The science fiction novel "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro could be described as a deceptively simple story. Three kids grow up and slowly come to terms with their future and purpose. Their purpose, however, is to have their vital organs harvested for medical use when they reach adulthood. They live in a world they cannot be sheltered from -- a world that ultimately sees them as a physical commodity.
It's an extreme situation the characters face, but I couldn't help but see the parallels between their lives and ours. Like them we grow up in a sea of people, so many people that it seems almost impossible to be important in the larger scheme of things. Like them we find ourselves treated as commodities and doing our best to sell our worth to others. And perhaps most of all, we find ourselves in a situation where regardless of how we are sheltered or cultivate ourselves, we are all ultimately doomed to the same fate as the children -- to grow old, to lose our vital organs one by one and to die. Most of us will not die as early as the characters do, but that is only to say that our timeframe is longer, not that we do not face the same situation. One horrifying aspect of being mortal is that our end often doesn't come cleanly or elegantly -- sometimes it is quick and unexpected, and often it is a slow deterioration over decades where one organ after another fails us until finally we are done in.
The novel asks the question, is it possible to come to terms with the prospect of a death like this? The children all make peace with their fate, but it is an uneasy peace with a touch of sadness. Their guardians try their best first to shelter them, as well as expose them to art and literature so that they are able to lead positive lives during the time they have, but ultimately they are unable to stop the process -- there is no way out, and no way to even delay the end. The author seems to imply that a complete peace is not possible for these people, and hence not possible for us either. We can come to grips with our destiny and reach an acceptance, but ultimately deterioration and death is not a fate that can be conquered.
A related question the novel asks is whether it is better to be fully aware of our end, or to be blissfully unaware. It is the conflict between the value of truth and happiness. The characters arrive at different conclusions -- some think the children should know their fate from the beginning, and others think they should be allowed to be decieved or decieve themselves so that they can enjoy what lives they have. Most people, though, can't be at either extreme. I think we are all aware of our eventual deaths, but we neither pretend it doesn't exist nor do we dwell completely on it. We live our lives as the children do, enjoying what we can, dreaming of a different world, and dealing with things as they come.
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2 comments:
I like to believe that the book celebrates human life and that we should just enjoy what we have and the time we have, much like in the book. Although it is common to feel that more time is always needed, it's not. Ishiguro probably allowed them not to know their fate as kids because they deserved it, much like children today are mostly sheltered from death. Eventually, however, it must be known.
This book is changing my life and I like to share a new perspective that I like to think I saw in the book.
I have always waited for the 3 teenagers to try to escape with their life or to run away from the cottage but they choose not too. This made me feel that we all do what we are told to do. they were brain washed to the extend that they did not value their lives and they accepted what they were meant to believe.
they had the opportunity to escape or to refuse what they were told to be their fate but they didn't. just like us afraid of change and took what we were brought up with for granted.
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