Evidence - Analysis
“Jackie’s giraffes,” Ruth said
with a laugh. “They were so
beautiful. I used to have
one. (Ruth to Kathy)
Jackie, one of the students from
Hailsham, becomes well known for
her creation of beautiful giraffes.
This allows her to have an identity
of her own and it becomes easy to
see why her peers
would covet something similar. The
students do not even have
individual surnames, so to be
known to others because of a
particular talent grounds the
students a sense of identity
“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…of building up a
collection of personal
possessions. If, say, you wanted
to decorate the walls around
your bed, or wanted something
to carry in your bag and place
on your desk from room to
room, then you could find it at
the Exchanges.” (Kathy)
It is the students’ attempts to
personalise here which reinforces
their attempts to add individuality
to their lives. They realise that this
will help them to create their own
identities. Therefore, creating a
personal space around their bed
for example, becomes increasingly
important to them.
Ruth was standing just in front
of me, so I couldn’t see her face,
but her whole posture froze up.
Then without a word, she turned
and pushed past me out of the
cottage. I got a glimpse of her
face then, and that’s when I
realized how upset she
was. (Kathy)
Ruth’s reaction to the news that
the planned trip to Norfolk might
not be happening after all is a firm
indication of how important
glimpsing her possible has
become. She feels, like many of the
students do, that if she at least
catches sight of the person from
whom she has been cloned, she
will be able to make a connection
with an individual who shares
similar features and personality
traits. This will then help Ruth to
strengthen her links to her own
identity and help her to feel unique
and different from the other
clones.
Later in the novel the reader sees how
a sighting of Ruth’s possible results in
the group of friends taking a trip to
Norfolk to see if they too can catch a
glimpse of her, “The way I
remember it, sightings of possibles
tended to come in batches. Weeks
would go by with no one
mentioning the subject, then one
reported sighting would trigger off
a whole spate of them,” recalls
Kathy.
The possibles are the only link the
clones have with their identity and so
Ruth suffers a huge disappointment
when it becomes obvious that she has
not been cloned from the woman
Rodney believes is her possible, A bit
of fun for you maybe, Tommy,” Ruth
said coldly, still gazing straight ahead
of her. “You wouldn’t think so if it was
your possible we’d been looking
for.' Here Ruth’s bitterness reveals
how all her hopes were pinned on
discovering the office worker in
Norfolk was the woman from whom
she had been cloned.
Evidence - Analysis
When Kathy is a carer and
begins to be given the option
of picking some of her
patients, she begins to seek
out donors who used to go
to Hailsham School. “I started
seeking out for my donor’s
people from the past, and
whenever I could, people
from Hailsham.” (Kathy)
Kathy’s use of the
word seeking suggests that she
actively searches for past
students from Hailsham in the
hope of being able to care for
them. This shows that friendship
is of real importance to her and
that she has not forgotten the
students she was at school with.
In addition, the power of
memories shaped Kathy’s
personal narrative and seeks to
honour the silenced stories of
the past students.
"The instant I saw her again,
at that recovery centre, all
our differences seemed not
nearly as important” Later
when Kathy meets Tommy
for the first time in many
years their closeness is
obvious, my heart had done a
little leap, because in a single
stroke, with that little laugh
of agreement, it felt as
though Tommy and I had
come close together
again... (Kathy)
After a considerable amount of
time apart, the friendship
between Kathy, Ruth and
Tommy is still strong. Ishiguro
shows how they remain close
because of their shared
experiences and because
ultimately they were the only
ones who really cared for each
other. With no actual family to
turn to, friendship between the
students was of the utmost
importance.