The Construction of the Clone as a Human Subject in Never Let Me Go and Oryx and Crake
by Lisette Piet
M.A. Thesis Literary Studies: Specialization English
University of Amsterdam
Studentnr. 10178333 Date: 21 July 2015
Table of Contents
Introduction...3
Chapter One: Care in Never Let Me Go...7
Chapter Two: Care in Oryx and Crake...14
Chapter Three: Art in Never Let Me Go...24
Chapter Four: Art in Oryx and Crake...32
Chapter Five: Self-Will in Never Let Me Go...43
Chapter Six: Self-Will in Oryx and Crake...50
Conclusion...57
Introduction
The concept of cloning and genetic manipulation has proven to be problematic; humanity is constantly aiming for progress and the scientific use of bioengineering and cloning is able to provide a substantial amount of progress in the field of healthcare. However, the ways in which these scientific processes can be applied to human life are ethically questionable; to what extent can cloning and genetic manipulation be seen as a useful tool to benefit humanity and how can these notions in turn enable humanity to view its clones as inferior beings?
In Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go, the characters Kathy, Ruth and Tommy grow up in the safe halls of the fictional Hailsham boarding school in England. The students at Hailsham have been cloned from human originals for the sole purpose of donating their organs to humans in a process of organ donations, yet their childhood at Hailsham focuses on the level of humanity they possess. Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake tells the story of Crake and Jimmy, who grow up in a society that revolves around consumption, expansion and invention. For fear of the dangers and viruses from the Pleeblands, the elite live in Compounds that are heavily corrupted and controlled by the CorpSeCorps police. Crake, who becomes a highly regarded scientist, causes a virus to eradicate human civilization and introduces his cloned, superhuman entities referred to as The Children of Oryx and Crake. These superhuman entities have been created in order to replace mankind's flawed civilization, and unwanted and problematic characteristics were edited out to do so.
In this thesis, I will use both Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake to analyze the ways in which the clone’s level of humanity is evaluated in the novels. I will examine how the level of assigned humanity to their kind affects the creation of their sense of self and their ability to create their own destiny. Firstly, the connection between care and humanity in both novels will be discussed. Due to the fact that care is a practice closely connected to the concept of humanity, it is an excellent way to examine the clone's level of humanity and its closeness to human traditions. In Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, the profession of 'carer' is extremely important: a clone who can temporarily ward off death in order to help clones that are currently
going through organ donations. The novel's focus on care and nursing shows the ways in which the inherently human concept of care has the ability to affect the process of death and how care can humanize the horrific nature of the system of organ donation. Therefore, the notion of care is a highly useful tool to investigate the ways in which care can show the level of humanity that the clones possess.
Moreover, in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, care is an institutionalized field that is part of a highly corrupted and extremely consumer-driven society that borders on a totalitarian state. On the one hand, the society of the Compounds are responsible for their citizens’ health in the form of providing protection from the viruses and other health hazards present in the Pleeblands. However, on the other hand the Compounds create diseases to instil fear in their citizens and ensure loyalty. This society has replaced the important concept of care with economic profit. In the post-apocalyptic world, care becomes an essential tool of survival and through the care they provide, the superhuman clones can express their humanity and show their close connection to the human race. Additionally, as he is believed to be the only human being who has survived Crake's virus, Snowman is left in charge of the Crakers and a structure of mutual care is set up between Snowman and the Crakers.
Furthermore, the ways in which the significance of artistic creation is expressed in both novels will be discussed. The creation of art is considered to be a strictly human practice through which one can express his humanity in the form of emotion and empathy. Therefore, the evaluation of the concept of humanity through artistic creation is an excellent toolto examine to what extent the clones in Never Let Me Go and Oryx and Crake are portrayed as humanlike characters. In Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, art plays a significant role in the attempted creation of the clone's sense of self. The students at Hailsham are encouraged to create art to prove their humanity. Through the creation of art, which is considered to be inherently human, they can express their ability to show humanlike qualities and prove they share notions of hope, desire and love. Additionally, through the creation of art, Hailsham's clones are enabled to prove their humanity to a society that considers them to be mere organ factories.
Moreover, in Oryx and Crake, art is not considered to be a realm that is profitable and thus, in the market-driven society that is focused on consumerism and corruption, artistic creation is overshadowed by society's need for scientific creation. As society is moving further away from the humanities, and schools such as the Martha Graham Academy are considered to be a waste of an education as they do not teach skills that benefit scientific invention and genetic manipulation, it becomes increasingly clear that the human concept of art loses its value. In this analysis, I will examine the ways in which the lack of interest in artistic creation as well as the fact that art as a concept is mocked show how the citizens of the Pleeblands have been distanced from human
traditions and can in this sense already be viewed as posthuman. Moreover, the Children of Oryx and Crake are heavily influenced by the broad field of art and culture, since they slowly acquire the use of human language and are able to create artistic rituals as well as worship divine entities. As the concept of art is closely linked to humanity, the Crakers are able to express their humanity and equality to the human race through their artistic endeavours. Snowman is able to strongly affect their use of language and in this way takes on the role of ultimate creator, despite the fact that the Crakers believe Crake to be their creator. I will analyze to what extent the role of art and the level of its appreciation shift throughout the novel, as well as the ways in which the notion of art determines the characters’ level of humanity.
Additionally, this thesis will discuss the ways in which the self-will of the clone and its desire to create its own destiny evaluate to what extent the clones are portrayed as human subjects in both novels. The fact that the clone desires to alter its fate is an extremely human quality, yet the clone remains to be denied the right to change its destiny by its creator. I will examine to what extent the clone's sense of self is constructed by its self-will and its desire to create its personal destiny in both Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. In this discussion, I will analyze the importance of the clone's body in its representation towards its creator and the ways in which this representation as an inferior being affects its treatment and its restrained abilities to create its destiny.
Lastly, this thesis will discuss the inherently human realms of care, art and self-will to answer the following question: In what ways is the creation of the clone’s sense of self in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake affected by the level of agency it is assigned and how can the clone express its humanity and construct itself as a subject in a society that
condemns it to live a life inferior to humanity? The notion of humanity and how an entity can be considered to be human is evaluated in these novels through notions of care, art and the ability to use its self-will to create its own destiny. Therefore, I will argue that the clone has the ability to express its humanity and show its equality to the human creator through connecting to these inherently human qualities and traditions.
Chapter One: Care in Never Let Me Go
In this chapter, the importance of the notion of care and the ‘carer’ in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go will be further analyzed with regard to the concept of humanity. I will examine the ways in which the realm of care is closely linked to humanity as a whole and its practices, and I will argue that through the concept of care, the clones can connect to humanity and express their human
characteristics.
