Never Let Me Go Research Essay
“Men can imagine their own deaths, they can see them coming, and the mere thought of impending death acts like an aphrodisiac.” Crake, the antagonist of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, emphasizes something that is vocalized in many literary works: the prospect of death can drastically alter a person's behavior. However, in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, the antagonist Ruth is completely drained when she sees her death as opposed to the desperate, sexually stimulated men Crake describes. Ruth’s days of energy and sexual activity are when she is in Hailsham and the Cottages. During that time, Ruth serves as the main villain against Kathy, the protagonist of the novel. As a villain, Ruth is one of the most hateful characters in Never Let Me Go. Her villainy emphasizes the futility of trying to escape reality.
Even before Ruth and Kathy become friends, Ruth is the center of attention. Ruth relishes her position of power and control, and does whatever she can to make others her loyal followers. She enjoys it so much that when Kathy threatens this power and control by demonstrating to Ruth she knows that Ruth had lied earlier about her pencil case, Ruth is “at a complete loss for words...on the verge of tears.” Ruth manages to control her subjects by creating a system by which she is the judge, jury, and executioner. This system is the “secret guard,” a group created to watch over one of Hailsham’s guardians, Ms. Geraldine. This guard is ruled by Ruth as their Ceasar. When one of the members does something that jeopardizes her position as the group leader or insults her, Ruth does not hesitate to dismiss him or her and ruthlessly attack the outcast afterwards. Oftentimes this would be done by ...
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...ceeded in doing anything, it succeeded in making Ruth the center of attention. However, her villainy also attracted hatred and anger. In the end, Ruth failed to escape her reality as a clone. A character that reaffirms this idea is Crake from Oryx and Crake. Even though Crake is also a villain and uses betrayal and manipulation, he maintains a keen grip on reality. In the end, his plan succeeds, because he confronts reality, and deals with it.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. Doubleday. 2003. Print.
Birns, Margaret Boe. “Never Let Me Go” Magill’s Literary Annual 2006. Literary Reference Center. Web. 12 December 2013.
Ishiguro, Kasuo. Never Let Me Go. Faber and Faber. 2005. Print.
Sutliff, Usha. “‘Liars’ Brains Wired Differently.” USC News. USC University of Southern California. 19 Sept. 2005. Web. 11 December 2013.
Before the murder, Ruth had concerns about her son Frank’s relationship with the killer’s estranged wife and fears the worst for her ...
Each of the characters comes across a point of darkness in their lives, forcing them to make a difficult decision. After leaving her home in the South, Ruth tries to make it on her own by working in Harlem and meets Rocky, who, unbeknownst to her, is a pimp. When she finally does realize this, she gets lost in the night life in an attempt to forget her past, and almost ruins her future. Ruth even says, "...a prostitute, which I almost did become." (McBride, Pg.172) She gets past this when she fesses up to Dennis McBride, and realizes her error when she sees how disappointed he is. Ruth then returns home to Bubeh, her grandmother living in New York, and gets a decent job at a diner. Jade Snow comes across a similar, yet different problem when she is unable to acquire the scholarship for a university. She starts to consider not going to college at all if she can't go to a university until her friend, Joe, says to her, " makes you so sure that junior college won't teach you anything.
22). People mindlessly respond to avoid their true emotions. Truthfully, I was not fine, but exploding inside with nervousness. However, I didn’t attempt to burden anyone with my lack of confidence, so I told this untruth. Even though white lies may be harmless, they can lead to other deceptive lies labeled by the authors as gray, red, blue and colorless lies. Why do we tell lies? Interestingly, according to the (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013), “evolutionary biologists have proposed that Homo sapiens is indeed hard-wired to tell lies,” (page 25). Furthermore, we want to appear favorable to our friends and family and this may pressure us to justify our lies. According to (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) it is referred to as “impression management,” by social psychologists (p.27). Thus, lies allow others to see us as we want to be seen, such as I wanted the group to see me as a confident person who could handle obstacles and superbly interact with
When confronted with a problem, why does the human brain default to lying? Dishonesty is never a solution, although it may seem like the best option in the spur of a moment. My grandma always gave the example of her youth: she avoided and deceived her friend’s sister because the little girl riled everyone. Come to find out, the sister passed the following month due to an illness. I could never imagine the guilt she experienced. Nevertheless, everyone has been deceitful before and many characters were in the tragedy, The Crucible, by playwright Arthur Miller. Reasons for lying are understandable, but most people will admit that mendacity has only caused pain. Lying’s outcome is never positive: it may seem like a good option, for falsehood can save a person’s life, benefit someone, and it eases stress, but these are all transitory.
Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24.
Ruth has an intriguing personality. She is very loving towards her family. She will do all in her power to improve the lifestyle of her family. When it appears that the deal for the house in Clybourne Park will fall through, she promises to dedicate all of her time to make the investment work. “Lena-I’ll work… I’ll work 20 hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago…I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all the floors and wash all the sheets in America if I have to-but we have to MOVE!” she pleads to her mother-in-law (Hansberry140). Her plan is unrealistic and idealistic, but the well being of her family is more important to her than anything. Ruth is also witty and sarcastic at times. She cracks jokes to lighten the mood of her family when they’re worried. “Well that’s the way the cracker crumbles. Joke. (121)” When Beneatha and Mama are stressing over the neighborhood they are moving into, Ruth makes a witty joke to improve the mood. Ruth supervises the daily routine and well being of her family. She makes sure that everyone does what they are supposed to and stays on track. ...
In the article “Is Lying Bad for Us”, Richard Gunderman persuades his readers the effect of lying can have on our daily lives. He expresses strong opinions towards being honest and how lying has negative consequences on not only our mental health but
Ishiguro demonstrates that humans, and in turn clones, seek a greater purpose in their life. While at the Cottages, and throughout her life, Ruth likes to play small games to make her feel superior. Like leading a group of secret guard for a teacher at Hailsham or in this case, pretending to have read the most books. Kathy reflects, “It was, as I say, a little game we all indulged in to some extent. Even so, it was Ruth who took it further than anyone else.” (pg. 123). Ruth seems to think more of it however. Perhaps as a coping mechanism for the insane situation they are in, Kathy observes that Ruth dedicates herself to these games and perhaps sees them as a higher cause. Essentially Ruth’s greater purpose for her life is to try to fit in and
Smolowe, Jill. "Untrue Confessions: Mentally impaired supsects sometimes make false admissions. Is Girvies Davies about to die for one?" Time V 145 (22 May 1995): 51-52.
Ruth is Walter's wife. Her dream is to have a happy family but she also wants to be wealthy.
Video: American Psychological Association. (2012, October 4). "This Is Psychology" Episode 5: Eyewitness testimony. Retrieved December 9, 2013
Cecilia was diagnosed with cancer while Ruth was in high school and the day before her daughter’s graduation, she passed away (Salokar & Volcansek, 1996). One of the greatest influences on Ruth’s life was her mother and the values she instilled in her from a young age. Two of the greatest lessons that Ruth learned from her mother was to be independent and to be a lady, and by that she meant not to respond in anger but to remain calm in situations (Reynolds, 2009).... ... middle of paper ... ...
Kathy’s flashbacks of Ruth’s behavior at Hailsham give insight on who she really was at that time and who she pretended to be. On each account though, it seems like Kathy doesn’t want to paint Ruth as being a completely conniving brat. For instance, the pencil case incident, also in chapter 5, where Ruth tried to convince the entire class that Miss Geraldine had given her a pencil case when, in actuality she bought it herself at the Sales, a place where the kids could use the tokens that they earned from past art pieces in exchange for “cool” items, also know as, hand-me-downs that humans didn’t want, “Let's just agree. Let's agree I got it in the Sale.” Then she gave us all a knowing smile. This might sound a pretty innocuous sort of response, but actually it was like she'd suddenly got up and hit me, and for the next few moments I felt hot and chilly at the same time. I knew exactly what she'd meant by her answer and smile: she was claiming the pencil case was a gift from Miss Geraldine.” (Ishiguro, 57). It is clear what Ruth is doing here. The scene is very public, the students are all in a cramped room as class is ready to begin and Ruth is claiming that Miss Geraldine gifted the case to her. Ishiguro later reveals to the reader, in the same chapter, that Ruth actually did buy the case in a Sale after Kathy attempts to call her out but decides against
Henningsen, D. D., Cruz, M. G., & Morr, M. C. (2000). “Pattern Violations and Perception of Deception.” Communication Reports. Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-9.
We lie a lot, says behavioral economist Dan Ariely. The central thesis of Dan Ariely’s The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty is that human behavior is driven by two conflicting motivations, and that most human values are not compatible all of the time. On one hand,