Art as a Demonstration of One's Humanity

Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go introduces the idea that art has the power to demonstrate an individual’s humanity or soul. From the very beginning of Never Let Me Go a mystery surrounds the purpose of creating artwork at Hailsham and the even more mysterious ritual of Madame, later known as Marie-Claude, taking a few of these pieces of artwork for an unknown reason. Later in the book, while Kathy and Tommy are seeking a deferral, Miss. Emily answers this question when she says, “We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all” (260). The audience does not receive a resolution to the question of what effects the display of this artwork had on the organ harvesting program, but we are able to see what Ishiguro presumes are the effects of an art education and a creative outlet in youth.

The first of these effects, which Ishiguro proposes as a demonstration of a soul, is the ability of art to awaken empathy in its viewers. This is evident in Miss. Lucy’s outburst in an effort to convince the cloned children at Hailsham to fear the idea of the donations (81), and also when Madame breaks down crying at the sight of Kath dancing with her imitation baby (72). The experiment being done at Hailsham was a demonstration of how well art can influence its viewers to extend their empathy to the artist, and this principle is seen with the gallery which the administrators at Hailsham hope will convince their audience to accept the humanity of clones.

The second of these effects seems to be the capacity of former Hailsham clones to have original thought as compared to other clones outside of Hailsham. The veterans at the cottage clearly behave differently than Kath and Tommy, excluding Ruth because she attempts to adopt their mannerisms, and this is noted by Kath as she observed “all kinds of other things the veteran couples had taken from TV programmes” (121). Instead having original mannerisms, many of the veterans at the Cottages adopt mannerisms from available media and each other, unlike the complex personalities the audiences sees at Hailsham. This also further the idea brought up by Miss. Emily that the art will “reveal” an individuals humanity because, unlike assuming the roles of actors within their own life, the students of Hailsham act in accordance to their own personality.

The audience can assume that the clones in this novel do indeed possess a soul based on the fact that the novel is narrated by one of these clones, and through her narration she demonstrates the ability to act morally, think complexly, and feel deeply for those she loves. I propose that the true intent of the artwork in this novel is to demonstrate ways in which empathy can be extended to ‘outgroups’ in society.