Both ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro and ‘My Sisters Keeper’ by Jodi Picoult explore issues that are widely discussed but rarely put into practice. For example the most famously known cloned experiment is Dolly the sheep which was in 1996 and there have been very few cases where a family have decided to create another child for the use of medical reasons, the first case of this in the UK was in 2002. Both novels focus on people or one person who have been created for the use of other people. Both of the novels are coming of age stories, in which the main characters question their identity as they grow into young adults. Anna was created for a bone marrow donor for her sister. As a young child Anna has had no control over the purpose her life, until she reaches thirteen and she starts to become aware that she is could change the situation and so finds a lawyer, and asks him for help. In Chapter One she says ‘I was born for a specific purpose.
I was born because a scientist managed to hook up my mother’s eggs and my father’s sperm to create a specific combination of precious genetic material.’ In ‘Never Let Me Go’ Kathy along with many others is a clone that was created as an organ donor for the use of other people or ‘originals’ as they are referred to in the novel. Kathy struggles to understand her true place in the world. Like Anna, Kathy also questioned her identity and has been confused and frustrated about who she really is. There are several points throughout the novel where Kathy looks through magazines to try and find her original. She continues to question her past and her childhood and as she explores her history, readers are able to have a clear understanding of who Kathy is and why she has found it difficult to discover an identity.
The Essay on Communal harmony and the question of cultural identity
Harmony and the co-existence of mutli-faceted elements are the two essential ingredients of any society which seeks sustainable longevity. In a pluralistic society the question of harmonious existence of its different structural units becomes all the more pertinent. An analogy can be observed with the human body wherein the different functional systems work in unison to create a perfect coherence. ...
The Authors explore the moral question of how scientific and medical advances are able to benefit other people. This a present day issue which may challenge the readers views on alternative solutions to medical issues and their views on the value of human life and the importance of identity. At the start of ‘My Sisters Keeper’ Anna’s prologue sets the tone of the novel. She says ‘In my first memory, I am three years old and I am trying to kill my sister.’ This may provide the readers with a subtle hint of what is going to happen. It reveals her honesty even at such a young age with her desire to have her own identity. This continues with ‘As we got older, I didn’t seem to exist, except in relation to her.’
However in ‘Never Let Me Go’ the readers are instantly introduced into Kathy’s. She talks about working and so the readers believe she has a job as a career for people who are donors, yet they don’t know that she is also a donor so the readers will perceive her as a normal person. Also within the first chapter of ‘Never Let Me Go’ Kathy talks about herself, Tommy and Ruth who are her closest friends throughout the book. Ishiguro introduces the characters with strong personalities, as is shown through Tommy’s expressive release of his anger, ‘He began to scream and shout’ and ‘he was raving, flinging his limbs about, at the sky, at the wind’. Kathy and Ruth are also seen as average children with their laughing, talking and sniggering. For the readers the characters are automatically seem as normal children.
