Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"All that business about "unzipping," that was typical of the way the whole subject impinged on us when we were thirteen."  Never Let Me Go (p. 88)

And so, the creepiness begins.

Just when I thought Kathy may be living in a normal(ish) environment, she finds out that she is being raised solely for the purpose of having her organs taken away from her.  I thought it was a little odd that this did not come as a shock to any of the students.  I guess feeling different has something they have dealt with their entire lives; however, I do not think they knew of the exact reason they were different up until this point.  My question is: are the "donators" treated any different then the "normal" people?  It seems like the donators are kept hidden as a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" situation.   

In the excerpt above, the bold word in the sentence (unzipping) is a metonymy, or a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated to it.  In this case, "unzipping" refers to the donations.  In a way, a person is "unzipped" in order for an organ to be taken from the body.  Referring to the donation directly would not add to the imagery of the story.  However, "unzipping" is a graphic image of what the donations stand for.  Also, it presents the students of Hailsham as objects, not people.  Obviously, the donators have emotions and curiosities just as normal people do, so I think something is wrong with this picture.