Holding on to the Expendables

In society we allow so many people to be dismissed as less important. People are used as a means to an end. There are people left to be expended as the world powers focus on more important things. In Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go he shines the torch on how expendable we allow certain people to be. 
Ishiguro takes a step away from modern society, creating a barrier stopping people from taking direct offence but still allowing the thoughts filter in through reader's heads. The clones in Never Let Me Go are created to die. They are created to be used for the purpose of more important people in society. However, no one pays for the price for the lost lives of these creatures. Madame and Miss Emily prove that the clone children have souls. They have emotions, they live normal lives. Why is there life any less precious than someone else?
People die. People live a life, sometimes a life that feels too short, but a person lives and then he or she dies. In the movie, Miss Lucy asks an important question: What do children do when they grow up? She responds that no one knows, the children exercise free will and choose their own path. But, for the children of Never Let Me Go there is a set destination, and it is a premature death after a calculated existence. 
The children created in Never Let Me Go are expendable, they were created for spare parts, created to die. There are still countries where children are born with a set intent, to become king, to become soldiers, to be sold into the sex trade. In the real world these are people with souls, minds, and free will. The children Ishiguro created have emotions, they pursue relationships, they have interests outside of their set intent. Both Ishiguro's fictional characters and children in real life should be given more of a purpose than being created for a set purpose.
Ishiguro may have written fiction but the deeper message runs through society and sends cold shivers to those who have committed these crimes. We may work to save the environment, or government, but we should work to save our own children too.

A Live Within A Bubble

People describe the feeling of depression as not being able to breathe but watching everyone around you breathing with ease. 
The characters in Never Let Me Go suffer from their own profound endless depression. As children they could be equated to children in an orphanage. They might have aspirations in life, but they also know that they have to live within a certain parameter and will never achieve what they wish to. For orphans the children can want to reach a certain job but ultimately they know that as babies they weren't wanted, and because they have lived within an orphanage they have not reached enough schooling to accomplish something in the "real" world. For the characters they can aspire for a certain life but really they know that they won't achieve it because their life has be preordained and they will follow this life line until they die. 
There is another major similarity between orphans and the characters. While children in underprivileged towns have a parent to fall back on, maybe only one, and maybe an awful example as a role model but they do have a parent who will love them and who they can turn to as they wish throughout their life. For both the characters and orphans when they reach a certain age they are dropped from the world they have known into the middle of the sea and are expected to learn to swim just as quickly as the children who have grown up in a pool their entire life. So maybe not the best metaphor, but if one group of people are accustomed to swimming within a real pool moving to the big ocean is a transition but not a life altering experiences. However, the kids who grew up in the kiddy-pool where they could stand are now dropped into the ocean and are expected to learn to swim, it is life altering and usually ends in disaster. 
The characters in Never Let Me Go know they were modelled from the trash of society. If that is what their only alternative would be if they were not going to donate and die, what motivation is there to learn to swim. 

We may not have clones in the real world, but we all know the feeling of drowning when everyone else can swim. 

The science fiction in Never Let Me Go adds interest and a playful side to a story that reflects to the human experience. 

Letting Go of the Lies

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a fantastic novel that brings the importance of expectations and purpose into the light. Reading this book as rising Freshman has been particularly influential on how I have reflected on high school and the changes I would like to make for college. 
As a freshman I expected things to be easy. 

      

Easy not as effortless but easy as manageable. Not just     for school work but for social life, and for extracurriculars too.

However, even in the first few weeks of high school I discovered how wrong I was. I entered high school with a broken back and a positive attitude. I believed in the life philosophy of be nice to everyone and be perfect-- always. 

In the first few weeks of high school we embarked on freshman retreat where I was endlessly mocked for my inability to participate in activities because of my back. I shrugged it off and moved on. However, as I progressed I discovered that my life philosophy did not always yield the results I had hoped. I allowed myself to bend backwards to please people and always ended up unhappy. Instead I threw myself into my community service and extracurriculars and gave up on school--retrospectively not a wise decision. 

I can appreciate the Hailsham students for their variant of attitudes, perspective on social conformities, and for their compartmentalisation. Each student has an individual personality which is impressive even for real children, however, they manage to put aside their differences when possible and form groups. Life is  progression, a movement and a roller coaster. Shifting and a constant learning process Ishiguro's writing style is incredibly interesting and I look forward to gaining perspective.

