Never Let Me Go
Lesson 1: Introduction
Who is this? Why is she
important?
The cloning of the first animal from an adult
cell was a remarkable scientific achievement.
It promised new treatments for debilitating
diseases. But it also raised fears of cloned
human beings, designer babies and a
dystopian future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
tELZEPcgKkE
Till min 3:10
Lesson Objective
• At the end of this lesson
we will know how we will
tackle reading the novel,
and discussed dystopian
literature.
Things We Will Need to Know
• Key plot points
• Characters
• Setting
• Parts of the story
Never Let Me Go
DYSTOPIAN
NOVEL
dystopia: (n) an
imaginary place or
condition in which
everything is bad
Do you know any examples of
Dystopian stories?
Films OR books/novels…..
Why do you think these stories are
interesting to us?
Dystopian Literature
• When we think about the
dystopian novel, what first
comes to mind is often
George Orwell's NineteenEighty-Four.
• Published in 1949; he
prophesied the advent of a
flawless totalitarian society,
in which the individual is of
literally no significance.
Why Read It?
• The critic Bernard Richards once
said 'dystopias are useful; they
warn us about what might
happen'.
• The dystopian novel is a
comforter to the human psyche;
we like to read about death and
corruption, as long as we know
that it can't happen to us. Or can
it?
• Could we all awaken one morning to find
our bank accounts mysteriously
cancelled? The world a changed,
oppressive place? Maybe, and perhaps it
is this that compels us to read dystopias;
they provide a spark of danger in our
otherwise mundane lives.
Common Concepts
• As with plot, almost all dystopias
deal with the same fundamental
concepts. Of these, the most
common include:
–The Status of the Individual
–The Nature of Power
–Communication
The Status of the
Individual
• In a word - low.
• The individual is of
little, if any
consequence, the
desire being for
uniformity within
society.
The Nature of Power
• There is some variation
here. The seat of power in a
dystopian society can rest
with an individual corrupt
dictator or a corrupt
governmental entity, but
the effect is much the same;
the individual is crushed and
freedom curtailed.
Communication
• Poor, artificial, stilted;
these are all words
that could apply to
communication in a
dystopian novel.
• Communication is just
another method of
control in the
dystopian society.
Never Let Me Go
• A Dystopian Novel
• Set in contemporary England,
• Follows Kathy H and her childhood
friends Ruth and Tommy