How Hailsham Failed
Why don’t Kathy and Tommy just leave and escape having the donation program? This possibility or anything even remotely close is never mentioned or even thought about by the main characters. Why not? My answer to that question is easy: Hailsham
The movie Ex Machina by Alex Garland and the novel Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro have a lot in common. However, when analyzed under the theme of rebellion they completely contrast each other. One portrays a creation killing its creator, Ex Machina, and the other shows a completely benevolent creation, with no intent or seemingly ability to rebel, Never Let Me Go. The robot in Ex Machina, Ava, realizes there is a threat to her and existence and acts on it. She manipulates Caleb into helping her escape and then kills Nathan and ultimately kills Caleb too. This act of rebellion, while dramatic and gruesome, ultimately grants Ava complete freedom.
What kept them from rebelling?
Hailsham is described as being very secluded and the students are never allowed to leave the grounds. This means that the students have little to no contact with the outside world. This effectively keeps the clones right where society wants them, in the “shadows” (Ishiguro, 263). The clones are raised completely separately from the rest of society. This only furthers the idea that they are different from regular people and allows people to forget “where the organs come from” (262). The students at Hailsham are very sheltered and do not understand why people like Madame, act so weird around them. This shows how the students at Hailsham are not being educated on how the real-world perceives them, and they have no idea that they are considered less than and non-human. This keeps them from rebelling because they do not know that they need to rebel. Hailsham imposed strict rules and taught the students discipline, teaching them to be compliant and accepting of their fate.
The Duality of Hailsham
Hailsham was working to try and prove to society that the clones were, in fact, humans with souls, and try and get them equal space in society. However, Hailsham itself helps to propagate the societal norms of keeping the clones in the shadows and goes so far as to make them completely passive and accepting of their own fate. While on the one hand, Hailsham and its staff are trying to help make the lives of the Clones better, they are also sealing their fate and not causing any real societal reform. In the end, Hailsham as a school only helps society continue to discriminate against the clones, while simultaneously sheltering the clones from this discrimination, keeping them from rebelling and thus propagating the harmful culture.
Hailsham from the movie adaptation of the novel.
While Kathy and Tommy are leaving Madame’s house, Madame calls them “poor creatures” (272). Not only does she pity them and their situation, but she also calls them creatures, de-humanizing them. The word creature also has negative connotations and highlights that a feeling of non-belonging. This word choice is crucial and it shows that not even Madame, who worked so hard to try and show the clones had souls and were the same as everyone else doesn’t even believe it herself. She still sees them as different from non-clones and less than.
Even though Hailsham is revealed to be a place of social reform and hope for the clones this is a lie and Hailsham is actually the reason for the clone’s compliance to the system. At Hailsham, they are effectively alienated from society, taught to fear authority and even looked down upon by the people who claim to be trying to help them. As a result, Kathy and Tommy only look back upon what they believe to be a fulfilling experience at Hailsham and in the cottages and then die after giving away their organs. Hailsham effectively condemns the clones to this fate and is not actually a beacon of hope and happiness as it is portrayed in the novel.
As I read Ishiguro’s novel, I kept wondering, like you, why the clones of Hailsham never rebelled. Your post provides a great explanation regarding why the students remained complacent throughout their lives. The isolation they experienced, while at Hailsham, prevented them from ever even grappling with the idea of rebellion. The dehumanization the clones experience makes this book even more unsettling.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of this as a reason for the clones lack of rebellion. However, wouldn't the clones time in the cottages expose them to the idea of rebellion? They watched TV shows and imitated people, at some point they would have been exposed to the idea. I agree with your point that even-though Hailsham may have set out to introduce society to the clones, they only ended up discriminating against them.
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