Hailsham is a school secluded away from the
outside world with students more special than anywhere else. They are always
reminded how important they are and how important their work in art, writing,
and poetry is for Madame’s Gallery. The students never asked questions about
why they had to do art, why are they learning more about one thing then
another, or what’s going to happen when they leave the school. Asking those
questions was thought to be embarrassing or awkward to the other students
around, but as Kathy H. and her friends began to grow up they got curious. It
seemed there were more secrets hanging around Hailsham that the guardians would
never discuss or only just allude to in a passing conversation. As more
theories and rumors came to minds of the students as they left the school and
grew up, they could only wonder about their existence/future and why their
artwork was so important for their souls and for Madame.Ishiguro’s central theme throughout the whole book was proving that the students were actually students and had hearts and souls like everyone else. At this point you are probably like what the hell is she talking about, but that’s because you don’t know that the students of Hailsham were clones. They didn’t all look the same, or act the same, but they were all created for the same purpose (which I’m not going to tell you, so read the book yourself). Ishiguro told stories of these kids growing up to show that they acted like normal people and shouldn’t have been hidden away from the outside world. Ishiguro told Kathy’s stories about her friends, artwork, and emotions, to prove that these clones were just like the humans controlling the school and should’ve had the rights that all the normal people had. In developing this central theme, Ishiguro used the literary element of setting. He set the story in the future world and made the school seem as isolated and hidden away as possible. This set up the story for him perfectly to be able to talk about why these students should not have been treated as creatures or clones, but true humans living with the rest of society just for a different purpose.
I actually really enjoyed this book. I am not
much of a reader, but I was able to get through the book at an efficient pace
and although it wasn’t always a nail biting, page turner (like the Hunger
Games), it was still interesting. I think Ishiguro wrote the book really well
and I would definitely consider reading more of the books that he wrote.
Ishiguro wrote the book just as if Kathy H. was telling you the story herself
in a flashback and I liked that part about it. Yes, I know that is called
writing in first person, but he didn’t just write it like every other first
person book; he wrote it with language that someone like Kathy’s character
would use and also in like a laid-back-having-a-cup-of-tea kind of talking way.
I also felt like Ishiguro included the right stories in the beginning about the
students being at Hailsham. What I mean is that, he didn’t mention pointless
stories about when they were kids and different events that happened just to
make the book longer. He had stories about them that either added to the events
in the book right then, or that the reader would look back to and say “oh, yeah
that’s why that event in their childhood was so important.” I did not find very
many things that I thought were weak with the book, but one thing I did not
like were some of the details he added about certain things. I know that in
some cases details are needed to set up a scene or describe an event where the
details of the surroundings were super important, but in some cases the details
were just unnecessary. At some points in the book I almost felt like I was
reading about every single step they took or when they turned left, right, up,
down, backwards, and so on. By the end of the book, I was just realizing how
unimportant the details were and I would just skip the paragraphs that had no
important information what so ever in them.
I felt after reading this that it was a great,
well written book, but not a book for everyone. I would suggest this book to
people who enjoy more of a serious book with some romantic aspects because it
is definitely not a boyish, rough and tough action novel or a book with a happy
comedic uplifting story.
