“Never Let Me Go” is one of the best modern novels of the twenty-first century, and it has received numerous distinctions, including the Nobel Prize, for its author, Kazuo Ishiguro, who continues to be one of the most prominent novelists of our generation. As implied by the scenario, we appear to have discovered the dehumanization of scientifically cloned humans for the purpose of collecting organs for transplantation. While this work can also be called a metaphorical masterpiece, it also brings out the racial discourse, which can be observed in the context of imperialistic warfare, which can be seen in the novel. Despite the fact that the main protagonists are not Asian, the novel depicts an incisive non-white life experience that is wonderfully depicted beneath the surface as Ishiguro’s characters delve into more nuanced and realistic features of nonwhite identity than would be the case if they were just reflections of Japanese society.
According to Gill (2014), she asserts that Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go draws a connection between the presence of clones plus the experiences of the racially underprivileged, exposing the paradoxes of contemporary genomic research, wherein race is simultaneously eliminated and resurrected as a genetic concept. While Ishiguro criticizes the current post-racial era, he offers an alternative post-prejudice vision that parallels Darwin’s notion of universal countenance and, thus, shared heritage of races. Darwin was able to establish, however, that “all the main expressions of man are identical across the world” and that “the young and old of vastly various races, both with man and animals, express the same mental state by the same movement.” (Gill, 5) Due to Kathy’s proclivity for facial gestures in her narrative, the book advances the concept of relationship beyond the hereditary expectations that underpin racial class politics, toward a model of exchange based on a nonracial connection.
Throughout the novel, the technique of human cloning is being adopted on a large scale in order to facilitate the harvesting of organs that are required for survival. Considering life as a resource is something that the novel explores in depth throughout the novel. What’s more, it encourages the reader to reassess the comparison between the lives of humans and nonhuman animals (Ishiguro, 6). Even this categorization, however, is subject to change on a regular basis. In Never Let Me Go, it appears that one’s identity is never truly secure, a belief that is at the heart of the film’s coming-of-age drama. The novel draws a subtle parallel between both the lives of the clones and those who are racially ostracized, highlighting current science’s conflicts around the issue of race. By establishing parallels between the subjugation of the clones plus the marginalization of nonwhite immigrants and migrant workers in the United Kingdom, as well as parallels seen between clones’ functional education plus the education of the colonized (Gill, 7), it also demonstrates that, despite its appearance as post-racial, the novel’s world is overloaded in racialized types of discrimination. Ishiguro’s analogy elucidates the manner in which race is obliterated on the grounds that it is biologically useless but is retained as a notion in the biosciences; the clones, ostensibly race less but divided on the grounds of their genetic variation, are the result of this contradiction. Their plight exemplifies the ironic consequence of the discovery that race has no genetic basis: “any mistreatment of nonwhite labor is expiated symbolically via scientific recognition of their human equality.” Forms of racism remain in a society without race, and the novel demonstrates the persistence of racial ideology plus racism in a post-racial period.
The novel’s critique of post-paradoxes racialism’s is expanded by its allusion to historical racisms plus exclusionary modes of humanism that serve as a model for modern forms of dehumanization enabled by race denial. If the inevitability of the clones’ condition parallels contemporary mistreatment of migrant labor, the way their humanity is questioned and appraised during their education evokes colonized experiences. However, the ramifications of Ishiguro’s racial comparison go beyond exposing the contradictions inherent in the modern post-racial era. By demonstrating how race remains fundamental to discussions about who and what is human, the novel gives a picture of how human relations plus what it means to be human might be comprehended without reference to racial difference (Ishiguro, 17). Kathy accomplishes this through her narrative approach.
The article by Karl claims that the novel exhibits the performance of emotive recognition through the use of a connection to an article about the re-humanization of racial minorities following the genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslav Republic of Yugoslavia (Karl, 452). The authors argue that, while genocidal policies, which seek to dehumanize entire ethnic groups, are based on routine rationalizations that circulate in the public realm, the reversal of this thought process, which they term “dehumanization,” is not achieved through the same (public) streams; rather, it necessitates a personal recognition of the victim’s individuality through empathic communications taking in of “another’s distinct subjectivity”—in order to reverse.