Firstly, the notion of care is of great importance in Never Let Me Go. The institutionalized structure of care of the society in Never Let Me Go creates a framework in which its characters must obey the assigned rules after having arguably been trained in altruistic behavior. In the opening passages of Never Let Me Go, Kathy recalls her eleven years of being a ‘carer’; she reflects on her capacities in this role, which she believes have been successful due to her patients’ short recovery times and her ability to refrain patients from getting "agitated" (Ishiguro 3). In this description, she draws particular attention to the word ‘carer’, which is described in the Oxford Dictionary as: "A family member or paid helper who regularly looks after a child or a sick, elderly, or disabled person”, and was first used in this sense in 1978 (Oxford Dictionary, 108). According to this definition of the term, the voluntary nature of the act of caring is highlighted, as well as the superior position of power that is assigned to the carer.
In "Writing With Care: Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go", Anne Whitehead states that in the opening remarks of the novel, Kathy "locate[s] the word [carer] within discourses of professionalism and competency" (Whitehead 59). Moreover, Whitehead states that "the novel therefore opens not only by calling attention to the word itself, but also by drawing out the inherent tensions and ambivalences that reside within it, between discourses of competency and professionalism, on the one hand, and languages of affect and feeling, on the other" (Whitehead 60). Therefore, in the opening passages of the novel, the word 'carer' is able to instantly blur the notion of traditional caring and give the reader a glimpse into the term's problematic underlying meaning in the novel. The term both entails an affectionate and emotional bond that is created through the act of caring,
that is, Kathy states that she prefers to care for her 'own kind' (former students of Hailsham), and the language of affect and feeling connects the term with positivity in the form of loving and healing (Ishiguro 4). However, a 'carer' is also viewed here as merely a professional term, that is, Kathy refers to many of her professional accomplishments such as her "great record", which allows her profession to become more than a mere altruistic service and instead incorporates aspects such as competency and professionalism (Ishiguro 3). Thus, these different aspects connected to the term set up the novel's intriguing introduction of the characters' fate and the ways in which the institutionalized structure of care is involved in the creation of this limited fate.
It becomes increasingly clear that the clones in this story (copies of human bodies that are created to eventually aid the human being in the 'real' world by providing human organs) can be presented with the possibility of temporarily escaping this fate through caring for their fellow clones who are going through organ donations. In "Cruelty is Bad: Banality and Proximity in Never Let Me Go", Robbins underlines the notion that for the clones that become carers "this bureaucracy defines a certain possible path of modest professional advancement. Yet the advancement has a biological limit" (Robbins 291). In this way, caring becomes an option with which a clone can temporarily ward off death, allowing the clone more time before its own donations commence. With regard to the relationship between donor and carer, Whitehead states: "Expected to perform the care work as well as to end their own lives prematurely in the isolated and run-down treatment centers, the clones powerfully engage questions of class concerning who is 'carer' and 'cared for' in society" (Whitehead 62-63). Despite the fact that the carer cares for the donor, there is no inherent difference between the donor and the carer, as the carer eventually must undergo the same procedures. Therefore, the concept of care is continuously negotiated and reestablished within the structure of care, and the structure of care is held in place by both society and clone. Through the concept of care and the fact that the donor requires care to undergo as many organ donations as possible, the 'carer' is able to closely examine the process of the organ donation and the way it affects its donor, and in the process acquires uncanny experience of its own fate.
Moreover, the clone’s innate humanlike tendency to care and show affection for others is exploited in order to maintain a system of suppression and unethical ending of lives, purely to aid humanity’s own healthcare system. Whitehead argues that "a profit-driven culture of 'care' disconcertingly underpins, legitimates, and makes possible the creation of the 'donation' system itself" (Whitehead 62). Therefore, the clones’ human tendency to show empathy and care for another allows the system of organ donation to exist and properly function. Without this care, the system would not be able to be carried out in the same manner as its unethicality would be more apparent. In this sense, the clones’ humanlike qualities are used to strengthen the system’s success, yet despite their ability to connect to these human qualities, the clones remain to be seen as inferior as this system revolves around aiding humanity.
Furthermore, Whitehead argues that "the students are, we learn, being trained as professional 'carers', and their literary and artistic education seems to underpin their undeniably close affective bonds and their altruistic behaviour toward one another" (Whitehead 56). The clones' education at Hailsham is double-edged: on the one hand, Hailsham allows its students to explore their identities and their similarities to humanity, yet on the other hand keeps a system in place of molding and preparing students to become mere objects that are able to endure a painful death. In this sense, their education incorporates artistic subjects in order to turn the students into caring and altruistic beings, as this will not only prepare them for their future tasks of carer, but additionally provide them with the opportunity to explore their humanity. Robbins states that the system of care that is put in place "resembles the welfare state both in its rationale and in its total penetration of the private lives of those in its care" (Robbins 291). Therefore, the system of care in the novel not only affects the donors that are currently going through the organ donation process, but it affects the clones’ entire society. Their education needs to encourage their caring qualities in order for the students to calmly accept their future and not rebel against the system that is in place, as well as prepare them for a possible life of caring for donors who go through organ donations.
apart until there is not enough left of them to survive, proves the clones’ inability to protest the system. The notion of care strongly aids the suppression of the clones, and Whitehead wonders if "'caring', . . . [is] a form of labor that is socially valuable because Kathy is making a positive difference to others (preventing 'agitation'), or—given the political resonances of Ishiguro’s choice of word here—is it a means of preventing resistance and unrest, securing passive compliance through endless, exhausting activity and minor compensation?" (Whitehead 61). This act of care giving does not strive to benefit the health of its patients, as it merely attempts to maintain the patients’ calm state whilst their bodies are stripped of organs for human transplants and thus human profit. Interestingly, when Kathy describes her career as a carer in the opening passage of the novel, she states that "hardly any of them have been classified as 'agitated', even before fourth donation" (Ishiguro 5). This confirms Whitehead's statement with regard to the reason the structure of care is held in place; the structure of care aims to prevent donors from rebelling and arguing against their fate, which in turn questions the positive nature of the care that is provided. To what extent can this type of care be characterized as 'caring', when its main function is to ensure its patients remain calm through the brutal extractions of their organs?
Moreover, Kathy states that she has been a carer for almost twelve years, yet the longevity of her caring career does not necessarily mean that she is a good carer ("there are some really good carers who've been told to stop after just two or three years", Ishiguro 5). However, she does believe herself to be a good carer, and she states that "I do know for a fact they've been pleased with my work, and by and large, I have too" (Ishiguro 5). She states that her patients have done much better than they were expected to and that their recovery times have been impressive; the recovery times of the clones are considered to be a tool with which the carer’s abilities can be measured. The fact that Kathy has been pleased with her own work confirms her apparent acceptance of her terrible fate and the role she plays in those of others.
