This book explores love, duty, life, and death in the context of the fate of the clones, challenging readers to think deeply about what is truly important in our limited time.
Kathy, the story’s protagonist and narrator, is a 31-year-old “caregiver.” She has been a caregiver for “donors” for over 11 years, and among the donors she has cared for are her classmates Tommy and Ruth. Tommy, Ruth, and Cathy are all from Hailsham, a prestigious boarding school that is the envy of everyone. This is the first bit of background the reader is given. From there, the story unfolds as Cathy reminisces about her time at Halesham. The life of Halesham students as seen through Cathy’s eyes is very familiar. There are subtle power dynamics between friends, bullying, clumsy love affairs, and secret societies that provide a much-needed sense of belonging during adolescence. But there are also some oddities. For example, all students must never leave Halesham and have never been outside of it since they were born, all students must have weekly checkups with the doctor, and all students must never smoke.
Gradually, the reader learns that the Halesham children are “clones” created for organ donation, and it is eventually revealed that Halesham is a special pilot school created by some people who took issue with the cruel and immoral environment in which clones are raised.
The author, Ishiguro, has stated in an interview that the theme of the work is “the human lifespan” and that he wanted to talk about death by setting up a special situation where the lifespan is about 30 years. As a result, the author’s imagined fate for the clones is as follows: First, the clones are raised and educated in a boarding school. When they turn 16, they are moved to a cottage where they live for a few years, where they have their first contact with the outside world and are allowed to act relatively freely. After about two years in the cottages, they become caregivers, then donors, and, on average, die after their third donation. The lives of these 30-year clones are very different from our own, but the many metaphorical devices woven into their lives force the reader to think about life and death, and in this book in particular, to consider love, duty, and fate from a different angle.
‘If I were to die soon, how would I spend my remaining time? What moments will I remember most fondly when I’m older?” These are questions I asked myself when I thought, ‘I don’t know what to do now, but I want to live this moment so I don’t have regrets later.’ The author’s answers to these questions in the novel can be found in the following scene. In the scene where Tommy and Kathy, who are facing death, are working hard to ‘put off becoming donors for a while and get a few years of time together’, and in the scene where Kathy is filled with happiness as she recalls a moment when she and Tommy were looking for CDs. Through this, the author seems to be conveying the message that the most important thing in life is the time spent with the people you love.
There have been many times in my life when I have been busy and neglected my family and friends. I’ve been busy with exams, busy with clubs, busy with homework, and busy with the people around me, and I’ve put off spending time with them. But then I realize that it’s all because I’ve turned a blind eye to the truth that “we all die someday,” and that truth has been buried in the corner most of the time. You’ve believed that the people you love will always be there for you, that this time will continue as it is now. But one day, death will come, and you will have to say goodbye. When you face this obvious but unwelcome truth that our time is limited, a lot of things change. Things we thought were important in the short term don’t seem so important anymore, and we realize that there are things we’ve neglected that are really important and things that need to be done. This book gives us a chance to rethink what is truly important through their thoughts, ideas, and events near death.
But it’s not all positivity about love, as the author told another outlet.
“If we don’t realize that what we hold dear is in danger, there is nothing sad about the fact that our time is limited. The main characters in the novel irrationally believe that love can exempt them from their fate. Just as we all do. But love cannot protect us from death.”
The author recreates our own overconfidence in the power of love through Tommy and Cathy, who believe that love can delay giving. Therefore, it was my idea to draw the conclusion from that scene that “love and friendship are the most precious things in life, given the finiteness of time.” However, I wonder if, as the author says, even though love does not have the power to change fate, such as extending life, it has the power to make people truly happy, which is enough to be “the most precious thing in life.”
Throughout the book, I sympathized with the clones’ fate. I felt very sorry for them, knowing that they couldn’t have children, didn’t have the freedom to choose a career, and had to die young, leaving behind loved ones and donating their organs. On the one hand, it made me think about the freedoms I enjoy, and on the other hand, I couldn’t understand how the clones could live such a miserable life and not rebel, but just accept the life that was given to them. I kept thinking that this planet is so big, that they should have run away and tried to hide in the mountains back in the cottage days, and why don’t they even try? But the author told NPR that he portrayed it that way on purpose: “The clones live in a closed world, and they live only among people like them. It’s the only form of life they know, and it’s a lifespan that feels natural to them. So they feel obligated, rather than running away, and they try to do it well.”
As I reflected on those words, the distinction between Cathy and myself disappeared, and I wondered if I was living the same life as Cathy and the other clones in the article. Kathy, the clone, has accepted the life she’s been given and waits for the day she can become a donor. As a caregiver, she takes great pride in the fact that she does her job well. Originally from Hailsham, she consoles herself with the knowledge that she was chosen over others and is very lucky. Living in South Korea, I went to secondary school, came to university, and am looking forward to getting a job after graduation. As a student, I am happy when I do well in exams, and I try to do well in exams. I live in a good family environment, so I thought that I was given a lot compared to others. As my thoughts went this far, I realized that the author wasn’t wrong, at least not for me: I was walking the path that many people walk, trying to do well, but not thinking much about why I was living this life. I never thought of escaping, never had the courage to do so. If the clones in the box felt foolish, wouldn’t my similar life feel foolish in someone’s eyes?
However, based on other interviews with the author, the author’s portrayal of conforming to fate and fulfilling one’s obligations wasn’t as negative as I thought it would be: “Escapism is not a theme I wanted to explore in the book, because in real life, it’s not an option. The characters in this book are just doing what we all do. That is to try to give meaning to our lives by fulfilling our obligations.”
In another interview, the author said: “I tried to celebrate decency in the face of a dark fact in all of our lives, and that dark fact is that we live with an ongoing countdown.”
The author doesn’t see the activity of fulfilling one’s duties as slavishly passive, but rather as an active effort to preserve human decency in the face of the dark condition of life: one day we will die. If I accept this opinion, I don’t think I need to beat myself up too much for doing my duties rather than doing nothing, thinking that it doesn’t matter because one day I will die. However, as I am about to finish my student life and enter the workforce, I think the question of “what are my duties?” is still valid because I can choose my duties.
I used to live my life out of habit, doing the mundane things in the excuse of being busy, but I didn’t have time to ask questions. “What am I studying for? Why do I need to be busy sometimes, or even often, giving up time with my family? Do I need to achieve something in my life?” But I didn’t answer them properly because I didn’t have the time. These important but unimportant questions have come to the forefront as I read this book, and I think it’s time to take the time to think, think, think, and find my own answers to them one by one. Even though this book is about the life of an ordinary cloned human being, not a particularly great person, the author’s intentions behind it make me reflect on my own life.
