A disciplina de Inglês do 12º ano é dedicada ao estudo de uma série de grandes romances britânicos e americanos do século XX. Tópicos como o ponto de vista na narrativa, a solidão existencial ou certas preocupações pós-modernas como o questionamento da verdade histórica e a relação com a alteridade vão sendo levantados, interrogados e ajuizados criticamente. Chegados a este ponto do caminho, é hora de cada aluno escolher um dos romances incluídos no currículo da disciplina e lê-lo sob a perspectiva de um dos vários temas discutidos em aula. O resultado desta leitura, apoiada por bibliografia secundária, será a escrita de um ensaio, de cujo projecto os alunos apresentaram agora o resumo.
Uma das obras sob inspecção é de Kazuo Ishiguro, escritor britânico que, tendo nascido em Nagasaki, veio para o Reino Unido em 1960 com a família, aos cinco anos. Mais conhecido pelo seu livro Os Despojos do Dia (1989) - muito por causa do filme de James Ivory, protagonizado por Anthony Hopkins e Emma Thompson -, Nunca Me Deixes (2005) é tão ou mais merecedor de atenção. É seguramente um livro para o nosso tempo. Não poderia deixar de atrair os alunos, quer pelos problemas tão contemporâneos como eternos que coloca, quer pela história comovente que relata.
Antes de terem o prazer de ler (no original) os resumos escritos pelos quatro alunos que elegeram este romance como objecto da sua investigação, gostaria de vos introduzir ao principal sentimento que perpassa por toda a obra deste escritor. Apesar de ter crescido no Reino Unido, Kazuo Ishiguro não perdeu as suas raízes nipónicas e aquele "pathos de todas as coisas" conhecido por "mono no aware" é, mais uma vez, a atmosfera construída ao longo deste romance e a nota em que termina. Em vez de uma longa definição, deixo aqui uma canção retirada do que foi, pelo menos para mim, um dos melhores discos saídos o ano passado: Four of Arrows, dos Great Grandpa. A composição do álbum foi influenciada pela leitura que o líder da banda fez da obra de Ishiguro, por isso, como não podia deixar de ser, o single que inaugurou o ciclo de promoção do disco foi precisamente "Mono No Aware". E, de facto, nada descreve tão bem um sentimento como uma canção: "It now reminds me of my failing grasp/ of the present, memory, self and past".
Frederico Meira | This is a book about the human search for the meaning of life and how this is something inherent to the human condition
The novel I have chosen, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, tells the story of three friends, Kathy (who is also the first person narrator), Ruth and Tommy, from the time they are still in school to the very end of their lives. From the beginning of the novel, we, readers, get to know some odd things about their school, Hailsham: there are many activities going on there which are completely strange for us (even the narrator keeps saying “I don’t know how it was where you were”, which reveals Kathy’s conscience that Hailsham is not like the other schools). This makes us a little suspicious: we begin to think that there is something else about that school that has not been revealed yet. As we move forward on the novel, we understand that “strange thing” about Hailsham: all its students were cloned from real human beings. Moreover, it is revealed that their existence has an actual purpose, which is to become “donors” (people who donate organs) when they are already grown-ups.
Since the beginning of the novel that we were confronted with this concept of “donor”, but we had never fully understood its meaning. When we finally do, some aspects start to make sense, of course, but some remain (apparently) imperceptible. It would be normal for students to assume that their lives had already a meaning, that someone had decided they would became donors, and therefore they would try to make the best out of the time they had left before that. But Kathy (mostly) and her friends, although that might be what appears at first sight, never stop asking the ultimate questions: they want to know the whole truth and not just what they are told as kids. This is a book about the human search for the meaning of life and how this is something inherent to the human condition.
Inês Villa de Freitas | Clones are rational, therefore they can be considered human
Based on my reading of Never Let Me Go and Donald Davidson’s essay "Rational Animals" (Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective), in my final paper I will try to prove that clones are so similar to humans that it is possible and even fair to consider them human. In my work, I will also touch on what can be considered the fundamental characteristics of a human being and relate those to the characters of the book so as to illustrate why they should be considered human.
