Never Let Me Go vs By Celia Aloia, Stephanie Wright, Alison Swanbeck, Emma Hawkes & Baylee Kennington

All of you have 1984, but for those of you who have not read Never Let Me Go : The Trailer: DEo8A

Background: Kazuo Ishiguro

Background: George Orwell

Thesis In a dystopian society, hope sustains an individual.

Development of Individuality

1984 “It was a queer thing, even a compromising thing, for a Party member to have in his possession. Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect”(96). Never Let Me Go “Looking back now, I can see why the Exchanges became so important to us. For a start, they were our only means, aside from the Sales- the Sales were something else, which I’ll come to later- of building up a collection of personal possessions”(16). “’Don’t forget, Kath, what she’s got reveals our souls. She could decide for herself what’s a good match and what’s just a stupid crush’”(176).

Love Gives Hope

1984 “’When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you feel like that’”(133). “Scores of times she had done it; he wished it had been hundreds- thousands. Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope”(125). Never Let Me Go “’What they said,’ Chrissie continued, ‘was that is you were a boy and a girl, and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so that you could have a few years together before you started your donations’”(153).

Authority Figures

Authority Figures: Trust 1984 “’I am with you,’ O’Brien seemed to be saying to him. ‘I know precisely what you are feeling. I know all about your contempt, your hatred, your disgust. But don’t worry, I am on your side!’ And then the flash of intelligence was gone”(17). Never Let Me Go “There was a real sense of feeling bad that we had, in some collective way, let down Ms. Emily, but try as we might, we couldn’t really follow these lectures” (43).

Authority Figures: Take Hope Away 1984 “’If you have ever cherished any dreams of violent insurrection, you must abandon them. There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is forever”(261-2). Never Let Me Go “’It’s something for them to dream about, a little fantasy. What harm is there? But for the two of you, I can see this doesn’t apply. You are serious. You’ve thought carefully. You’ve hoped carefully. For students like you, I do feel regret. It gives me no pleasure at all to disappoint you. But there it is’”(258).

Leaders of Defiance

Leaders of Defiance: Beliefs 1984 “He was denouncing the dictatorship of the Party, he was demanding the immediate conclusion of peace with Eurasia, he was advocating freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought, he was crying that the Revolution had been betrayed”(12). Never Let Me Go “’The problem as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you are going to have decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly”(81).

Leaders of Defiance: How they are viewed 1984 “’Goldstein and his heresies will live forever. Every day, at every moment, they will be defeated, discredited, ridiculed, spat upon- and yet they will always survive’”(268). Never Let Me Go “’She was a nice enough girl, Lucy Wainright. But after she’d been with us for a while, she began to have these ideas. More aware of what lay ahead of you, who you were, what you were for. She believed you should be given as full a picture as possible. That to do anything less would be somehow to cheat you. We considered her view and concluded she was mistaken’”(267).

Conclusion

Works Cited 1. Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., Print. 2. Orwell, George New York: New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., Print.

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