However, the care that is given not only applies to the carer who aids the clone; the clone in its turn benefits the human through its organ donations. Therefore, the system of care extends to the
entities from which the clones were initially created. The human clone, whose organs are harvested until the state of completion has been reached ('completion' refers to the state of the carer after the last possible donation, i.e. the last donation before the carer's death), is not in direct contact with the receiver of his harvested organs. Therefore, it is not a similar set-up to the regular system of care giving, in which the receiver and giver are both fully aware of the bond they share through the care that is given. Instead, the clones have no choice in the matter and the only part of the care giving that remains intact is the benefit the receiver has from the donation, despite knowing what was endured for the organs to be delivered to the humans. In this sense, the human condemns the clone to be less than human and disables the clone from exploring its own humanity in order to merely benefit the human society. In "Care Ethics and Cloning: A Speculative Literary Critique of Human Biotechnology", Laurel A. Tweed argues that, despite the fact that the human society is temporarily willing to consider the clones at Hailsham as important subjects, their sentiment is overshadowed by the humans' need for the clones' organs. Tweed states that "a lack of social care is evident, for despite the fact that most clones 'are being reared in deplorable conditions . . . [people’s]
overwhelming concern was that their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends, did not die from cancer, motor neurone disease, heart disease'"(Ishiguro qtd in Tweed 75). Therefore, the lack of social care in society lies at the core of the clones' lack of recognition as human subjects.
Furthermore, an example of a particularly interesting relationship between a carer and a donor is the relationship between Kathy and Tommy. Despite the fact that they have loved and cared for each other for years, they only start their romantic relationship when Kathy becomes Tommy's carer. Whilst discussing the importance of a good carer, Tommy states that:
"I mean, don't you get tired of being a carer? All the rest of us, we became donors ages ago. You've been doing it for years." I shrugged. "I don't mind. Anyway, it's important there are good carers. And I'm a good carer."
"But is it really that important? Okay, it's really nice to have a good carer. But in the end, is it really so important? The donors will all donate, just the same, and then
they'll complete." "Of course it's important. A good carer makes a big difference to what a donor's life's actually like". (281-82)
Robbins argues that Kathy's strong belief in the fact that being a good carer benefits the donor's life and her excessive devotion to her position as carer can be explained by "the belief that the work is socially valuable, that it makes a positive difference to others as well as to oneself, that it responds to a genuine need" (Robbins 295). According to Kathy’s beliefs, caring is a form of expressing one’s humanity. Due to the fact that she feels she can positively influence the horrid circumstances a donor has to face, she devotes herself to her position and emphasizes the importance of her work.
Arguably, Kathy allows her identity to be shaped by her career as a carer and due to her devotion to the position, her belief in that existing system is strengthened. Despite the fact that Tommy
considers the act of caring to be self-destructive ("all this rushing about you do. All this getting exhausted and being by yourself. I've been watching you. It's wearing you out", Ishiguro 282), "it's for the common good", or so Kathy believes (Robbins 295).
In conclusion, this chapter has shed light on the ways in which the notion of care is evaluated in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and to what extent care allows the clones to express their humanity. In this chapter, I have highlighted that the structure of care in the clones’ society provides the clones with the ability to show their humanlike qualities through caring for their fellow clones. Due to the fact that the notions of care and empathy are strongly linked to humanity, it is an
excellent concept with which to examine the clones’ equality to their originals. As I have shown, their education at Hailsham both encourages them to aspire to a greater destiny and explore their
identities as well as suppresses these desires for a fate too ambitious for their kind. Their education also aims to create altruistic and emphatic humanlike clones, allowing the clones to connect to their humanity and in turn become better carers. The clones are assigned a certain level of agency to explore their humanlike tendencies and identity, yet this is merely in order for the clones to learn notions such as empathy and emotion. As a result, this system is able to exploit the clones' assigned level of humanity and agency by allowing them to care for their fellow clones in order to benefit
humans. I have argued that the system of care is mostly concerned with ensuring the patients are not agitated during their organ donations, yet does not involve an attempt to heal its patients. Moreover, I have highlighted the fact that the profession of carer is an opportunity for the clones to temporarily ward off death and, through showing their humanity, they are able to not only benefit the lives of their fellow clones, but also extend their own. This discussion has also included the relationship between the carer and the donor: as donor and carer are not inherently different entities and have been created to undergo the same procedures in order to benefit the human society, the system of care and its terms are continuously negotiated. Lastly, this chapter has discussed the important role of the human in the creation of this system of care. I have argued that the clones have been assigned a certain level of agency in order to explore their humanness. However, the human characteristics that the clones possess are merely exploited to create a system in which this level of humanity is used in order to suppress the clones and benefit the human society.
Chapter Two: Care in Oryx and Crake
This chapter will analyze the importance of the notion of care in Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake and the ways in which care and nursing evaluate humanity in the society of the Compounds as well as in the post-apocalyptic society. The notion of care is necessary for creation to take place and Oryx and Crake, which centres on the creation of many different kinds of new species, shows the role care plays in both a totalitarian society ruled by humans as well as in a post-apocalyptic society that is building its civilization. Care is an excellent tool to examine the ways in which the Crakers show their humanity, and through the notion of care the species' humanity and equality is evaluated. This chapter will analyze the ways in which the Compounds not only instil fear in their citizens by claiming the citizens need the Compounds' protection from the dangerous viruses of the Pleeblands; the Compounds even create diseases to ensure their citizens' obedience.As opposed to Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, in which care is a primary aspect of the novel and is highly intertwined with its narrative, in Oryx and Crake the structure of care that is implemented in society is more clandestine in nature, due to the fact that care is highly corrupted in the world of the Compounds. Moreover, this chapter analyzes how care plays an essential role in the creation of the Crakers and the relationship that is established between the Crakers and Snowman. Additionally, the ways in which the Crakers are able to establish themselves as authentic humanlike subjects through implementing human care will be discussed.
In Oryx and Crake, care is not only used as a device with which the Children of Oryx and Crake are guided in their early life and through which they can express their level of humanity. Care and the complications it creates also play an important role in the beginning stages of the story, that is, before the virus of the BlyssPluss pill strikes mankind and eradicates the species almost entirely. In this society, there is a definite divide between people that live in so-called Compounds and people that live in the dangerous and unprotected Pleeblands. As Earl G. Ingersoll states in "Survival in Margaret Atwood's Novel Oryx and Crake", "the cities, or 'Pleeblands', have been abandoned to the masses by the elite who are protected in corporation compounds, futuristic versions of company
towns, where employees live with their families in corporation-owned spaces with little need or desire for contact with the Pleebs" (Ingersoll 165). The people's lives are controlled by the
Compounds, which form a barrier of protection from the Pleeblands and their supposed dangerous epidemics. By insisting on such definitive rules with regard to contact between the Compounds and the Pleeblands ("once, they’d loosened up, let in a real band – The Pleebland Dirtballs, it had been – but there’d been a quasi-riot, so no repeats"), the Compounds instil a fear of the unknown in their societies (Atwood 85). The Compound and its government are feared in many ways, such as the notorious CorpSeCorps police. In "Corp(Se)ocracy: Marketing Death in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood", Sarah A. Appleton states that "the world has degenerated into a greed-riddled, corporately controlled environment with rules being enforced by a corporate paid 'police force': the CorpSeCorps" (Appleton 66). The state resembles a totalitarian state in which citizens must obey government and police forces, and fear and violence are used to keep its citizens in check. Appleton states that "all protection of humanity has actually been eradicated without the awareness of the citizenry. Death and disease have become the profitable aim of corporate rule" (Appleton 66). In this totalitarian state in the form of Compounds, care and the threats that are linked with healthcare are essential to the society's wellbeing and safety: the Compounds must ensure their citizens are protected from the epidemics that supposedly haunt the Pleeblands. In the Compounds, people are forced to consume genetically engineered products that cannot transmit diseases.
