Never Let Me Go By Kazuo Ishiguro

One common theme between good and bad priests is that the vocation they were called to never seems to completely leave them. This is a common theme in Silence, by Shusaku Endo. In the beginning of the novel, the reader discovers that Ferreiera apostatized, giving up not only his roles as a priest but his faith in God as well. Although Ferreira abandoned the priesthood and gave up shepherding the few Catholics of Japan, he still continues “to be useful to others, [which] was the one wish and the only dream of one who had dedicated himself to the priesthood” . However, once he is reunited with Sebastian, “there flashed into his eyes a servile smile and momentary shame”. Here Ferreiera feels as though he has failed Sebastian because if he had not apostatized, Sebastian, acting as a good priest, would never have gone to Japan to save him.

In Robert Cormier’s novel, We All Fall Down, is a young-adult thriller that explores the evil side of humanity through a number of corrupt characters. Cormier, to a large extent, accurately depicts manipulative and dishonest behaviour whilst also showing the evil lurking within the prominent characters of Harry Flowers, Buddy Walker and Mickey Stallings who showcase the dark side of humanity. Cormier explores this through Harry Flower’s manipulative actions that result in the suffering of others. Additionally, the constant dishonest behaviour is shown predominantly through the main protagonist of Buddy Walker, who deceives the one he loves. Cormier continues to depict the evil lurking in society through the theme of appearance

'Keeper N Me ' by Richard Wagamese, is a novel based on the necessary balance between life and the culture in which one belongs to. This is a necessary aspect in order to maintain a steady relationship with one 's self. In this novel passing on traditions or a certain way of life from generation to generation is one of the most important aspects of guiding someone of the Ojibway culture, as the Ojibway people have very strong beliefs and take their culture very seriously. The people of the Ojibway culture believe that through storytelling and dreams one can realize the importance of tradition and its influence on their identity. Wagamese throughout his novel tries to teach the readers the power of one 's community and traditions as he

Never Let Me Go is a prime example of moral conflicts in today’s society. While these issues are currently invalid in today’s current science world, the future in this may increase the potentials of what the world may be in a few years. This novel provides numerous moral conflicts: friendship, cloning, organ donations, conformity and honesty. The morals are not clearly clear cut, but they are hidden to point that a reader can be guided for to find morality. Just because the opportunity such as “cloning” and the possible advancement of it doesn’t necessarily mean society should enhance the

Science fiction is a way for an author to express their concerns in the world while using fiction to bring up controversial ideas. In Unwind , Neal Shusterman is able to incorporate science fiction in a way to not only get his points across but to also make the reader think, and adjust the message to relate to one's own life. Unwind takes place in the future where it is an option for parents to choose to have their child unwound, meaning they would be taken from their family and taken apart. Their body parts would then be given to someone who is sick or injured. The reader is introduced to the main characters: three teenagers who have relatable backgrounds to teenage readers in order to help one connect and feel a part of the story. As readers start learning about these characters, Lev, Connor and Risa, new issues develop which create life or death situations that these adolescence have to deal with alone. While this story is science fictional the plot of these kids struggling to find who they are and what their purpose is, while their parents have given up on them, is something most readers can relate to in one way or another, whether it’s being unsure about the future, having family problems, or being told something can’t be done. In Unwind, the author, Neal Shusterman,

The play “No Child”, written by Nilaja Sun showcases a teacher, Ms. Sun as a teaching artist who is under a grant to facilitate the production of a play, teaching and encouraging live theoretical performances in a dysfunctional environment.No Child is a reflection of Nilaja Sun’s experiences as a teaching artist in the public school system in New York. In the play Ms. Sun brings a senses of hope and inspiration not only to the students but to the teachers as well in one of the toughest classrooms of Malcolm X High School, in Bronx, New York. The narrator of the play is a observant Janitor of the Malcolm X High School. Since he has been performing his job related duties as a janitor he witnessed the struggles and obstacle faced by the school and students. No Child accurately illustrates students, teachers and communities imprisoned by a corrupted public school system.

Let the Water Hold Me Down by Michel Spurgeon is written in a very unique and skillful way of the realities of being of human, and dealing with loss and grief, guilt and longing, loyalty and love. These psychopathologies affect the readers and present a different way of seeing the text. By applying critical theory to this novel, not only the reader but the main character, Hank Singer, gets a different perspective, a new lens after making several changes in his life. Critical theory helps individuals observe from an unusual angle and learn things in new ways, different from his or her typical way of viewing things. It opens up new lenses, and through this new lens, it can lead to new understanding or unfortunately, make things harder to understand. "Knowledge is what constitutes our relationship to our world, for it is the lens through which we view our world"Tyson states if the lens is changed, the view and the viewer may be changed as well.

