Issue of Belonging in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

Introduction

Etymologically, science, technology and literature are interconnected and interrelated because any discovery or invention is imaginative concept or idea before it is materialized into an initiative or project and experimented with a purpose to get desired outcomes. Through their critical and imaginative thoughts, writers have provided the readers some insights about the future. Through their literary works, they have prompted their readers to think about the futuristic world of science and technology. They shed light on the significant issues of humans when they will have to interact with the machines and clones. Some of the writers anticipated the age of machines where the human products like clones will struggle to search for the space of their belonging because they will find themselves in Hamlet-like dilemma of to be or not to be. Kazuo Ishiguro is one of the most popular writers of current age who depicts this issue of belonging in some novels. His characters are in search for their psychological, social, cultural and political space of belonging of his works. They feel nostalgic and suffer in their present conditions where they are placed at some insignificant marginality of their socio-cultural and political space. The present article deals with Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and it analyses how the clones are constantly in search for their space of belonging in the human world qualitatively.

Objectives and Significance of Study

Though machines powered by artificial intelligence can create texts and interpret literary works, they are unable to pour human emotions, philosophy and thoughts in any work of literature. This proves the authenticity and reparability of human life. In Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, the writer expresses this duality of human experience. The clones created for the medical purposes are no more completely human and the human beings are scared to connect them emotionally with conviction and committed sincerity. The human characters, i.e., the teachers and guardians in the novel feel that they have a different space, life and destiny. The significance of the study lies in exploring both the spaces and how the character finds difficult to cross the boundaries of these spaces. The article has following key objectives:

To analyse the issue of belonging in Never Let Me Go and explore the struggle of the clones to find out their real space

Literature Review

From its publication in 2005 and significantly after the writer's achievement of the Nobel Prize in literature, Never Let Me Go has been an important center of global critical and analytical attention in the academic world. The critics analyses the text in the contexts as diverse as memory, nostalgia, identity, humanity and bio-ethics. There are many critical essays, articles and papers published on how the novelist has addressed the issue of memory in the novel. There are some significantly remarkable explorations on Ishiguro's reflections on humanity, post-human world, free will, destiny and consciousness. Young (2017) in her article, ‘Mortality and Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go’ analyses how the clone characters struggle with the issue of mortality and how the writer treats the aspect of human mortality. She discusses how the clones face the issue of identity and release their mortality. Jihad Jaafer Waham's ‘The Exploration of Trauma and Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day’ (2023) is one of the enlightening articles in which the critic debates how memory and trauma are used by the clones not only to hide their horrible existence but also to reveal their miseries and pains. Baysal (2023) has pursued a comparative study of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale in ‘Memory, Loss, and Nostalgia in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale’ and discussed how both the writers examines memory, loss and nostalgic pain in these literary works. Myriam Nickel's seminar paper titled ‘Society's Influences on Kathy H.'s Identity Formation in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go’ (2017) examines how the protagonist presents her memoir and displays the struggle of identity of the clones. Her narration of events helps readers to examine their struggle for identity. Ivan Loko's ‘Dignity Healing and Virtue: Bioethical Concerns in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go’ (2024) is a scholarly revelation of how the novelist has portrayed clones and exposed the politics of cloning. The article queries about the human rights of the clones. It is revealed, after scrutinizing, that the issue of belonging in Never Let Me Go is unexplored and therefore the significance of this article lies in the fact that it tries to discuss the spaces of belonging as reflected in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel.

Theoretical Framework

The present study investigates how Ishiguro reflected on the issue of belonging in his novel, Never Let Me Go. Its multidisciplinary aspect is visible in referring concepts of literary criticism and bridging them with geographical, ethical, nationalistic, political, psychological, medical, scientific and technological spheres of knowledge. Here, it is remarkable to note here that the writer has created imaginative spaces of belonging. Firstly, a space for the humans who act as teachers and guardians is constructed with a view to separate their existence with that of the clones. Secondly, the novelist also formed a new space for the clones and they are supposed to belong to this space.

