Hailsham: Never Let The Memories Go
Hope is something that can both save us and sink us depending on the situation. It is what gets us through the hard times and is the light within darkness. In Never Let Me Go the school Hailsham gives it students a good life and gives them hope even though they inevitably face a dark future. Some will say that giving their students hope did more harm than good, but to disagree. Hailsham was a small light that tried to shelter its students from the darkness outside. It could not change the world or the students fate, but it could give them hope and good memories to cling to in the dark times ahead.
One criticism for the existence of Hailsham is that giving their students hope and happiness, just makes them …show more content…
But what was the alternative? If they did not use euphemisms and keep the true nature of donations a secret, then it would only frighten them. If one was to know that their life would end in a gruesome way, would anyone want to know, or would it be better to just enjoy life till then? Hailsham allows the students to make peace with the idea of donations and allows them to live a relatively normal life. Although Ms. Lucy disagrees with this ideology, it can be said in this case that maybe ignorance is bliss. Afterall, how is anyone to live a happy childhood if they were constantly reminded that they were nothing more than organ donors? Hailsham lives in a world where “There was no way to reverse the process. How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable,how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days? There was no going back.” ( …show more content…
As it happened though, Hailsham shut down and the treatment of clones was worse than ever. Without Hailsham the world lost the drive to prove that clones were more than organ donors and they were on the path to be treated worse than before: “But in the end, as you know, we were obliged to close, and today there's hardly a trace left of the work we did. You won't find anything like Hailsham anywhere in the country now. All you'll find, as ever, are those vast government 'homes,' and even if they're somewhat better than they once were, let me tell you, my dears, you'd not sleep for days if you saw what still goes on in some of those places” ( Ishiguro). So is this a better alternative? Is putting them in miserable conditions for all of their youth and than making them so miserable that they welcome donations in the end, the better way? Is making somone hopeless better than giving them hope? Hailsham tried to be an answer but in the end no one wanted to hear it. Now there will be no guardians or art classes, their lives will just be about dying to save someone else. Just like a good donor
Hope is something that can both save us and sink us depending on the situation. It is what gets us through the hard times and is the light within darkness. In Never Let Me Go the school Hailsham gives it students a good life and gives them hope even though they inevitably face a dark future. Some will say that giving their students hope did more harm than good, but to disagree. Hailsham was a small light that tried to shelter its students from the darkness outside. It could not change the world or the students fate, but it could give them hope and good memories to cling to in the dark times ahead.
One criticism for the existence of Hailsham is that giving their students hope and happiness, just makes them …show more content…
But what was the alternative? If they did not use euphemisms and keep the true nature of donations a secret, then it would only frighten them. If one was to know that their life would end in a gruesome way, would anyone want to know, or would it be better to just enjoy life till then? Hailsham allows the students to make peace with the idea of donations and allows them to live a relatively normal life. Although Ms. Lucy disagrees with this ideology, it can be said in this case that maybe ignorance is bliss. Afterall, how is anyone to live a happy childhood if they were constantly reminded that they were nothing more than organ donors? Hailsham lives in a world where “There was no way to reverse the process. How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable,how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days? There was no going back.” ( …show more content…
As it happened though, Hailsham shut down and the treatment of clones was worse than ever. Without Hailsham the world lost the drive to prove that clones were more than organ donors and they were on the path to be treated worse than before: “But in the end, as you know, we were obliged to close, and today there's hardly a trace left of the work we did. You won't find anything like Hailsham anywhere in the country now. All you'll find, as ever, are those vast government 'homes,' and even if they're somewhat better than they once were, let me tell you, my dears, you'd not sleep for days if you saw what still goes on in some of those places” ( Ishiguro). So is this a better alternative? Is putting them in miserable conditions for all of their youth and than making them so miserable that they welcome donations in the end, the better way? Is making somone hopeless better than giving them hope? Hailsham tried to be an answer but in the end no one wanted to hear it. Now there will be no guardians or art classes, their lives will just be about dying to save someone else. Just like a good donor