Analysis of Values of Life in the Novel ‘Let Me Go’

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In the novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Kathy was a young lady living a secret life. Everything she did seemed to be private but everyone around her seemed to be just like her. Many times in novels the cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings shape a character. Ishiguro uses Kathy s journey and realizations to show how one’s surroundings, both cultural and physical affect one’s thoughts and therefore actions and relationships.

During the novel Kathy and her two friends, Ruth and Tommy are going to a boarding school. The author uses physical surroundings in the novel which affect the characters greatly. The school is secluded from everything else. This affects the characters because they think the way they are living life is normal, but it is not always normal for them. Kathy owned a cassette tape which she valued greatly. She values the small things which shows she did not have much of anything else to value while being secluded from the rest of the world. This also shows she differs from many kids because most small children do not value the small things in life. They are also surrounded by other children just like them, having their teachers telling them how special they are. Kathy and her friends do not realize they are as normal as everyone they are going to school with which shows that they do not know anything different. This affects the novel because they this shows these kids may never know anything different until they get older. Throughout the novel, as Kathy gets older, she becomes more aware of her surroundings and the things going on in her life. The overall physical surroundings affect this novel because it causes these children to value everything and everyone in life.

Cultural surroundings affect this novel heavily. Kathy, as well as the rest of the children that are with her, all seemed to be special. All children are doing things that seem to be in secret or seem to be private from the rest of the world. These cultural surroundings impact how these kids learn and simply how they live their everyday lives. ¨…culture provides a framework for our behavioral and affective norms  (Pogosyan). Many have done research on how our cultures affect our brains to live and think a certain way. As humans, we can see culture affects us in our everyday lives. We know what we learn as children, affects the way we do things as adults. It is seen throughout the novel and even as Kathy gets older, how things that had happened to her while she went to a private school, affected her and her classmates culturally for the rest of their lives. Even as Kathy got older, she became a caregiver for people who were donors. Carers in the novel are people who care for donors but are actually clones. Donors were people who gave organs which eventually affected them as they were older. Because she learned about cloning and organ donors as a child, she continued to do it as she was an adult. This goes to show, cultural surroundings affect everyone as they mature over time and get older.

Geographical surroundings also play a role in the traits of the characters in the novel. The novel is based in England during the 1990s. They are at Hailsham and the donor centers. This goes back and connects to the physical surroundings in the novel. As Kathy gets older, she is allowed more places it seems. Because she is still secluded in a few areas, she never sees much more of the world. The geographical surroundings shape Kathy to see things a certain way and have a certain point of view on many things. She believes what they are doing and where they go is normal, but as readers we know cloning and being in two places our whole lives is not normal.

Throughout the whole novel, many physical, cultural, and geographical surroundings affect both the characters and the novel as a whole. Even as readers, we can see how their normal lives  differ from what we see as normal. The novel goes to show how characters are shaped over time and how everything in life can affect you greatly.

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