The issue of belonging is important in today's world which can be identified as multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural world. Generally, it implies connectedness and coordination. It assures our feeling accepted in a specific geographical area. It implies to values in human world. It is often linked to happiness of being connected and accepted. Allen Habib and Ward (2019) introduces that the term ‘belonging’ essentially refers to ‘connection, membership, attachment and sense of security.’ (Habib and Ward 1) It assures emotional bonding and social safety. Belonging is fundamental human need. It is universal. It is basis for existence. Lack of it leads to trauma, anxiety and depression. Chin (2019) points out:

Belonging concerns the cognitive and affective attachments to others that cement our various forms of ‘groupness’. This means about the idea of unity or collectively beyond a mere aggregation of individuals. Why and how we belong to any group is about what grounds our inclusion and relations. It is this that leads belonging, often in less clear terms, to be described in terms of safety and familiarity. To belong is to feel natural and unthreatened in a group. (Chin)

In Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro has anticipated a post-human world. Therefore, the sense of belonging is created and constructed by the humans in the novel. It is not natural; it is artificial, fake and false kind of feeling. The clones are assured that they are safe in Hailsham, the center of their belonging. Later on, they realize that their safety and survival are controlled by the humans. The novelist has presented a dystopian world in which the concept of belonging is ambiguous. It is complicated because Hailsham is not a world created by God but it is a space for the clones (scientific and commercial commodity) created by the scientifically-advanced and commercially-aware humans. By creating a post-human world, the writer has anticipated about the possibilities of establishment of some educational schools like Hailsham in which clones will be raised for the business of transplantation of organs. The idea of belonging as stated by Allen Habib and Ward in the context of Hailsham is true but it is ambiguous because the writer has constructed a fictional post-human world in which the clones are trained to have collective attachment, connection, education and destiny. What Chin has explained is about the natural world of humans where attachments and relations are necessary for survival. This is partly true for the fictional and dystopian world of clones where they have no option but to accept their collective belonging (both geographic and temporary).

The concept of belonging is not only geographical, political, or socio-cultural; it is also psychological for human beings as it is a globalized world with advancing technologies. On the one hand, this is the world of increasing mobility and interconnectedness fueled by transnational migrations and shifts, on the other, human beings are mostly involved and obsessively engaged in activities of social media which make them lonely and isolated even in though they are with their families and in a protective environment. These are miracles of constantly advancing internet technologies. The avatar of Artificial Intelligence is coming with its latest powers and features like the rough beast described by William Butler Yeats in his well-known poem which suggests anarchic world at the end of a century. Our socio-cultural relations are influenced by our sense of belonging to a specific space.

The issue of belonging has recently attracted the attention of global scholars. It has led to the emergence of theories on the issue of belonging. Their multi-disciplinary interactions and intrusions are both enlightening and attractive. It is observed that the term ‘belonging’ lacks clarity and precision in academic world because of its multidimensional perspectives. ‘In youth studies literature, belonging is primarily understood in terms of representation and identity.’ (Habib and Ward 2) Culture, religion, ethnicity, nation and transnationality play key role in the development of sense of belonging. ‘Belonging and belongingness can also create social cohesion. They coalesce individuals into social alignments based on shared commonalities, such as race, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship, national affiliation. These same processes of belonging can lead to the formation of new social solidarities and social fields of interaction that can open up possibilities for positive social change. They can also entrench old, or create new, differences and inequalities between social groups, places and spaces.’ (Interrogating Belonging for Young People in Schools 4) In the specific case of India, caste system is also a key factor which nourishes a sense of belonging in particular caste or community. Due to caste-consciousness, there emerges a sense of discrimination and division in Hindu community in India which results into violence and brutality towards the people from lower castes. The victimization of the Dalits in India is reported daily in the newspapers of the country which expose the brutal and cruel behavior of the upper class Hindus. Like Dalits, the clones are described segregated community both physically and psychologically. They are thought as the ‘other’. If the clones are afraid of violating the norms and rules of Hailsham, the guardians are afraid of having close and keen attachment with the clones as they considered them some scientific aliens. In the case of both Dalits in India and the fictional clones in the novel, they are thought and considered as less ‘human’. Therefore, the teacher believes that they are more human than aliens. Here, being ‘human’ can be interpreted as being owner or master. Taking into consideration, historical events during colonial period of India where communities were divided due to caste-related oppression, segregation and exploitation, Majumdar and Chatterjee (2020) points out:

It may be further noted that one of the major determinants of the security of a country is the inner strength of its population; this in turn is dependent on the latter's cohesiveness and sense of belonging with the state and the emotional bonding attached to citizenship. A caste-fragmented India is weakened at its core. Because for many people in India, identity and sense of belonging remain caste-centric rather than nation-centric or state-centric, the frame of having a cohesive populace with a consciously accepted commitment to citizenship is under perpetual threat. (Majudar & Chatterjee 2020)

