Comparative Study


Comparative study: Cultural context Never Let Me Go


Brooklyn


The lives of the central characters in Never Let Me Go are greatly restricted by the setting and their social class. Because the clones are regarded as less than human, they are raised in homes and kept away from ‘normal’ people for most of their lives. Although Hailsham is a pleasant home in many ways, it is still a prison of sorts. The children are not locked in but are kept from leaving by horror stories about students who wandered off and were brutally murdered or were forbidden to return and died in the woods. The guardians raise the students to accept that they are considered inferior to ‘normal’ people.


When the students are old enough to live independently, they are moved to run-down cottages in the countryside. Despite having more freedom, the students rarely venture out of the Cottages in the early days of their time there. Kathy believes that there is a part of all of the students which will forever be ‘fearful of the world’ around them because of the restrictive nature of a childhood spent in a single location. As the novel progresses, the settings become bleaker, reflecting the characters’ fading hopes and opportunities. Kathy sees the setting as a reflection of the clones’ position in society, reflecting that the ‘dark byways of the country’ are for ‘the likes of us’ while ‘the big glittering motorways with their huge signs and super cafés were for everyone else’.


Kathy and her friends are not just from the lowest social class in society – they have no social class. The clones accept their situation because they have been raised to believe there is no other path for them.


The film Brooklyn is set in Enniscorthy and New York. These two settings present us with different views on social class. At the start of the film, Eilis’s life is restricted by her setting and social class, but she still has a great deal of freedom and opportunities compared to Kathy and the other clones in Never Let Me Go.


One similarity between the settings in the novel and the film, however, is the efforts those in authority make to keep others in their place. Just as the guardians in Hailsham mould the children in their care to accept their status, Miss Kelly does her best to reinforce the social hierarchy in her small town. She openly belittles a working-class woman in the shop and ignores the queue in order to serve the well-off Mrs Brady first. Eilis dislikes the inflexible nature of the social structure in her home town.


Unlike the clones in the novel, who accept their position because they have been raised to comply, Eilis is determined to make a better life for herself. She moves to New York, a much freer society in which people have greater opportunities to make money and improve their lot. In contrast to the increasing bleakness of the settings in Never Let Me Go, New York is portrayed as a bright, vibrant place, particularly as Eilis becomes happier about her love life and career prospects. Eilis’s move to New York is a far greater step towards bettering herself than the clones’ move to The Cottages, which are little more than holding pens for donors. Eilis’s experiences in New York are so positive that when she returns to Ireland, she is a changed person and slots immediately into a different social class. Before she left, the


412 King Lear and Comparatives


Philadelphia, Here I Come! Setting and social class affect the lives of the characters in a text.


In Philadelphia, Here I Come! Gar is restricted by social class and setting but less so than Kathy and the other characters in Never Let Me Go, because, like Eilis in Brooklyn, he has a choice. He can decide to live with the restrictions of his social setting or he can choose to escape them. The characters in Never Let Me Go have no such choice. However, just because Gar can choose to escape the restrictions of life in his home town does not mean that it is easy. Both Gar and Eilis are torn between a love of their home place and a desire to seek a better life. The difference is that Gar does not have the loving support Eilis gets from her family and friends. Although they are sorry she is leaving, those close to Eilis understand that she can never achieve her full potential in Ireland and so encourage her to make a new life for herself in Brooklyn. Gar’s father, on the other hand, does not openly support his son’s moving to America, although he does little to oppose it.


In contrast to the other two texts, in which the setting changes as the characters move on, nothing changes in Philadelphia, Here I Come!, which is part of the tragedy. Gar feels constricted by a world that is not moving with the times, but he does not see that he is just as much at fault as his father and his friends in refusing to change. In his conversation with ‘the boys’, Gar reverts to his public self and does not challenge their imagined encounters with local and visiting women. Eilis, on the other hand, queries Nancy’s interest in George from the rugby club, wondering aloud if it is George’s wealth that attracts her friend. This ability to challenge the status quo sets Eilis apart from the characters in the other two texts and is the reason that she is more successful than them.


Gar, like Eilis and Kathy, has to deal with being looked down on by those who feel socially superior. This is a far more serious


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