It is stated in the same article by Karl that during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Karl, 466- 467), the “discovery” and subsequent exploitation of peoples living in the New World both disrupted and created notions of race and humanness at a time when, as historian Thomas Gossett points out, “neither Europeans nor Englishmen were prepared to make allowances for vast cultural diversity (Karl, 466- 467). Even though race has historically been used to justify exploitation and exclusion, it has also been used in neutral discourse to draw attention to disparities between individuals who live in different geographical locations. It is analogous to the novel, in which Ishiguro demonstrates that a spaceship to another planet is not required to drastically reconsider thoughts on humanness and otherness. The map of the human genome, which contains approximately 23,000 protein-coding genes, can be compared to the map of a “New World,” whose features and coordinates have only been tentatively plotted (Karl, 467). If so, then Ishiguro’s novel of emotion, whereby clones rather than slaves from Africa and indigenous peoples play the role of the transgressive other, can be seen as a redefinition of the modern humanist coordinates that have become obsolete.
Race is also depicted in the novel; for example, for those who are fortunate enough to gain admission into the predominantly white spaces, they must frequently reassure themselves that the offer is worth it — that to follow a path of assimilation is preferable to suggesting rebellion — before they can move forward. This is especially true for persons of color, who have historically been the ones who have been shut out of opportunities. The lure of belonging to an exclusive group proves to be so alluring to the pupils that they are unable to distinguish between whoever they are pledging their loyalty to and at what cost they are doing it. Only later do we, as readers, get to grasp the types of positions that Kathy and her peers are being prepared to fill.In the article by Saif, it is stated that the film “Never Let Me Go” does not have any background information or racial commentary about the characters, which leads us to believe that these characters are nonwhite entities. Writers are frequently constrained by their social context, and this 2005 work could have been set in the post-9/11, post-colonial era, exploring racial and imperialist rhetoric in an allegoric manner (Saif,1). Despite the fact that the film adaptation has chosen characters who are white and comparatively pale, the novel makes no mention of race (Ishiguro, 7). Considering that there is no explicit reference of race, we can assume that these characters are non-white.
According to the Novel by Ishiguro, it states that as theorized by Ruth, “We’re modelled after trash,” there is another possible explanation for this racial understanding: Junkies, prostitutes, alcoholics, and tramps are all on the list (Ishiguro 28). Convicts, perhaps, as long as they aren’t psychopaths, but not necessarily. That’s where we’re originally from.” Ruth’s point is valid if we take a hard look at how the east is depicted in the western world (Ishiguro, 30). However, in actuality, the oriental plus ethnic minority from the east are impoverished in compared with Western and white people, which strengthens this point both symbolically and literally. Overall, the plot is beautifully portrayed by all of the characters, who are living a sad life that provides a catharsis for the audience to enjoy. Ishiguro has the ability to elicit strong emotions and promote introspection, opening up new avenues for us to explore in the literary form (Ishiguro, 11).
Overall, Never Let Me Go celebrates our shared human biology while simultaneously leveraging the power of face emotions to highlight the post-racial possibility of a science which is becoming progressively racist. Because the story chooses to respond to such ongoing disputes about science and race while attempting to rely on the reasoning of an older, Darwin’s theory of facial expression.
Work Cited
Gill, Josie. “Written on the Face: Race and Expression in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never let me go.” Modern Fiction Studies 60.4 (2014): 844-862.
Ishiguro, K. Never Let Me Go. My Languages (2005): 442. Accessed on March 24, 2022. https://mylanguages.at.ua/Never_Let_Me_Go.pdf
Saif, K. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Critical Analysis: Dehumanization of Humanity and Racial Metaphor. Timespek (2020). https://timespek.com/never-let-me-go-kazuo-ishiguro-critical-analysis/
Shaddox, Karl. “Generic Considerations in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.” Hum. Rts. Q. 35 (2013): 448.
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