Recommended Book "Never Let Me Go"
This book is recommended because it talks about the limited choices that people have with the control of society and connects to the idea of the rights of people.
People have challenges in their life and especially have a hard time making choices. There are cases where you might ask yourself, what is the purpose of what I am doing. This may cause you to think that there is no way out, no options. With these thoughts, almost everything in our lives is being controlled by something that we aren’t able to identify. Within the unknowable system that controls the Hailsham students’ lives, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth are not able to make genuine choices by ending up in a destiny where their organs are donated, having their lives “complete”, and not being able to experience reality.
To begin with, their vital organs are donated, which is the fate that students have, and the reason that Hailsham is in existence. “You're not like the actors you watch on your videos, you're not even like me.” (Ishiguro, 81) Because the other guardians are just allowing them to dream about something that would not be able to be and don’t tell them about the future, Miss Lucy tells Hailsham students that they are not like other people and have no choice about how their lives go; instead, their main purpose is to provide organs to people until they die from donating them. With the truth revealed by Miss Lucy, the reason why the Hailsham students are born is for the simple lives that they have for human cloning.
Furthermore, compared to the people in the Cottages, the Hailsham students don’t have outside experience in the real world and face struggles. “Ruth, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you always hit Tommy on the arm like that when you’re saying good bye? You know what I mean.” (Ishiguro, 123) The struggles that they face clearly show that their mindsets are limited due to the control that the guardians have over Hailsham’s system. Ruth especially tries her best to act like people in the Cottages, copying the actions from the TV; however, this is rather shown as strange in Hailsham students’ perspectives. Due to a lack of exposure to the real ways of the world at Hailsham, the students have a hard time getting comfortable and being engaged with the people at the Cottages.
In conclusion, the donations with the Hailsham students and the differences that they had in the Cottage represent the limited options that they have left by the confines of the unfathomable and dominating system. Hailsham represents the ethics of human cloning and the existence of people. Basically, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth are the same humans but they have to donate organs for a better life to other people. With no solution to the issue of their inevitable deaths, they just happen to end their lives. Memories and longing for the past are only the keys to overcoming the reality of the donation program in a society that is becoming similar to this story.