After reading part of Davidson’s essay, we can safely conclude that what distinguishes humans from other irrational creatures is their ability to have “propositional attitudes such as belief, desire, intention, and shame”. Kathy, Never Let Me Go’s first person narrator and one of its main characters, has all these essential characteristics. The way she thinks, expresses herself and acts is so similar to a human that the reader only discovers that she and all her friends are clones well into the story. Davidson concludes that “rationality is a social trait. Only communicators have it”. In Never Let Me Go, Hailsham’s students have the ability to communicate, express their feelings (especially complex emotions that we commonly associate with humans such as empathy, love, desire, regret) and even create art, which is undoubtedly a sophisticated form of expression.
Exploring how Hailsham shapes the characters’ sense of identity and how this identity evolves as they mature as well as important topics such as the essence of a person, rationality and the importance of language, will help me illustrate that clones in Never Let Me Go can be considered identical to humans since they share the fundamental traits associated to mankind.
Leonor Gomes | Ruth's fear of loneliness is the reason why she is unable to deal with the inevitability of unhappiness and loss as a natural part of life
This brutally heartfelt novel, by Kazuo Ishiguro, makes use of alternative history to approach several interesting themes in a faithful and unbelievably touching portrayal of human behaviour, while trying to cope with the ever-growing awareness of the weight of life and the choices we make. One of the themes with which Never Let Me Go concerns itself is the inevitability of the passage of time and the loss and pain that necessarily come with it. In this light, while reading, I was struck by the contrast in behaviour between the characters Kathy and Ruth. I decidedly concluded that what makes them so different is their outlook on life regarding the aforementioned theme.
Growing up, while Kathy gracefully accepts the unchangeable nature of events in her life, but still looks for answers to her questions, Ruth however seems to wilfully live in a fantasy world, where teachers give her beautiful pencil cases, where she has a virtually perfect relationship with her boyfriend and wants to work in an office someday. This shows deep unsettlement and wishful thinking on her part that simply aren’t compatible with the idea of Ruth accepting herself as she is, but rather reveal that she lived most of her life overshadowed by fear. These wishes, that she unnaturally forces into reality and that take a toll on her friendships and on her own self-esteem, all have in common the root issue that makes her unable to cope with reality: her fear of loneliness. That this is the reason Ruth is unable to deal with the inevitability of unhappiness and loss as a natural part of life, will be the main thesis in this paper.
Margarida Seabra | We are story-telling animals
Throughout this essay, I intend to argue that we are story-telling animals. This thesis comes from an extract from “The Virtues, the Unity of a Human Life and the Concept of a Tradition”, where MacIntyre defends the idea of a narrative self. The thesis that we are story-tellers has two grounds for MacIntyre. On the one hand, the author states that it is through contact with stories that we learn how to approach others. On the other hand, our life is itself a narrative, it has a beginning and an end, and it is this “beginning” that provides our “personal identity”.
When reading Never Let Me Go, one of the aspects that most stands out is the connection that the main character reveals with the past, how her life is made of a constant reminder of childhood and how it is in this childhood that she seeks for answers for her current challenges. If we read Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, we also become aware of the monster's need to know its origins, which is why he seeks Frankenstein's approval so much. What connects the monster of Mary Shelly and the clones of Kazuo Ishiguro is the absence of a beginning, of something that gives them the basis to live, that gives them their identity. Frankenstein's monster is not loved by its creator and has to educate himself, the Never Let Me Go clones do not even have a creator and their childhood does not provide answers about their identity, because those who controlled it, always sought to deceive them.
Hence, my point is that in creating non-human characters, to bring them closer to us, the authors made them story-tellers or at least engendered in them this need, revealing that this is one of the fundamental human characteristics. Therefore, I will explore concepts such as memory, imitation, the importance of a creator, the need for a purpose, the inevitability of loss and the relevance of Never Let Me Go being a post-modern novel, as it uses tools like metafiction and alternative history.