In simple words, belonging refers to human attachment to a specific group. It relates to his or her social solidarities and collectiveness resulted into the formation of his or her collective socio-cultural ethos and consciousness. Kelly-Ann Allen is a well-known Australian psychologist. In her The Psychology of Belonging (2020) points out that loneliness is key problem in modern society. She states that loneliness is an international epidemic (Allen, 2020). In her views, the researches on events such as shooting in schools, mental illness, radicalization and chronic illness lead to one of the important conclusions, loneliness. She mentions that ‘As a human species, we share one thing in common, our need to belong. When that need is not met, we can see a devastating impact on human psyche.’ (Allen 1)

What Allen and others try to convey indirectly is that the isolated person faces traumatic disorders including depression, frustration, anxiety and psychological pain. Isolation from group or social circle results into loneliness and pain. Human beings who feel sense of belongingness are mutually and socio-culturally dependent on one another. They share common culture, language, location and religion. A sense of belonging can scale to wider ranges, from home to family, group, place, state or nation or continent. The issue of belonging can also be connected with the issues of inclusion and exclusion. Historically, people are excluded from some specific religious groups or locations due to their religious, cultural, social and racial differences. Their collective experience of marginality often prompts them to form a group and struggle for their rights. There are multiple examples of it including the women activists fighting for their human rights in third world countries or immigrants protesting against their marginalization in host lands.

Research Method

The study analyses Ishiguro's globally famous novel, Never Let Me Go. Qualitative research method is used in this article to explore how Ishiguro designs two spaces of belonging in his novel. It reflects the complexities of belonging for the clones who are portrayed as victims of cruel system of organ transplantation. This approach allows for a comprehensive exploration of the issue of belonging as significantly expressed in the novel. Various concepts regarding the issue of belonging are debated in the context of the novel.

Results and Discussion

In Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro creates two visible fictional spaces. A separate space is created for the artificially produced clones whose existence and destiny is based on neo-capitalist demands of medical world of United Kingdom of late 1990s which is indirectly supported by the Government. This space as it is created by keeping in mind the economic development through science and technology has been free from any legal, ethical and moral limitations. In it, the violation of bioethics is common. On the contrary, the human space is free to loot the organs of the clones. They are the beneficiaries of this organ transplantation program. Both these spaces which can be called binary oppositions are imaginatively constructed by the novelist with a purpose to signify other binaries such as oppressor verses oppressed, exploiter verses exploited, producer verses product and natural verses unnatural.

Therefore, the space populated by the human beings in the novel is demonstrated with care and therefore the guardians and teachers portrayed in the novel try to display their difference from the unnatural and strange post-human products, i.e clones. In their behavior and interactions they make it clear that they are different from the clones. The clones are portrayed as unnatural and strange; this automatically makes the humans natural and familiar. The human teachers instruct these clones and teach them what to do and what not to. Though they consider themselves powerful yet they are afraid of the clones. The clones are observed as strange and therefore any emotional and sexual relationships with them are prohibited in Hailsham. The job of the teachers is to teach them as per the instructions of their absent capitalist bosses and prepare them mentally for the donation, i.e organ transplantation. These clones are under constant surveillance. Their physical needs are taken care of. They are nourished in hygienic environment.

The issue of belonging is significantly debated in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005). The novel is complicated and ambiguous because the clones struggle to find their space in the human world. In this dystopian novel, their fictional space of belonging is created separately. They are constantly reminded that they are not humans. Using Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest, the clones are depicted as the hunted species in the neo-capitalist society of England. They are not fit for the human world. Though they are the genetic productions from human sperms, they are not accepted and respected as humans. For humans, they are the products to sell in the medical markets. They are instructed to bond with other such creatures and this makes them victims of discrimination. It is fact that the human world which has many divisions based on caste, class, race and gender. The clones face the issue of their identity and they are treated as the other. They are suggested by the guardians that they are donors with brief life span. Directly and indirectly, they are hinted that they should not think themselves humans because there is no place for them in the world of humans. Miss Lucy's blunt suggestions reflect their lack of belonging in human world in which she suggests that about their brief time of life. She rejects their imaginative dreams of working in supermarkets:

But Miss Lucy was now moving her gaze over the lot of us. ‘I know you don't mean any harm. But there's just too much talk like this. I hear it all the time, it's been allowed to go on, and it's not right.’ I could see more drops coming off the gutter and landing on her shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice. ‘If no one else will talk to you,’ she continued, ‘then I will. The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you’re going to have decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly. None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars. And none of you will be working in supermarkets as I heard some of you planning the other day. Your lives are set out for you. (Ishiguro 81)