Furthermore, in a conversation with Jimmy, Crake explains his theory on illness and the way in which it is connected to money, as he states that "Axiom: that illness isn’t productive. In itself, it generates no commodities and therefore no money. Although it’s an excuse for a lot of activity, all it really does moneywise is cause wealth to flow from the sick to the well. From patients to doctors, from clients to cure-peddlers. Money osmosis, you might call it" (Atwood 249). In this passage, Crake argues for the fact that disease is closely related to monetary matters and that a disease and the need for nursing is only a viable concept for the government to put in place when it is profitable. In
this sense, the notion of care is merely used for its economic merit and the emphatic relationship between carer and patient is completely denied. Tweed states that in Oryx and Crake "Market values and particular liberal values including reproductive freedom, scientific freedom, and individual choice are accompanied by a dismissal of the values of care and inattention to the needs for care" (Tweed 46). The Compound presents an extreme lack of care for its citizens and the need for economic profit overshadows humanity's inherent need for the concept of care.
Furthermore, whilst discussing Jimmy's father's view on scientific invention and the way it is connected to generating profit, Jimmy's mother states that "you hype your wares and take all their money and then they run out of cash, and it’s no more treatments for them. They can rot as far as you and your pals are concerned. Don’t you remember the way we used to talk, everything we wanted to do? Making life better for people – not just people with money. You used to be so . . . you had ideals, then" (Atwood 56-57). Jimmy's father underlines the essential role that monetary
encouragement plays in the realm of healthcare in their society and he states that "Sure . . . I’ve still got them. I just can’t afford them" (Atwood 57). The concept of care is not used to benefit the Compounds' citizens in need of care and Tweed states that "Little consideration is given to NooSkins being used in medicine for burn victims or skin grafting. Caring purposes for compound products are not developed because they are not as profitable" (Tweed 51). The importance of the concept of care is disregarded entirely and is replaced with the determination to create and benefit a market- driven society. Tweed states that "The society that shapes the events in Atwood’s novel is one in which care values (attentiveness, responsibility, responsiveness, and competence) are subordinated to those of the market (property rights, choice, entrepreneurism, spectacle) with deep implications for how people live and how children develop" (Tweed 47). Humanity's inherent need for care and care values is overshadowed by the Compounds' need to create a market-driven society. This view on care as a mere tool to make a profit is comparable to the structure of care in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, as the organ donations are similarly based on economic profit, despite the unethicality of the situation and the suffering caused by it.
Moreover, with regard to the Helthwyzer Compound, Crake states that "suppose you’re an outfit called HelthWyzer. Suppose you make your money out of drugs and procedures that cure sick people, or else – better – that make it impossible for them to get sick in the first place.' 'Yeah?' said Jimmy. Nothing hypothetical here: that was what HelthWyzer actually did" (Atwood 210-211). However, Crake challenges Jimmy to think of what HelthWyzer has to do to continue to make a profit from protecting its citizens from getting sick, "after you’ve cured everything going" (Atwood 211). Crake compares the situation to one in which all of the dentists had to close down due to the fact that a new mouthwash was introduced that replaced plaque bacteria entirely, offering the question of what happens to care when it appears to no longer be needed by humanity ("Remember the plight of the dentists, after that new mouthwash came in? The one that replaced plaque bacteria with friendly ones that filled the same ecological niche, namely your mouth? No one ever needed a filling again, and a lot of dentists went bust", Atwood 211). Crake believes that the Compounds' solution to this problem is that "[they]’d need more sick people. Or else – and it might be the same thing – more diseases. New and different ones" (Atwood 211). Jimmy wonders whether the Compounds needs to keep discovering more diseases, yet Crake replies by stating that the Compounds are "Not
discovering . . . they’re creating them" (Atwood 211). The fact that the Compounds create diseases, suggests the ethicality of its structure of care is extremely questionable. Tweed argues that the Compounds invent diseases due to the fact that "HelthWyzer recognizes the need for a continual customer base in order to stay in operation" (Tweed 51). By creating more patients to ensure the healthcare system remains highly profitable, the very notion of nursing is deemed worthless. In this sense, care is merely a way in which the Compounds can disguise their horrific plans and humanize their system of greed and ruthlessness. With regard to the importance of profit that lies at the core of the healthcare system in the Compounds, Crake states that "The best diseases, from a business point of view . . . would be those that cause lingering illnesses. Ideally – that is, for maximum profit – the patient should either get well or die just before all of his or her money runs out. It’s a fine calculation" (Atwood 211). Grayson Cooke argues that consumerism is an extremely powerful notion
in the structure of care and states that: "In depicting a world so starkly reducible to brands, slogans, and technoscientific panaceas, Atwood presents a 'masquerade' of contemporary Western society, in which brands have become powerful signifiers of identity, and in which pharmaceutical companies create diseases and cures at the same time" ("Technics and the Human at Zero-Hour: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake", Cooke 70). The usefulness of the emphatic nature of care is denied by the fact that the Compounds invent diseases to attempt to cure them. This shows that the human aspects of care in terms of empathy and altruism are completely replaced by a structure of care solely focused on generating profit.
Moreover, according to Appleton, "while the products ostensibly range from genetically engineered food and preventative health medicines to bio-cosmetic services, the enormous capital gains of the super corporations rely upon a carefully premeditated market of, and for, death, a death hidden in the very products of consumption" (Appleton 2). Death is a very prominent theme in the novel and is closely related to the structure of care and nursing that is put in place by the
Compounds. The many forms of medicines that are introduced, each to cure a different disease or discomfort, ultimately build up to Crake's invention: The BlyssPluss Pill. The BlyssPluss Pill was initially marketed as a harmless pill to "eliminate the external causes of death": Crake's Pill was designed to stop the overpopulation of the earth through making its consumers infertile and putting a halt to the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases, making it a profitable addition to the health care system in place (Atwood 345). However, as Appleton states, the human population ceases to exist due to taking this medicine, which arguably shows that the health care system in the
Compounds is highly ambiguous and corruptive.
