Upon finishing the novel, I couldn’t stop thinking about the scene in which Kathy and Tommy question Madame and Miss Emily about deferrals and the gallery. Although I was confident that the couple wouldn’t receive these hopeful deferrals, I never suspected that the Hailsham guardians were attempting to prove the humanity of the students. When reflecting on it, I realized what surprised me most was Madame’s involvement in the process. Kathy’s descriptions of Madame throughout the story provide conflicting evidence on Madame’s opinions about the humanity of the Hailsham students, causing her intentions to be questionable.
One controversy in Madame’s involvement in Hailsham is the fact that she fears the children. When Ruth and Kathy’s gang create the theory that Madame fears the students, they jokingly decide to test the theory. Madame’s response, although not unexpected, unsettles the children. Kathy described the interaction, declaring, “I can still see it now, the shudder she seemed to be suppressing, the real dread that one of us would accidentally brush against her. And though we just kept on walking, we all felt it; it was like we’d walked from the sun right into chilly shade” (35). The evidence of their theory and Madame’s reactions contrasts with Madame’s intentions. If she’s working to prove the student’s humanity through their art, why would she be afraid of them? If she thought there was a cause worth supporting, she would believe that they were nothing short of human, so there would be no need to fear them.
While the fearful incident questions how Madame feels about the children, her reaction to Kathy dancing to “Never Let Me Go” shows another side of her. Kathy describes Madame’s silent but emotional reaction when she says, “She was out in the corridor, standing very still, her head angled to one side to give her a view of what I was doing inside. And the odd thing was she was crying. It might even have been one of her sobs that had come through the song to jerk me out of my dream” (71). Contrary to Madame’s fear of the children, her emotional crying shows that she sees the humanity in the children. Later in the story, Madame explains to Kathy why she cried, and her response …. “I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was pleading, never to let her go” (271). When she call’s Kathy a “little girl,” it emphasizes the humanity that Madame sees.
Madame’s conflicting responses call to question an internal struggle within her. Although Miss Emily declares that Madame has always been on the student’s side, does she truly believe in the humanity of the Hailsham students? Perhaps she saw the students as humans but struggled to protest against the nation’s opinions. Perhaps Madame only used Hailsham to convince herself that she bettered the lives of clones. Perhaps their humanity meant something more than she could explain, and their existence impacted her in an indescribable yet profound manner.
It's unclear in the book how long clones have gone on, although it can be concluded that cloning will continue in a more non-humanitarian way after Hailsham and other "experiments" closed. To me, Madame represents the conflict that people have with ethical gray areas, where ethics may be construed as right for some and immoral for others. On one hand, she spent her time and effort collecting the creative artwork and showcasing them to benefactors/potential donors. She knows inherently that it's not right for the kids to be treated like clones and put in degenerate environments. She is humane enough to cry when she sees Kathy holding a "baby" in the Never Let Me Go song. At the end of the book, she feels regret that she cannot help the clones any more, and there is a powerlessness aura surrounding her that goes along with Kathy's feeling of futility.
ReplyDeleteHowever, society has brainwashed her and everyone else into thinking that clones are inhumane and exist to serve a purpose. I believe that Madame's reaction to the children brushing against her reflects how the majority of non-clone population felt and viewed the clones as. A common perception existed that clones were in-humane and inferior to humans. While Miss Emily was sympathetic at the end of the book, Madame seemed very stand-offish while greeting the children. This shows how society treated the children: it was a separate species that did not possess humanity and should not have thoughts or feelings. Madame possesses the conflicted mindset that we, as humans, all experience when faced with tough moral situations like abortion or genocides.
I think that your points about the dual nature of Madame’s involvement with the students brings up bigger questions about the society in this novel. Ishiguro purposefully leaves a lot of questions unanswered in order to focus the reader’s attention on the very human, very typical stories and relationships. His goal is to juxtapose typical human responses and interactions against a cold, inhumane world to emphasize human nature, but this leaves a lot of questions about the society and specifically questions about Madame and Hailsham’s place in this society. Ishiguro introduces the idea that Hailsham is special from the very beginning. The donor that Kathy cares for knows about Hailsham and envy the students who were lucky enough to have lived there (5). Similarly, the people at the cottages speak about the fact that deferrals seem to be reserved for Hailsham students only. It makes me wonder if Hailsham was maybe a failed experiment with the goal of proving that the students were truly human. Now that Hailsham is closing, it seems that the quest to prove the clones as humans may also be over. Even Madame refers to them as “poor creatures” when she is speaking with them at the end implying that even she may not be convinced of their humanity (272).
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bryan about the importance of art in Never Let Me Go. It seems like there’s a deep connection between being human and the ability to create something, whether it be a child or a piece of art. The clones may not be human, but their ability to create art gives them a soul and something to produce. With every painting and drawing, the clones are given an opportunity to act “human.” The less creative, the more this backfired on the clones.
ReplyDeleteAt Halisham, Tommy has immense difficulty in creating something of importance as evidenced by the line, “If Tommy had genuinely tried, she was saying, but he just couldn't be very creative, then that was quite all right, he wasn't to worry about it.” This is difficult for Tommy as it’s his one opportunity to create something of importance and can’t.
Bryan brings up a good point about sex replacing art over time. It seems like painting is the gateway to sex, as they are both about the ability to create something, even if the clones don’t actually have children.
Both art and sex are a way to ignore the future and just do something without repercussions. The clones know that their expiration dates are imminent so why not do something that you enjoy along the way?
I believe that Madame’s fear of the children is less of a literal phobia and more of a feeling of guilt. She knows exactly what the future holds for each and every one of the clones at Hailsham, and has to look at them knowing that they have no idea what is going to become of them.
ReplyDeleteThis internal conflict likely stems from the external conflict of clone versus human, and which life holds more value. In this society, it is clear that the “norm” is to accept the fact that a clone only exists for the purpose of organ donation and nothing more. Their fates are determined and there is nothing more for them beyond saving a few other people’s lives and dying at a young age. Madame might be struggling to accept that one life should matter more than the other, and proving humanity of the clones would be then proving that they are equal to humans. They already seem very human like to her (as you described in the scene where Madame catches Kathy dancing), so it is probably very unsettling to think of them as anything less than actual people. The guilt comes back into play here, because by viewing them as human, isn’t it then wrong and unethical to be essentially breeding them and using them for their organs? Isn’t it wrong to lie to them throughout their entire childhood? Isn’t it wrong to take their lives from them and not allow them to live to their full potential? Being around the children for a long time could spark these kinds of uneasy questions, so Madame tries her best to not be at Hailsham any longer than she has to.