"That's why that afternoon by the pond, when Tommy was telling me about his talk with Miss Lucy, about how she'd said to him we weren't being "taught enough" about some things, the memory of that time in the library - along with maybe one or two other little episodes like that - started tugging at my mind."
~ Never Let Me Go, page 41
Remember the "other things" I mentioned in my last blog? Well, I have some theories about them now. I feel that Kathy's emphasis on Miss Lucy's seemingly unimportant ramblings is foreshadowing something quite important. So what aren't the students taught enough about? I believe it's the donations. I have this idea that the students are going to this school (Hailsham) to grow up to be donors or carers. At the beginning of the book, Kathy talked about her experiences as a carer and the "donations" that her patients had to make. This wouldn't be such a big deal, except that they had to make a large number of donations (the largest I remember was four which seems like a lot); I'm thinking organs, but there does reach a point where one must stop so his own body can function. (You could donate a kidney, blood, a spline, part of a liver, or an eye, but what else?) Anyway, I think that students go to Hailsham and other similar institutions with a very controlled environment to be taught proper behavior and social etiquette - along with academics, of course - so they can one day become a donor without opposition. I think that, as children, they are taught to be creative and to contribute their artwork to the school so that they are conditioned to give to society without question. Maybe this isn't the main goal of the school, but I think it definitely has significance.
In case you weren't aware, "Schmidt AP Lit" rhymes.
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That kind of makes this homework suck a little less. Thank you, sir!
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