The Unfashionable Absurdity

This week in British Literature we watched a modern movie production of the Importance of Being Earnest. Personally, I much preferred reading the play to watching the movie. Part of the beauty in the play is the absurdity of each situation. However, the absurdity is best understood when read with complete sincerity. If one believes that it is a joke then the play becomes a joke. Wilde did such a wonderful job almost making fun of society that when transferred into actors some of the magic was lost. 
There were parts of the movie that I liked, there were parts that I didn't like. My biggest annoyance at the play was the depiction of Cecily and how she imagined Ernest. What makes the naivety of Cecily and Gwendolen so absurd and their interactions so interesting is the fact that they believe they are serious. Cecily made up an engagement and broke it off all in her head because she believed she was serious. With the fantasised knight and biblical allusion scene, Cecily's absurd engagement was lost in jest. 
I appreciated the artistic elements of the movie. The depiction of the homes, the grounds, the costumes, most everything added to the elements of the play. 
Overall the movie did a decent job translating play to movie, some of my favourite lines were lost but that is bound to happen in transition. The play was fun although our class reading's were more obnoxiously absurd than an absurdist play, and the movie did a fine job overall. 

Earnestly Lying

"The Importance of Being Earnest" is an absurdist comedy that draws attention to the ridiculous divisions between areas of society and different classes. 

One of the early examples of the reversal of classes is brought out by Algernon. While the common belief is that the upper class sets the role and precedence for the lower classes, Algernon states the opposite. He believes that "the lower orders don't set [the upper class] a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility" (Act I page 2). From the beginning of Act I to the end of Act III ridiculous statements are used to point out the absurdity of societal norms. There is, however, one especially fantastically catty scene between Gwendolen and Cecily that makes fun of upperclass obsession with what is in fashion and the relationship between girls. On page 38 the girls sit down for tea and for every request that Gwendolyn makes, Cecily delivers the opposite. From bread and butter to sugarless tea all the things that Gwendolen declares unfashionable Cecily makes sure to serve. Not only does this make fun of Gwendolen's obsession with being in fashion but it also makes fun of her ridiculous requests.

Societal expectations are ridiculous now but positively absurd then. Wilde uses comedy to lightly point out the things society puts too much importance on.

Adapting Austen

Yesterday evening I ventured out to watch the invited dress rehearsal for my school's performance of Pride and Prejudice. There were many things I liked and many things I didn't, although I did understand why it was done. 
I appreciated the simplified set and how professional the actors were in moving props and reacting to mistakes. 
However, this particular script was so simplified that it was almost an entirely different play than the novel we read. Obviously turning a full length novel into a two act school performance is difficult. However, I think that the timing of the play was a huge issue. While some important scenes were sped up and chopped down some of the slower scenes were drawn out. It made sense to get more actors on stage, but it made sitting through parts almost unbearable. I think overall the performance was well done. I thought the roles of Caroline Bingley, Mr. Charles Bingley, Mr. Collins, Miss Jane Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, and Mr. Wickham were particularly well cast and played. All of the actors did a remarkable job and the play was successful in reenacting a early nineteenth century novel. 

The Air is Cleaner on the Other Side

In the midst of the industrial revolution the British poets were devil's advocate reminiscing on cleaner air and simpler times. From dirtied streets to dying children there were atrocities on every street corner, and unfortunately, within every home. Poet William Blake was courageous enough to place blame and point fingers at the church for their treatment of children. But he didn't pardon society for what it had let itself become. A society with young boys going up into chimneys, with fires being lit below them to force the children to speed up and climb faster towards their death, and the alternative for young girls to become harlot's, life was not all that it had been romanticised to be.
With the rise in technology came the rise in cities. As population density increased so did the demand for menial tasks like prostitution and chimney sweeping. The constant presence of people became so much that poet Wordsworth went as far as to write a poem in which the narrator is hoping to wander in solitude.
Life in urban cities was not the beautiful sunlit emporium it had been romanticised to be. The Romantic poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth century were already reminiscing for the cleaner air and bluer skies.
Poetry had quickly evolved from a hope of change to a plea to return to better times. This trend is continued through literary history. People often want to be wherever they are not, there is always the hope that the alternative is better than the hell that society has created.