Questions, Questions.

"Or does it explode?"
("Dream Deferred" - Langston Hughes)

This poem only consists of rhetorical questions.  When I was first reading it, all I could think of was an annoying first grader who asks a millions questions.  However, these questions actually have a purpose.  These questions create images of things that slowly decay over time.  For example, a raisin that is left in the sun eventually will dry up.  Each image is connected to the question of how a dream is deferred.  The author is really asking:  How does a dream end in a person's life?  The slow-tempo images are juxtaposed with the question stated above.  This quote also contains an example of a metonymy.  The action of exploding is used to represent a bomb without directly mentioning the bomb.  This is effective because in the previous stanzas, imagery and similes are used to back up the reasoning.  The image of a bomb is powerful in and of itself to explain how a dream can die quickly and effect many people.  Rhetorical questions allow the reader to see the thought process of the speaker.  The last question is sudden and the opposite of the rest of the poem.  This really emphasizes that the speaker feels as if dreams can be taken from a person suddenly.

Head Games

"I can see," Miss Emily said, "that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game."  Never Let Me Go (p. 266)


An ongoing theme in this novel is this idea of Kathy's entire life just being one big game.  Truthfully, I would have to agree.  Even though Kathy was treated with more respect then other donors, this does not change her future.  No matter what she thought at Hailsham, her fate was always set even from day one.  But the question becomes, should we seize the opportunity to make someone's life better now, or should we just make someone's life miserable just because they are different and are bound to die anyways?  Since everyone is set to die one day, obviously, we should seize the day and make the most of what comes our way.  However, this situation is extremely different.  If donors are hidden in the shadows from the normal people, there is something morally wrong with the donations.  This is kind of like sweeping dust underneath a couch - it becomes out of sight and out of mind, but it is still always there.  


In the excerpt above, the word "pawns" represents the game of chess.  This is a metonymy because one part of the game represents the whole.  However, this game is also a motif in the novel, or a recurring image used throughout a work unifying the current situation to previous ones.  As I said before, Kathy is always comparing her life to a game of chess.  Whether it was with Ruth, her life at Hailsham, or becoming a carer, Kathy always felt like she was being played.  Hailsham only wanted the best for Kathy, but it was disappointing to her that even the guardians could not help her escape reality.  Hailsham was just a school of pretending - pretending that the life ahead would be different from what she was made to do.    

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.