Moreover, Jimmy's world is suddenly drastically altered when the human race is destroyed unexpectedly; Jimmy learns about the consequences of Crake's plan to replace mankind with his adapted version of man: the Crakers. According to Tweed, "The Crakers are a communal race that exhibit caring behaviours towards each other and to the 'Other,' in direct contrast to the liberal, individualist, and market-driven characteristics of humanity before the global catastrophe that nearly
wipes them out" (Tweed 46-47). As he is the only human that is still left on earth and that is immune to the virus, Jimmy (Snowman) is left to take care of The Children of Oryx and Crake. The Children of Oryx and Crake have been created by Crake to inhabit a new world without the violence and mass destruction that humans inflicted upon it previously, and Tweed argues that Crake "designs his models based on what he observes are particular problems of the human race, problems in caring relationships including personal, sexual, familial, and social" (Tweed 68). However, this newly designed set of superhumans requires a carer to guide them through a world of misunderstanding and foreign concepts and objects. As Roger Davis states in "'A White Illusion of a Man': Snowman, Survival and Speculation in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake", "Snowman is ultimately left to shepherd the Crakers into the new post-human, post-apocalyptic world" (Davis 2). Both Oryx and Crake ask him separately if he will take care of the Crakers if they would no longer be in the position to do so ("if Crake isn’t here, if he goes away somewhere, and if I’m not here either, I want you to take care of the Crakers", Atwood 378). Right before he slits Oryx's throat and Jimmy shoots him, Crake reiterates that he is "counting on you" (Atwood 387). Jimmy resents the notion that he is left as the sole caregiver and states that "you're looking at the wrong man. If I had to spend more than five minutes with them they'd drive me nuts" (Atwood 378). At this point, Jimmy finds himself stuck in a destroyed universe in which his fellow human beings have all died and the only population consists of the Crakers and the set of genetically modified animals that dominate the landscape.
Jimmy, who changes his name to Snowman, becomes a carer to the Crakers, who do not have anyone else to provide any knowledge of this world they come to inhabit. Snowman does not offer them much guidance, however, as he arguably sees them as a reminder of what he has lost and what he therefore has to endure. Snowman questions his own ability to provide care, as he muses: "Despite their irritating qualities . . . he feels protective towards them. Intentionally or not, they’ve been left in his care, and they simply have no idea. No idea, for instance, of how inadequate his care really is" (Atwood 153). However, when the Crakers come to Snowman to ask him about the meaning of things they cannot understand, he offers them answers. In the Flotsam chapter, the Crakers walk
on the beach and chant "Oh Snowman, what have we found?", wondering what meaning Snowman can provide the objects they encounter along the shore (Atwood 7). These expressions of
wonderment sadden him, because the remnants of the human world remind him of what has he has lost. He does not know how to reply ("What can he tell them? There is no way of explaining what these curious items are, or were"), and instead he merely states that "they are things from before" (Atwood 7). Snowman considers how he treats the Crakers and thinks about the way he should interact with them, due to the fact that he is their main caregiver ("He keeps his voice kindly but remote. A cross between pedagogue, soothsayer and benevolent uncle - that should be his tone", Atwood 7).
Moreover, Snowman's divine status towards the Crakers is underlined by the notion that he was in charge of creating their laws ("He must have been stupefied with drink when he was laying down the laws", Atwood 109). Snowman argues that he must keep his story with regard to the origin of the Crakers straight:
Crake made the bones of the Children of Crake out of the coral on the beach, and then he made their flesh out of a mango. But the Children of Oryx hatched
out of an egg, a giant egg laid by Oryx herself. Actually she laid two eggs: one full of animals and birds and fish, and the other one full of words. But the egg full of words hatched first, and the Children of Crake had already been created by then, and they’d eaten up all the words because they were hungry, and so there were no words left over when the second egg hatched out. And that is why the animals can’t talk. (Atwood 110)
However, despite the fact that Snowman is the only human left to care for the Crakers insofar they require his care, he ensures the Crakers are aware that their creators are Crake and Oryx, not Snowman himself. In doing so, he takes on the position of an advisor. He allows the Crakers to consider Crake as a godlike figure, their creator, and in this sense Snowman can arguably be seen as a messiah who proclaims Crake's will. In spite of the fact that Snowman initially insisted on placing
Crake at the center of the Crakers' origin story, he comes to regret the fact that he did not pronounce himself their God as he states that "their adulation of Crake enrages Snowman, though this adulation has been his own doing. The Crake they’re praising is his fabrication, a fabrication not unmixed with spite: Crake was against the notion of God, or of gods of any kind, and would surely be disgusted by the spectacle of his own gradual deification" (Atwood 119). It frustrates Snowman that the Crakers are in adulation of Crake despite the fact that Crake himself would have despised the divine status they provide him with. Moreover, Snowman begins to wonder "why don’t they glorify Snowman instead?", as he emphasizes the care and guidance he has provided the Crakers with ("kind
Snowman, who deserves glorification more – much more – because who got them out, who got them here, who’s been watching over them all this time? Well, sort of watching. It sure as hell wasn’t Crake. Why can’t Snowman revise the mythology? Thank me, not him! Lick my ego instead!", Atwood 120).
Moreover, as Snowman laid down the rules for the Children of Crake to obey, the structure thus created is reminiscent of a parent-child relationship. The very fact that the Crakers are referred to as the Children of Oryx and Crake underlines their infant status in the world, and Oryx states that "they are like children, they need someone. You have to be kind with them" (Atwood 378). Both Snowman and Oryx can be considered as figures of guidance to the Children of Oryx and Crake. Oryx initially taught the Crakers when they were still in captivity: she taught them about the meaning of leaves, plants, reptiles and mammals. She therefore provided the groundwork for their education as a species, and in this way she created a place for herself in the species' origin story.
However, it is not just Snowman that takes care of the Crakers; the Crakers also have their own practices with regard to care giving. The notion of nursing is connected to the ways in which humanity is constructed and a human subject is created. Through the notion of care, the Crakers are able to express their humanity and their similarity to their predecessors. According to the origin story Snowman provides them with, the Crakers show care for Snowman by bringing him one fish a week, the remains of which must be thrown back in the water and given back to Oryx. The way the Crakers
provide Snowman with care shows their altruistic and humanlike nature and therefore allows them to express their humanity.
Moreover, the Crakers have been programmed to have a highly innovative feature of being able to cure themselves and others through the act of purring ("Once he’d discovered that the cat family purred at the same frequency as the ultrasound used on bone fractures and skin lesions and were thus equipped with their own self-healing mechanism, he’d turned himself inside out in the attempt to install that feature", Atwood 184-185). However, the Crakers not only heal themselves through purring, they also start nursing Snowman when he has viciously hurt his ankle ("a new purring team – three men this time, one woman, they must think he needs strong medicine – hovers over his leg . . . those who aren’t purring watch the operation closely; some converse in low voices, and after half an hour or so a fresh team takes over", Atwood 425). The Crakers share their powers of purring to nurse Snowman back to health and attempt to heal his pain, which arguably points to the mutually dependent system of care that has been established between Snowman and the Children of Oryx and Crake. Despite the fact that the Crakers consider Snowman to be the 'Other', they express their humanity through providing him with care. As Tweed states, "While they recognize that Snowman is not like them, the Crakers care for him as if he were one of them. They are attentive to differences in Snowman’s character, responsive to his needs for food and for physical care and are competent in providing care, and recognize their relationship with him as important to them. The Crakers care about the 'Other'" (Tweed 69). Due to the fact that nursing is a concept strongly connected to humanity, the Crakers express their highly developed level of humanity through providing Snowman with care. The Crakers are able to show their humanlike qualities such as empathy and altruism and thus their humanity through their willingness to nurse Snowman back to health.
