Why This Novel?

Fox Searchlight Films and DNA Pictures
http://blogs.ubc.ca/crashtalk/files/2011/01/never-let-me-go-xlg.jpg

    First off, if you have never read the novel or seen the film version of Never Let Me Go, written by Kazuo Ishiguro, you may want to choose another blog to read.  This will contain spoilers galore.

    Around three years ago I heard of a church that screens movies and discusses them with the congregation.  They called it Cinemagogue (very clever).  If that idea was not unique enough, the film they reviewed is Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  This just kept getting more interesting.  To top it off, and the ultimate reason I have chosen this novel, the whole purpose in screening films at the church is to find the theology of the characters in the film.  Now, I am not looking into the film version of this novel, but the novel itself.   And it is very unique in this aspect: the main characters are clones.  As such, and I do not think it is a mistake by the author, one area the characters never seem to wrestle with is spirituality.  This makes perfect sense since the outside world prefers to consider the clones soulless packages of spare parts.  Humanity sees no humanity in the clones they create, and would prefer never to meet one face to face.

    This fascinates me.  It is an incredible commentary by the author on how we place value on people, seek evidence of the soul, and how personality is ingrained in each and every person.  Yet, it is not a commentary.  Ishiguro instead explores humanity in a way that would make Robert Frost proud.  Frost once said, "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."  There are plenty of surprises and room for tears within the walls of Hailsham, the fictional boarding school which raises and educates clones, the cottages, where the clones go to learn to be carers and adjust to life in the real world, and in the donation centers, which is where all clones complete their service to humanity.

    Through character analysis, setting, time period, and a couple of films we will walk through the many facets of humanity, personality, and choice evident in Never Let Me Go.  Perhaps we will discover a few surprises the characters themselves didn't realize.