Human Characters In Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, And Blade Runner

Like Sisyphus and his rock, humans carry their flaws in an infinite limbo, searching for what it means to be human. In both Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, and Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, humans have become desensitized to their own identity. They are blunt, cruel, and selfish. While these are basic human traits but when these humans create clones to benefit themselves and their own survival they are taught what it truly means to be human. Through the human's interactions with the clones, the clones awareness of death, and their ultimate fear of it, humans eventually find their identity.

In both Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, and Ridley Scott’s film, Blade Runner, desensitized humans live amongst what they once were, actually human.

Almost like a worried mother speaking to a child. Roy Bady sees the faults in his creator. Tyrell's double vision glasses represent mankind's greed. He chooses what he wants to see which is something his child cannot. Despite his physical flaws Tyrell also fails to see that it is not an “easy thing to meet your maker”(BR). Tyrell just questions why Roy “didn’t come sooner” (BR). In relation, the humans from both the novel and the film discard the feelings of the clones and fail to take responsibility from

The clones know what they were created to become and the death that awaits them. In Ishiguro’s novel, the “donors” are told exactly what will happen to them. Their guardians tell them that they’ll “start to donate [their] vital organs” (81) before they are even middle-aged adults. This news is very heavy and is broken to them in such a light way. Knowing their gruesome future, the clones begin to fear their fate. To which the guardians think “Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?” (254). Even here they attempt to sympathize with their tortured creations but still fail to realize that it is all their doing. The humans have created a being destined to die serving a race that does not really care for them. Just like Ishiguro’s characters, the clones in Blade Runner also fear their death. Unlike those in Never Let Me Go, these clones are told the exact date of their death. Knowing that they are going to die sometime the clones hunt down the humans that know their exact fate. When you ask “how long do I live” (BR) and the answer is “four years” (BR) there is no one way to react. Any normal being would be filled with rage which is exactly what these clones