The film GATTACA and the short story, “Nine Lives,” exemplifies the ethics of altering human life at the genetic level, through techniques of genetic engineering. Throughout GATTACA, the ability to create improved, even superior forms of human life as a positive development through eugenics is shown as well as arousing questions about the moral implications of such engineering. The main protagonist in GATTACA, Vincent Freeman, battles with the discrimination of being an “invalid” in a world of “valids” and comes to realize that he is not an inferior being in the midst of an altered humanity. In “Nine Lives,” a lone survivor of the ten genetically engineered clones of John Chow struggle come to understand itself in relation to unaltered humanity and its individuality for the first time in its life. A dystopian society is produced when unaltered humans and genetically engineered beings coexist and interact with one another due to nefarious social practices such filtering menial jobs only to “invalids” in GATTACA and the emphasis in the value of clones and their worth to society as collective work group rather than focusing on each individual’s contribution to society. The film GATTACA exhibits the adverse nature of eugenics while “Nine Lives” stresses the importance of individualism instead of collectivism and fend off the need to be reliant on others to feel welcomed in society.

Holding Onto the Air an autobiography by Suzanne Farrell takes the reader backstage in the dramatic life of the world-renowned Balanchine ballerina. From her childhood in Cincinnati to her retirement from ballet in 1989, Farrell's story is truly a remarkable one. The book describes at length her time with the New York City Ballet as well as her complex relationship with the legendary Balanchine. Although Mrs. Farrell goes a bit too far into the ballet descriptions, her beautiful imagery allows reader to experience the joy of performing on stage.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

Literature has a crucial role in configuring the nature and limits of the human (Bennett and Royle. 2009 p. 252) and what it means to be human. Both texts, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, challenge the traditional definition of the human. According to Oxford Dictionaries Online (p. 1), ‘Human’ relates to or characteristics of human kind for example, the human body and the complex nature of the human mind. It also states being susceptible to weakness. The characters, Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein and the students in Never Let Me Go, both texts fit into some categories of the human however differ slightly from the actual human by challenging the traditional definition.

Teju Cole’s phenomenally written original novel majorly takes place in New York City. Cole character was easy to relate to because of his Nigerian American decent being that I am a Ghanaian American. Cole is a Nigerian American. He was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and came to the United States in 1992 at the age of seventeen. Cole is also well educated and is a graduate student at Columbia University. I found it insightful how in the novel Cole met several various types of people, including other immigrants. He met and shared stories with a Haitian shoe shiner, at work in Penn Station; a Liberian, imprisoned for over two years in a dentition center in Queens; and a Moroccan student working at an Internet café. I enjoyed the fact that the narrator was well stocked minded. He touched on the topics of art, music, and interesting books. He had a very eclectic set of interest.

An anonymous person once said, “Who gossips with you will gossip of you”. This quote is saying that whoever shares gossip with an individual about someone or something will not hesitate when talking about the same person with another individual. Gossip is in no way a new idea, since many people at one point in their lives have taken part in a conversation about another individual’s personal business. Every day, especially in modern day society, many men and women are susceptible to gossip and its consequences. One major consequence includes false information being spread around, which causes people to become misled; this may eventually cause loss of a person’s reputation. The way gossip can affect many different things is presented in a plethora of scenarios in life and literature. An analysis of literary terms and techniques in Leonardo Sciascia’s novel To Each His Own demonstrates the idea that gossip in small towns may sometimes be extremely virulent since it is spreading false information and can affect one’s reputation through the vilification of that person.

Biologically, a human is unarguably a homosapien. However, when we begin to analyze the acts that constitute human behavior, the criteria to be human becomes difficult to characterize. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, where student clones are raised in isolation to ‘complete’ their lives as organ donors, the debate between what is human become pertinent, specifically when analyzing the ethics of the clones upbringing. Mark Jerng in his article, Giving Form to Life: Cloning and Narrative Expectations of the Human, examines the presence of clones and the use of fragmented narration to argue that the “normative narrative of individuation operates within the imagination of cloning […] to prescribe the proper form for life” (371). By

Tommy is an exceptional runner; he is better than the rest and the idea that he is so different from everyone else is why he gets picked on, further establishing Hailsham as a homogenous society that chastises anyone who steps outside the realm of social norms. The main reason why Tommy is marginalized is because, “he’s a lay about… about how Tommy never even tried to be creative” (10). It is ironic that people are not defined by how hardworking they are, but not wanting to submit work to the Exchanges seems to contradict this notion. The students do not accept Tommy because he is childish and is not trying to be like one of them. They value maturity and maturity is revealed through how much work they put into their art. Thus, art creates a social hierarchy that Tommy is at the nethermost of. Kathy says Tommy is a “good example” of some “jokey allusions” they would make for things that lay in front of them (84). By taunting Tommy saying that his wound would “unzip like a bag opening up” shows how all the students scapegoat Tommy; they have emotions and fears that they project onto him (84). Ishiguro compares the students’ emotions to a wound opening up and spilling