In conclusion, this chapter has highlighted the ways in which the notion of care is used to both highlight the ways in which the society of the Compounds is disconnected from the human nature of the concept of nursing, as well as the ways in which the notion of care affects the creation
of the Crakers and their ability to express their humanity. Care is highly commodified and the Compounds instil fear in their citizens by attempting to heal diseases they create to ensure their citizens' dependence on the system of care. Therefore, the notion of nursing and expressing humanity through care becomes invaluable and instead care is used as a tool to generate profit. Moreover, care becomes an important notion in the creation and education of the Crakers. After Crake has rid planet earth of humanity, it is through caring that Snowman teaches the Crakers about the new world that they inhabit. The system of care between Snowman and the Crakers is mutually dependent; Snowman provides the Crakers with an origin story and answers to their questions and, in their turn, the Crakers provide Snowman with food. Moreover, the Crakers have healing powers of purring and they heal Snowman's wounds. Through nursing Snowman back to health and possessing the characteristically human qualities connected to caring, the Crakers are able to express their level of humanity and show their capability of connecting to notions such as altruism, emotion and empathy.
Chapter Three: Art in Never Let Me Go
This chapter will shed light on the ways in which the concept of humanity is evaluated in terms of art and its creation in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Art and the several ways in which its use value is expressed in the novel can be said to function as an overarching theme and the importance of the creation of art is stressed by the fact that Hailsham believes its students can prove their humanity through the creation of art. The creation of art is a strictly human domain, and the clones can show their ability to express their humanity through this act. Moreover, art can strongly influence the creation of their sense of self and their ability to present themselves as authentic subjects. This chapter will discuss two separate views on the connection between humanity and the creation of art. The chapter will discuss in which ways Hailsham's students can prove the innate level of humanity they possess through the creation of art. However, the correctness of the human claim on art and its supposed connection to humanity will also be examined. Lastly, the ways in which the importance of the creation of art is expressed and used as encouragement to Hailsham's students will be discussed, as well as the important role that Hailsham's guardians play in this matter.
The students at Hailsham are encouraged to create art and develop their creativity through sculpture, painting, and writing poetry. The "Exchanges" that take place at Hailsham allow the students to exchange their art work for the work of others, with which they can fill their highly valued collections of art (Ishiguro 16). The creation of something that is not inherently human has the ability to show the clone's capability in terms of mimicking the human. Moreover, it shows that what humans have determined to be human qualities are not necessarily reserved for the human race only. In "Ishiguro's Inhuman Aesthetics", Shameem Black argues that, in the novel, the "interrogation of what it means to be human emerges through a critique of Romantic-inspired assumptions about aesthetics and empathy" (785). It is only through careful consideration of these assumptions with regard to aesthetics and empathy and investigation into their innate humanness that the correctness of the assumed divide between human and clone can be questioned. Through considering what exactly makes the human race 'human' and how this behaviour can be established,
the abilities of clones to not only recreate but to fully adopt this behaviour can be further analyzed. In "On Being a Slow Reader: Psychoanalytic Reading Problems in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go",
Deborah Britzman notes that Kathy H. believes that the creation of art is linked to proving the clone's humanity; Britzman states that "from reading novels and from her teachers’ lectures, Kathy H. patches together the romantic dream that art is an expression of the artist’s soul. If art holds the secret of the artist’s soul, if art somehow can telegraph the secret yearnings of the artist—that the artist loves, lives, desires, possesses depth, and can symbolize all of this—she reasoned, her wish for recognition must also reflect her humanity" (Britzman 315).
Moreover, the creation of art in the novel is an excellent concept to analyze how human behaviour can be established and adopted due to the fact that this creation can be considered not to be innately human. If a clone can show its ability to copy the human in this form, that is, through creating works of art that show human qualities like emotion and empathy, it can connect to the 'human' world of creation. If a clone has the ability to express its humanity in this manner, it can in this respect no longer be considered to be an inferior being. However, as Black argues, to prove that clones are not inferior to humans with regard to their ability to create, it should not be attempted to show the level of similarity between human and clone, but instead should focus on the lack of human ownership of the creation of art ("Never Let Me Go implies that if there is to be any empathetic connection with Ishiguro's protagonists, it will not occur through the consoling liberal realization that clones are humans, just like us", Black 786). According to Black, the empathy between reader and clone will "evolve through the darker realization that art, along with the empathy it provokes, needs to escape the traditional concept of the human" (Black 786).
Furthermore, when the notion of creating art is initially introduced in the world of the Hailsham school, the clones consider it to be a tool to keep them busy and the creation of the art feels forced to the characters. Britzman argues that "their teacher-guardians seem to give them an education, but no assignment has any purpose" (Britzman 313). The clones do not create art out of desire; it is merely to fulfil their assignments, as the creation of art constitutes a substantial part of
their education at Hailsham. Black argues that "in its portrait of the systematic exploitation of the clones and its implicit exploration of vulnerable actors in our modern economic order, the novel indicts humanist conceptions of art as a form of extraction that resembles forced organ donation" (Black 785). Black makes the clever comparison between the art the students are forced to create and the organ donations they will have to go through, which will result in the clones ceasing to exist in favour of the human. The students are forced to take the creation of art extremely seriously and a certain Madame, who remains unidentified at that time, collects the works of art much like the extraction of organs. Moreover, Black argues that "Never Let Me Go indicts humanist art because such art works to keep the students unaware of their own inhumanity—it masks their own
mechanical condition and serves to prepare them for lives of exploitation" (Black 790). Therefore, art can mask the clones' realisation of their inability to escape the social structure that they have been trapped in and it can disguise their inability to be recognized by humanity as an authentic subject. Tweed supports this view and notes that an important "motivation for providing clone students with a strong arts and humanities background is the hope that the clones will be able to lose themselves and forget their destinies by engaging in creative work" (Tweed 85).
Furthermore, Madame collects the finest student art and the exceptional artistic pieces created at Hailsham to fill out the 'Gallery', which she is said to own. The obscurity with which the collection of the art pieces is described in the novel shows the fact that the students at Hailsham are kept in the dark with regard to the reason why they are expected to create art. Kathy H. runs into Madame unexpectedly on several occasions and hopes that Madame can understand her. However, these interactions are merely a disturbance to both characters and they do not provide any answers. Kathy's friend Ruth believes that Madame is actually afraid of the students at Hailsham and a group of eight-year-old girls confronts Madame; the clones hope to cause a reaction of fear that they expect from Madame and hope to uncover the mystery of her character. However, the clones were not prepared to be stared at in the manner that Madame did:
she’d do: she just froze and waited for us to pass by. She didn’t shriek, or even let out a gasp. But we were all so keenly tuned in to picking up her response, and that’s probably why it had such an effect on us … And I can still see it now, the shudder she seemed to be suppressing, the real dread that one of us would accidentally brush against her … Ruth was right: Madame was afraid of us. But she was afraid of us in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders. We
hadn’t been ready for that. It never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders. (Ishiguro 32)
Madame viewed the little girls as 'other'; she came from a world that created these creatures and, despite her good intentions, she seemed scared of the clones. As Tweed notes, "The fear inherent in Madame’s attitude towards the clones, as well as the guardians’ inability to fully disclose to them their tragic fates, is also indicative of their unwillingness to fully acknowledge the clones’ full humanity" (Tweed 78). By refusing to acknowledge the clones as authentic and equal subjects and disclose vital information regarding the clones' fate, they deny the clones their humanity.