The issue of belonging is further complicated by the writer by mentioning the names of clones. The clones are named as Roy, Ruth, Tommy, Kathy H., Marge K., Roger C., Reggie D., Michael H., Polly T. etc. This lack of their family name exposes their lack of belonging. The lack of specific culture of these clones makes their sense of belonging complicated. Their unidentified socio-cultural positions make them products for sale in the medical market. Their socio-cultural identity is not specified in the novel and therefore the humans can treat them as commodities. As argued by Sibley (2002), ‘The self is a cultural production. The perpetual restructuring of the self takes place through what Lacan calls the ‘symbolic order’, which includes social and cultural symbolism. (Sibley 8) Ishiguro anticipates the post-human world where self and belonging might be related to the world of commercial commodities. He exposes that self is commercial production in the novel. He skillfully weaves their unique space of belonging in Hailsham which is deceptive. The clones survives imaginatively under the fake education and instructions provided by their teachers. Their sense of belonging is regularly shaped by the deceptive environment created at Hailsham. For them, it is their center of belonging. They are told repeatedly that they are safe and protected in this boarding. They are threatened by rumors. There are more rumors in their brief lives than truths. Some rumors are cleared and some remained unexplored. The clones are victims of socio-cultural exclusion. They are not allowed to go outside Hailsham. They are terrified by some rumors. Kathy H. narrates:

There were all kinds of horrible stories about the woods. Once, not so long before we all got to Hailsham, a boy had had a big row with his friends and run off beyond the Hailsham boundaries. His body had been found two days later, up in those woods, tied to a tree with the hands and feet chopped off. Another rumour had it that a girl's ghost wandered through those trees. She’d been a Hailsham student until one day she’d climbed over a fence just to see what it was like outside. This was a long time before us, when the guardians were much stricter, cruel even, and when she tried to get back in, she wasn't allowed. She kept hanging around outside the fences, pleading to be let back in, but no one let her. Eventually, she’d gone off somewhere out there, something had happened and she’d died. But her ghost was always wandering about the woods, gazing over Hailsham, pining to be let back in. (Ishiguro 25)

The Clones in Never Let Me Go are excluded from education as they get the education which is fake and deceptive. They are taught arts and skills to adopt their terrible destinies and accept their brief period of belonging in the capitalist world. They lack appropriate education. They are constantly misguided. Regarding their incomplete and ambiguous identities, the clones are not clarified directly. Like Oedipus of Oedipus Rex, their true identities are revealed indirectly time to time. Like onion, the truths about their lives are uncovered using some symbolic words such as donor, donation, carer, and care. Angry Miss Lucy exposes:

You’ll become adults, then before you’re old, before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That's what each of you was created to do. You’re not like the actors you watch on your videos, you’re not even like me. You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided. So you’re not to talk that way any more. You’ll be leaving Hailsham before long, and it's not so far off, the day you’ll be preparing for your first donations. You need to remember that. If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you. (Ishiguro 82)

This realization of their belonging in the human world is uncanny, tragic and shocking but Ishiguro has shown them accepting their destiny. According to Allen (2020), ‘The feeling is exclusion or ostracization can be painful. It can shape our future interactions and our attempt to belong in other social contexts. It can affect our mental health, our wellbeing and even our physical health, because our sense of belonging is fundamental to living our day-to-day lives.’ (Allen 4) In the novel, the clones are portrayed as innocent persons who do not resist against the violent and inhuman system which loots their vital organs and murders them for the sake of economic benefits. The genetically produced clones are told and untold about their belonging in the world. Kathy H. remembers Miss Lucy when she said: All I can tell you today is that it's for a good reason. A very important reason. But if I tried to explain it to you now, I don't think you’d understand. One day, I hope, it’ll be explained to you. (Ishiguro 20)

In the novel, the writer shows clones as victims of psychological and sexual exclusion: They are treated as the other. They are personally and psychologically segregated by the human guardians. Habib and Ward (2019) note that ‘Belonging is not simply an identity we express, for it always operates in complex circuits of recognition. We cannot simply belong to a space unless others acknowledge our position within it. Of course, this might mean that belonging can be as oppressive as it is enabling, something to be contested rather than simply inhabited and something which can be paradoxical and ambivalent….’ (Habib and Ward 3) In Never Let Me Go, the clones are constantly reminded that they are not like human beings as they cannot produce child. They are permitted to have sexual relations with other clones but they are instructed they are the donors and therefore they must be careful while having sex. As they are not considered human and therefore they do not belong to the human world. Kathy narrates:

