment underscores the lack of dignity or personal freedom in the lives of the clones, further highlighting their societal role as mere resources for others.
Norfolk
Description: Norfolk is referred to by the characters as the “lost corner of England,” and the group takes a road trip there in search of a possible for Ruth and to recover a lost tape for Kathy.
Symbolism: Norfolk symbolizes hope, memory, and loss. It is associated with the idea of recovering something lost, reflecting the characters’ hope for deferrals, for extensions of their lives, and for reclaiming a sense of purpose. When Kathy finds her lost Judy Bridgewater tape here, it is a moment of nostalgia and personal meaning.
Themes: Norfolk plays into the themes of memory and the passage of time. It serves as a place where the characters try to find or recover lost parts of themselves, whether through personal artifacts or connections to their past. However, this setting also reinforces the inevitability of loss, as no matter what they find, they cannot escape their fate.
Miss Emily’s house
Description: Late in the novel, Kathy and Tommy visit Miss Emily’s house, where they learn the truth about Hailsham and the failed experiment to prove the clones’ humanity. The house is described as crowded with furniture, dark, and cluttered.
Symbolism: Miss Emily’s house symbolizes the hidden truths and the failure of idealism. Just as the house is cluttered and closed-off, so too are the dreams of Hailsham’s guardians to protect and prove the humanity of the clones.
Themes: This setting is pivotal in revealing the theme of disillusionment. The idealistic hopes of Hailsham are dashed in this setting, as Kathy and Tommy learn that no matter how much art or creativity they produced, it was never enough to prevent their fates.
The Outside World
Description: Throughout the novel, the “real” world, where non-clones live, is only briefly glimpsed. The clones remain isolated from it, and when they do interact with the outside world, they are treated with discomfort or fear.
Symbolism: The outside world represents normalcy and the unattainable life that the clones can never have. It is a place where human beings live freely, in contrast to the controlled and restricted lives of the clones.
Themes: The limited interaction with the outside world underscores the theme of alienation and otherness. The clones are always on the periphery of society, never fully part of it, which reflects their status as outsiders destined to serve a purpose but never to truly live in the world they observe.