Additionally, in the concluding part of the novel, the reader is confronted with the
unexpected reason behind the emphasis placed on art at Hailsham. Robbins states that "the closest they get to challenging the rules by which they live and die is the heart-breaking myth - exposed as such in the novel's climactic scene - that it is possible to win 'deferral' of one's donations on the basis of one's artwork, which is sometimes taken away without explanation by the headmistress of the school" (Robbins 294). However, Robbins believes that Hailsham fails to see the genuine creativity these clones possess ("The irony, exquisitely compressed into this theology of provisional salvation, is that the school fails to recognize the children's genuine creativity, which expresses itself not in the artwork itself but rather in this myth-making about the artwork and its ability to transform their lives", Robbins 294). Kathy and her boyfriend Tommy track down Madame and Miss Emily, the former head-mistress of Hailsham, to request this deferral and to prove their love for each other. They demand to know why art was considered to be such an important part of their educational
upbringing at Hailsham. Miss Emily confesses that "we took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all" (Ishiguro 260). The clones at Hailsham were used in an experiment to show that they possess a level of humanity clones were not considered to possess before. Madame had hoped to be able to show the similarities between humans and clones through the creation of art. She set out to show that if clones are able to express their humanity in the form of art, they could no longer be seen as inferior to the human. If the creation of art and its connection to humanity is able to show the human soul the clone possesses, then an art project could perfectly portray the value of the underestimated copy of the human.
The characters grow attached to their pieces of art over their time at Hailsham, and seem to shape their own identity through the creation of art. Arguably, the students keep their little
collections of art as a way to remember who they are and who they must become; their art ensures their sense of individuality remains intact, despite the limitations of their kind. Robbins argues that, much like the way in which proving love between two students is an option to temporarily escape their fate of becoming organ donors, creating art is a way for the students to avoid having to come to terms with what will soon be expected of them. Robbins states that "As an explanation of the
headmistress's actions, the myth that their 'best work' is preserved in her 'Gallery' is also an explanation of how the children can avoid knowledge of 'what's going to happen to us one day. Donations and all that'" (Ishiguro qtd in Robbins 294). Furthermore, Robbins argues that the
recognition and the rewards the students receive for their artwork creates a sense of obedience with regard to the authorities, and this obedience needs to be instilled to ensure a successful future in organ donation ("they need to believe that the merit of what they are doing will be rewarded, if only by being recognized, and this entails a belief in the fundamental rightness of the authorities doing the recognizing and rewarding", Robbins 294). Therefore, the creation of art and its rewards are arguably used as a tool to ensure the students' obedience and respect for their authorities.
instance, the value of Tommy's art appears to be discussed on many occasions. Initially, Miss Lucy attempts to console Tommy, whose art does not measure up to the other clones' work. His other teachers have considered his art to be unsatisfactory, but Miss Lucy tells him he is not to blame for this: "What she said was that if I didn't want to be creative, if I really didn't feel like it, that was perfectly all right. Nothing wrong with it, she said" (Ishiguro 23). Tommy was told his artwork did not match up to that of his fellow students and his ability to create this work was judged rather harshly by his teachers. However, Miss Lucy is forced to alter her views and tells Tommy of the importance of creating art: "Listen Tommy, your art, it is important. And not just because it’s evidence. But for your own sake. You’ll get a lot from it, just for yourself" (Ishiguro 108). In "Human Rights Storytelling and Trauma Narrative in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go", Titus Levy states that "Miss Lucy implores Tommy to work on his art, not just as evidence for the school’s humanitarian project, but as an end in itself, an avenue of expression in which the individual can reckon with the past and find some form of solace or temporary relief that can help cope with the horrifying uncertainty of the future" (Levy 12). In this view, creation of art as a subject is believed to hold merit of its own and practising creating art can help Tommy come to terms with his destiny and find peace in this knowledge.
Furthermore, according to Robbins, "in eliminating fault, Miss Lucy's words also eliminate merit, hence aspiration" (Robbins 297). Miss Lucy's statements go against the school's rules with regard to encouraging its students to excel and aspire to strive for a level of success and happiness that the teachers know they won't be able to achieve. Therefore, failure must be punished and, as Robbins states, "the school encourages the children's aspirations to excel, and children cannot be expected to demonstrate their excellence if they don't think that failure to do so will be taken as their own fault" (Robbins 297). According to the rules at Hailsham, the students should strive towards a larger goal and should only be encouraged to try harder. Miss Lucy leaves the school as she is considered to revolt against the school's system and Robbins argues that "Miss Lucy is of course implying that it makes no sense to encourage these futureless children to think in terms of merit and reward" (Robbins 298). Miss Lucy believes this due to the fact that the clones will be
forced to join the system of organ donation and will not have the future Hailsham encourages them to aspire to. The way in which Miss Lucy attempts to calm Tommy down resembles her attempt to make Tommy acquiesce to the situation he is forced to endure. According to Robbins, "if [Miss Lucy's] articulation of the 'no fault' philosophy is a way of soothing Tommy's anger, it simultaneously asks to be construed as a way of adapting his feelings to the terrible truth of his situation" (Robbins 298). In this sense, by lowering existing expectations for one of the students, Miss Lucy appears to almost give up on his ability to prove his humanity, to prove that he possesses a soul.
Moreover, Miss Lucy is not the only one who Tommy discusses his artwork with. Ruth unexpectedly tells Tommy that he is fooling himself with his dreams of getting his artwork into the Gallery because his pictures are not good enough. Ruth seems to be deliberately hurting Tommy and she states that "it is not just me, sweetie. Kathy here finds your animals a complete hoot . . . as long as people think you're doing those little creatures as a kind of joke, fine. But don't give out you're serious about it . . . Please" (Ishiguro 178). By showing this cruelty towards Tommy, she diminishes his aspirations and in some sense she does exactly what Miss Lucy attempts to do; by underlining Tommy's inability to create art or, as Miss Lucy does, by making Tommy believe that it is alright if he cannot produce beautiful works of art, both characters try to soothe Tommy's anger with regard to the system he is a part of and they attempt to make him come to terms with his horrid future. However, in doing so, they discourage Tommy to express his humanity through the creation of art.
