Never Let Me Go

How is the device first person narration used to create the theme?

I'm completing a theme essay and have to infuse one device that helps create the theme "discovering their role in the world." Any quotes would be greatly appreciated

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Okay, I've been researching this for you............. well, for quite awhile now! I read this book, but admittedly didn't read it thinking about using it with my students. It was summer reading, and I enjoyed it but didn't pay quite enough attention to detail to really give you what you need. I had some things picked out for you, and then I found the library book club questions I'm going to link for you below. Yes, they're questions, but the questions will help you develop the theme you're working with here. It's filled with quotes that I was immediately able to see would work. Use link 1 to open the questions.

Also, remember that the most important and fundamental question addressed in this novel is simply,“What does is mean to be human?” The answer to this question goes beyond our souls, experiences in love, or striving toward the goal we can't reach. What does it means to be human? To be human means death. Death always lurks behind us; it's always present, and at times it can add a sense of urgency to the way we live our lives.

Kathy's narration is based on memories rather than the present. Her memories of boarding school are very much the norm, and as the characters mature their outlook doesn't change.......... this fact kind of stays with you. There's no outrage, rebellion, or attempts to escape their fate........ even though they know what it is. They silently sit back while their organs are harvested piece by piece until they've not enough of themselves left to survive, and they do it quietly. Should their acceptance be considered admirable? Honorable? Or are they simply so conditioned and brainwashed from the beginning that they don't foresight or the desire to fight?

Just a few thoughts there.......... hope they help a bit!

At times it seems peculiar for Kathy's life to be so ordinary. Even as they mature, Kathy and her friends express no outrage against the cruel system imposed on them, nor does it ever occur to them to rebel or escape before their vital organs are claimed. They have access to a car, but they use it to go shopping, to see the countryside, once to look for one girl's "original," but never to try to get away. Perhaps this shows a lack of initiative, but Ishiguro treats it as something admirable. Despite their hopeless situation, these young clones are brave and spirited enough to pursue the same sort of friendships, loves, and impossible dreams for the future that drive the rest of us, often just as hopelessly.

Source(s)

http://www-library.ncifcrf.gov/bookclubdis/never_let_me_go.aspx?print=yes&styles=s2

Source for last paragraph above:

Source(s)

http://www.fantasticreviews.com/never_let_me_go.htm