Grey's Anatomy... With a Twist / Synecdoche (Chapter 18/ Pages 207-217)

"Some carers, though, their whole attitude lets them down. A lot of them, you can tell, are just going through the motions, waiting for the day they're told they can stop and become donors. It really gets me, too, the way so many of them "shrink" the moment they step inside a hospital. They don't know what to say to the whitecoats, they can't make themselves speak up on behalf of their donor. No wonder they end up feeling frustrated and blaming themselves when things go wrong."

~ Never Let Me Go, page 208

The readers now follow Kathy through the third phase of her life. Being a carer has always come naturally to her, although it has been more difficult for some of her peers. An example of synecdoche is when Kathy refers to the doctors as "whitecoats." Using this term helps the reader understand that the carers do not think of doctors as they would a fellow carer. In a way, describing the doctors as only something they wear makes them something else, almost a different, subhuman breed. This is ironic, considering that the carers are the ones who actually were artificially created. This separation helps the reader understand why the carers feel as if they can't talk to the doctors - because they know they are different. It must be hard for the carers to go into a hospital and work with people who aren't the same as they are and know that they will soon be in the position in which the people they care for are.

And So We Start Never Let Me Go/1st Person (Chapter 1/Pages 3-12)

"My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for eleven years."

~ Never Let Me Go, page 3

I'll be honest - the first thing I thought of when I read the first page was that I was STOKED to read this book because it was in first person. This is my favorite type of perspective, perhaps because it seems so much more personal. In third person when the unknown narrator is describing what someone is feeling, I sometimes find myself wondering how they even know or thinking that they can't understand that character. The truth is pretty much completely subjective, right? The truth is different to every person, and until every involved person's idea of truth is known to all, we can't know the whole truth. I think that's why it is so difficult for me to read third person omniscient novels - they know the whole truth, which seems shady to me. I think it's so much easier to empathize  with the character if she (or he, but in this case the narrator is a woman) is telling you her own truth; it's like I can read her mind and it gives me proper insight into her problems and interests and emotions and history. Enough of that rant! Here are several questions and premature opinions I had about the first chapter.

1. What exactly does Kathy's career entail? I'm assuming that a "carer" is like a nurse simply from context, but I would really like a job description. 
2.  Are these donations like organ donations? Apparently, they have multiple operations, so I'm a little confused about that. 
3. Are Ruth and Tommy Kathy's friends or just kids with which she attended school? There are so many aspects of this situation that I must take into consideration. First, Kathy says that their differences hadn't vanished, so obviously there is some hostility, or at least mild argument, between her and Ruth. Secondly, during the incident on the field with Tommy, Ruth and the other girls (and boys for that matter) were blatantly bullying Tommy, which makes me question their ability to have friends at all. Also, Kathy especially recognized their cruelty, which makes me wonder if she has much respect for her "friends," or if they are simply bodies to associate with to fulfill her social needs. (Does that make sense?) Next is Tommy. Kathy seems to know personal details about him, which leads me to believe that they are friends, but she is falling victim to peer pressure and doesn't defend him from their peers. However, she does approach him and calm him down, which convinces me of the former... I think?

I'm just thinking aloud, but I have a feeling that the answers to these questions will reveal themselves soon in the novel.