The Truth Comes Out

By this last section of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, the mysteries behind every secret come unveiled. These truths that Kathy and Tommy found, weren't all that heartwarming. In my opinion, they were downright depressing. Yet, I am conflicted as how to feel, and it is evident that the characters in this novel have that same feeling.

On one hand, Kathy and Tommy feel as if they have been cheated out of life. Cheated out of a chance to be a normal human being. They feel that since deferrals aren't real, then there was no point in going through grueling years of creativity and art classes. They feel as though their lives had been pointless up until the part of their caring and donating. "Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that? If we're just going to give donations anyway, then die" (Ishiguro, 259). And then, the next question that is brought up is "Why Hailsham at all?" (Ishiguro, 259). The confliction occurs then when Madame and Miss Emily express why they did what they did. These women, and the other schools that were opened that resembled Hailsham, sought out to protect these clones, these children. The world had become so complacent in this new technology and new realm of using clones to cure normal humans, that no one wanted to face the reality of it. "How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days?...you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think of you" (Ishiguro, 263). Madame and Miss Emily started a movement to help students like Kathy and Tommy. They wanted to prove that these clones were like any other human being, they had souls.

The discrepancy occurs when students like Kathy believe that the whole world is full of hope. They had, after all, been raised in school that allowed hope. Only, these Hailsham students come to find that there was never hope. Never was and never will be any hope. So who was better off in the long run: those who were never given the opportunity to hope for a better future? or those who were allowed hope only to be crushed by reality?