In short, this chapter has discussed the ways in which art and particularly the importance of the creation of works of art play a critical role in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. In order to be able to consider the role art plays in establishing the clone's level of humanity, one must first look at the basic abilities that are required to create art. The creation of art is a form of expressing humanity, and this notion is strongly underlined by the system at Hailsham. Due to the fact that the creation of art is connected to human qualities such as emotion and empathy, it is an excellent way for the clones to express their humanity. Arguably, this medium requires creator and spectator to
this human tradition, they are in the position to show their innate similarities to the human race. This concept forms the basis for the experiment that is described in the novel; this experiment entails that the cloned students at Hailsham were given a different kind of education that incorporates the humanities. This cultural education was designed to enhance their quality of life and, more
importantly, to prove their humanity through encouraging the clones to create art that was collected and stored in the Gallery. The system at Hailsham was set up in order to prove that the students had a soul, and the creation of art was the medium with which this could be measured.
To measure the clone's ability to express its humanity, it must first be established that the creation of art is not an inherently human domain. Therefore, the similarities shown between humans and clones in their capability to create art do not necessarily prove the clone's humanity. However, the creation of art does display the clone's ability to express humanlike qualities, such as empathy and emotion. Therefore, through the creation of art, the clone's sense of self is affected by its ability to express its humanity and consider itself as an authentic subject that is equal to its creator. Moreover, it can be said that the creation of art is used by the system to distract the students from both realizing their level of inhumanity and the unlikeliness of the clone's ability to escape the terrible fate that has been set out for its kind's existence.
Chapter Four: Art in Oryx and Crake
In this chapter, I will look at the ways in which Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake evaluates the notion of humanity through the creation of art and how science strongly overshadows the importance of the notion of art in the novel. In Oryx and Crake, scientific creation is highly important to ensure the Compounds' progress and stimulation and it therefore lies at the core of society's wealth and economic welfare. Through scientific invention and genetic engineering to find new ways to add to society's consumption, the state that is based on scientific renewal can be upheld. This chapter will discuss the question of how scientific creation is shown to overshadow artistic creation in the novel and the ways in which this undermines the connection between art and humanity. Along with the use of scientific engineering, the ethicality of this form of creation will be discussed in this chapter: to what extent can the scientific alteration of species to create new, modified species for consumerism be considered to be ethical or justifiable and how does this scientific engineering ultimately give way to the creation of the Children of Oryx and Crake? Moreover, this chapter will discuss the importance of artistic creation to express one's humanity. The Children of Oryx and Crake can use artistic creation and cultural development to show their similarity to mankind and thus prove their equality. By expressing their humanity through notions of emotion and empathy that are strongly connected to art, they are able to shape their sense of self as authentic (humanlike) subjects.
In Oryx and Crake, Atwood describes a society that is driven on scientific invention and technological progress and, due to the fact that the elite in the Compounds must be protected from the Pleeblands' dangerous influence, many new species are scientifically engineered in order to produce enough to keep up with the consumer's demand. As Slawomir Kuznicki states in "Genetically Modified Future: Pre- and Post-Apocalyptic Visions of the World", "contemporary genetic
engineering together with natural environment violation constitute her greatest influence of Oryx and Crake, and probably the most striking realization of this concept can be seen in the various new transgenic creatures generated by the scientists of Atwood’s future" (Kuznicki 126). The transgenic
creatures that Atwood discusses in the novel are created through relatively innocent gene splicing and consist of species of gigantic butterflies, 'rakunks' (a mix of skunk and racoon), and 'wolvogs', a mix of wolf and dog. The scientists were able to create whatever they wanted, in spite of its ethical value: "There’d been a lot of fooling around in those days: create-an-animal was so much fun, said the guys doing it; it made you feel like God" (Atwood 51). The desire expressed to create life, much like a divine figure, overruled the importance of the creation's ethical value. However, the gene splicing becomes more drastic and ethically questionable when 'pigoons' are created: a species resembling large pigs, however, genetically modified to grow human tissue organs in their bodies.
The goal of the pigoon project was to grow an assortment of foolproof human-tissue organs in a transgenic knockout pig host – organs that transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also be able to fend off attacks by opportunistic microbes and viruses, of which there were more strains every year. A rapid-maturity gene was spliced in so the pigoon kidneys and livers and hearts would be ready sooner, and now they were perfecting a pigoon that could grow five or six kidneys at a time. Such a host animal could be reaped of its extra kidneys; then, rather than being destroyed, it could keep on living and grow more organs. (Atwood 22) The fact that these pigoons, created and invented by man, can grow human tissue inside of them arguably connects their existence to that of man. Kuznicki argues that "such half-hidden indifference and pure commercialization of genetic material, which in western culture is traditionally regarded as something even sacred, definitely raises more vital ethical issues, where the popular saying 'we are what we eat' gains a completely new meaning, both terrifying and ironic" (Kuznicki 126). The fact that these pigoons can be harvested for human organs on multiple occasions is highly similar to the organ donation system in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, in which the human clones are forced to go through several organ donations before they cease to exist. Interestingly, the human organs inside of the pigoons are able to grow back, and therefore they are not killed in the process of aiding the human. However, the fact that pigoons are also used for consumption makes the ethical value of the
animal rather uncanny and the consumption of it verging on cannibalism, as Kuznicki argues. The determination with which this genetic creation is approached arguably shows a definite shift away from humanity's ethical values. It highlights the importance of invention as opposed to the
expression of humanity through the practise of human qualities that the creation of art encourages. Therefore, the novel portrays a mankind that as a whole is unable to access its humanity as it focuses on the shift to posthumanism.
Moreover, as the story progresses and Crake is a student at Watson Crick, he shows Jimmy their creation of the 'ChickieNobs', a newly created version of making chicken meat without the chickens being considered as animals; the 'chickens' responsible for the creation of 'ChickieNobs' do not have heads and have been engineered to just grow chicken parts, such as chicken breasts or "ones that specialize in drumsticks . . . twelve to a growth unit" (Atwood 238). Jimmy is struck by this invention and claims it is taking scientific creation too far, stating that the chicken resembled "an animal-protein tuber" (Atwood 238). Jimmy believes humanity's ethical boundaries have been crossed and contemplates the use of this altered version of this animal ("why is it he feels some line has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much, how far is too far?", Atwood 242). Interestingly, as the story progresses, Jimmy's initial reservations do not stop him from growing to like the ChickieNobs, adopting the view commonly shared in the Compounds that "the stuff wasn’t that bad if you could forget everything you knew about the provenance" (Atwood 242). On his tour of Watson Crick, Jimmy finds out that the students responsible for inventing new scientific creations received half of the royalties from anything that they had invented and "Crake said it was a fierce incentive", underlining the importance of scientific creation in this society and the ways in which monetary encouragement allows people to disregard the ethical value of what it is they do (Atwood 238).
Furthermore, not only is scientific creation and engineering used to enhance the society of consumption and ensure their safety from 'Pleebland' import, it is also used to create new forms of enhancement to the human body, intended to benefit the human's appearance and enhance its
