Question and Answers on Kathy

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1. Who may Kathy be reminiscing to in the novel, (who is the audience she is addressing exactly)?
There are small hints throughout the first few chapters of the text that reveal that Kathy may be addressing an audience of other clones like her, and not an average person. She assumes that we, as readers are just like her and already know about her life. At one point, Kathy modestly acknowledges, “I don’t know how it was where you were” (11). She is obviously assuming that we are donors as well. Her descriptions of Hailsham and her life frequently refer to second person; for example, she says, “The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it’s a cold moment” (36). Kathy is explaining, how she felt when the Mistress looked at the kids when she saw them. She was repelled by them, and this showed them how the rest of the outside world will see them too. They have never felt rejection, or repulsion from somebody until that point. Through this stylistic technique, Ishiguro suggests that only someone with similar experiences can truly understand Kathy’s story, and that allows readers to make an effort to relate to her, as we do not know much about her life. We only know what Kathy describes to us in her thoughts, and descriptions of her childhood.

2. What were Hailsham's administrators trying to achieve in attaching a high value to creativity and the “Gallery”?
Kathy tells the reader, "How you were regarded at Hailsham, how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good you were at “creating" (16). I think that Kathy and the administrator’s value creativity so highly at the Hailsham because they can exchange art or buy another person’s are and “decorate” their own spaces with it. The children ...

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...and animals. “Jackie’s giraffes,” Ruth said with a laugh. “They were so beautiful. I used to have one.” (17). In this case, many of the children valued these animals because they were so precious, and they held value in their eyes when they exchanged art. The last example of animal imagery is when Kathy narrates, “It had never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders.” (35). When Kathy compares herself and her friends to spiders when they test to see if Madame is scared of them, they finally realized how society saw them, as animals. It's a very subtle reminder of the divide that exists between the normal humans and clones. In reality, they're no different as clones are filled with organs, veins and have souls. But they're being treated like animals, or even machines, who can be chopped up for parts whenever it's needed.

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