Never Let Me Go Dystopian Analysis

In the dystopian novel Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro utilizes deception as a tool to impact the social and political sphere. The guardians at Hailsham deceive the clone students as an opportunity to change the corrupted political sphere that ultimately fails to shield them from realizing the detrimental effects of corruption in their lives through sacrifice. Corruption in the government roots from the selfishness of the perpetrators to take advantage of the victims in order to eradicate death in the society. In the novel, Ishiguro presents a dystopian society set in England in the 1990s where the government takes control of the citizens with corrupted power. Furthermore, the government utilizes the advancements of science and technology

Ishiguro identifies the teachers at Hailsham as guardians, which suggests that they serve as the clone children’s protection from the government’s inhuman treatment. According to the essay “Childhood action: a study of natality’s relationship to societal change in Never Let Me Go,” Lauren Jervis claims that human resistance against the nature of mortality by “harvesting organs of clones” obstructs the opportunity to restore the political world. Jervis also emphasizes that education fosters knowledge in children and generates intellectual minds to make an impact on society. The guardians decide to eliminate the political corruption through the creation of Hailsham that focuses on humanizing the children with aestheticism. Throughout their whole life, the children have been raised at Hailsham without being informed about their true identity and place in the society. Miss Lucy, one of the guardians, hints at the deception through stating that “you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand” (Ishiguro 64). For example, the guardians deceive the children about Madame’s Gallery, a place where the students believe that the best artworks are chosen to be displayed. When Tommy struggles with creativity in art, Miss Lucy assures Tommy not to worry about not being creative. However, once Miss Lucy realizes that the

To begin with, the students leave Hailsham and enter the Cottages, a place where they integrate their unique identity as clones with the rest of the society for the first time. Although the Hailsham students immerse themselves into the new culture and behavior of the veterans, Kathy emphasizes that they should never forget about Hailsham and their identity as clones. Furthermore, Kathy and the other Hailsham students desire to unearth the secrets that the guardians have kept hidden from them. First, they travel to Norfolk, a “lost corner” of England, in which Ishiguro symbolizes Norfolk as a place for the Hailsham students to discover their lost identity. Ishiguro writes about an incident back at Hailsham when Kathy loses a tape called Never Let Me Go by Judy Bridgewater after Madame cries from seeing Kathy dancing as if she had a baby in her arms. At Norfolk, Kathy and Tommy finally realizes why Madame had cried. Madame, with the knowledge that Hailsham experiment has failed to change the political system, could not help but weep about the students’ detrimental fate. Ishiguro demonstrates the negative effects of the immoral political system when Miss Lucy tells the clones, “You're not like the actors you watch on your videos, you're not even like me. You were brought into this world for a