Moment 8 - Madame's house Flashcards
she saw and decided in a second what we were because you could see her stiffen - as if a pair of large spiders was set to crawl towards her
Dehumanisation similes “spiders”. Pests and repulsive - feared irrationally. Below society
Italisc, implies negative connotations to her own identity - sense of disgust, as if her existence is taboo.
“in a second” - complete lack of empathy sucha swift judgement
“stiffen” -physical disgust, its a reflexive action, habitual
I’d been turning over in my mind for weeks and weeks just what I’d say to her
All faith and hope in this meeting - false hope
“turning” - disorder of thoughts - a multiutude of emotions - deeply meaningful to her
“weeks and weeks” - repetition shows how vast a time on her mind.
“I know you may have felt you were pawns in a game, but you were lucky pawns”
Kathy and Tommy can’t do anything to change their fates–there is no escape, no rebellion. Disposable, part of a wider game, minimising the importance of their relationship in their eyes. No value placed on it, as no chance of it going beyond their fleeting experience.
Valueless to wider society beyond what they provide
You are serious. You’ve thought carefully. You’ve
hoped carefully.
Pivotal moment in the story when Kathy reveals her deepest fears and insecurities.
Vague language reveals she doubts clone’s can suffer emotional reality of truth - saddened to see the deeply human desires for Kathy,
“carefully” repetition - tentative nature of Madame. Doesn’t want disappointment of clones
“They tried to convince themselves that you weren’t like us. That you were less than human so it didn’t matter”- Miss Emily
“in many ways we fooled you… we gave you your childhoods”
We’re all afraid of you. I myself had to fight back my dread of you all amost every day I was at Hailsham
Perhaps guilty
Unnatural even to them, horror of what they are
barely audible, “poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our planning and scheming”
“barely audible” - regret internal self-dialogue
Rhetorical Q + repeating structure, disbelief
“creature” - below human, pitiful and meek
“planning + scheming” - even in Hailsham, still lack agency and freedom. Part of wider game beyond themselves that they have no control in.
“I saw a new world coming rapidly…a harsh cruel world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world… pleading , never to let her go”
“we were able to give you something, something which even now no one will ever take from you.”
Places value on the relationship, beyond the societal view of it as disposable.
Relationships as a form of rebellion. It is the most inherently human act: to love.
“holding each other, while the wind kept blowing and blowing at us….it seemed like we were holding onto each other because that was the only way to stop us being swept away into the night.”
Just as Tommy expressed his childhood frustrations and anxieties through tantrums, he displays his devastation after their visit to Madame through a wild rage. In holding one another, Kathy and Tommy also evoke the novel’s title, and Kathy’s favorite song, “Never Let Me Go.” The winds “tugging” at their clothes suggest the force of the future that threatens to pull them apart, while their embrace expresses a deeply human impulse to hold on in the face of this future. Holding onto one another is all that they can do, much like the woman Kathy once imagined holding tightly to her child in the song.