Then there was the whole business about our not being able to have babies. Miss Emily used to give a lot of the sex lectures herself, and I remember once, she brought in a life-size skeleton from the biology class to demonstrate how it was done. We watched in complete astonishment as she put the skeleton the rough various contortions, thrusting her pointer around without the slightest self-consciousness. She was going through all the nuts and bolts of how you did it, what went in where, the different variations, like this was still Geography. Then suddenly, with the skeleton in an obscene heap on the desktop, she turned away and began telling us how we had to be careful who we had sex with. Not just because of the diseases, but because, she said, ‘sex affects emotions in ways you’d never expect.’ We had to be extremely careful about having sex in the outside world, especially with people who weren't students, because out there sex meant all sorts of things. Out there people were even fighting and killing each other over who had sex with whom. (Ishiguro 41–42)

In the case of Kathy H., she forms a complex sense of belonging due to her duty as a carer. As she narrates that she is sincere in her work. This makes her sense of belonging to one group complicated as she finds herself neither here nor there with complete dedication and commitment. Her job delimits her solid sense of belonging to the clone community as she works for the human beings and helps them acquire the vital organs of clones. She is a mediator between the clones and the humans. Her space of belonging is, therefore, ambivalent and mysterious. She betrays her own community of clones but it is her destiny. Even she will also become donor one day as she is the creation by the human. She has to accept, adapt or surrender to their hegemonic beliefs, values and practices of the human beings though they are based on the neo-capitalist system which constantly and deliberately violates the ethics of medical science for their selfish purposes. Halse (2018) notes:

Belonging to a particular social solidarity, however, does not condemn one to a perpetual, unchanging and unchangeable identity or destiny. By both circumstance and choice, individuals, slip in and out of a sense, and identity, of belonging to particular places or social solidarities. This can sometimes occur with a frequency, speed and subtlety that is barely detectable until it is subjected to close scrutiny. It is through such mechanisms and processes that a subject position and identity of belonging or not belonging is conferred on individuals and either taken up, scorned or resisted. (Halse 6–7)

Posthumanism emphasizes that human body can be made more powerful and skillful through technology. It can be added more qualities with a purpose to fill the lack in humans. Using latest scientific and technological inventions, human body can made less disease-prone and diseased organs can be replaced with a purpose of living long. In the novel, Ishiguro shows the difference between clones and humans. He demonstrates how the human beings abusively use technology to create, exploit and eliminate clones. Their production, generation, nourishment, education and elimination are destined by the humans. The novelist depicts their isolation from the mainstream social world, horrible future and predetermined death. He describes the post-human world which signifies dystopia where there are possibilities of unethical use of science and technology. If the clones are considered the post-human creatures, their belonging in the human world is just for the selfish fulfillment of the human beings. Their brief lives are predestined and their stay in the world is based on the medical and capitalistic needs of human beings. The novelist shows it clearly that humans, with a selfish purpose to lengthen their period of belonging in the world loot the clones of these post-human creatures. The issues of caste and race are inappropriate as well as irrelevant in the world of clones where they face equality in their devastating destinies. It can be stated that they are the victims of scientifically colonized world where they are used and destroyed for human needs.

In Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro depicts a human world which is influenced by the technological advancements and therefore clones are the symbols of a post-human world. Their avatars find allusions of many characters of literature. They can be compared with Adam and Eve of the Paradise Lost before their fall from the heaven. Ironically, the writer explores that these post-human characters are mostly innocent. Their love and care are more sincere than the human beings. They are more human than their creators. They care for others. The writer shows how human beings use these creations for their selfish needs. Belonging is a key issue in the novel. It is the prime search for the clones. Allen (2020) discusses:

A sense of belonging can be associated with not just people but all manner of things. We know that people commonly report a sense of connection to places, memories, objects, experiences, events, countries, places and land. A sense of belonging can be experimental and linked to certain sounds, smells, textures, tastes and sensations. Senses of belonging are thus complex and dynamic agglomerations that are unique and special to each person. (Allen 5)

It is significant to point out Michel Foucault's idea of ‘naturalness’ in which the critic claims that the notion of naturalness is deceptive. What is understood by the notion of "natural" is not a universal truth. It is created, coined and controlled by power structures including governments, schools, or science. These systems decide what's normal and therefore the human behavior and activities and their implications are controlled and decided by these powerful forces. This further leads to the idea that human beings are not completely free. How they should act, look, or live are complexly decided by some powerful and implicit forces. They enforce them through rules, education, or punishment. In the context of Never Let Me Go, the writer implies that the natural behavior of both the humans as well as clones are controlled and decided by some commercially powerful political forces. The teacher-guardians are hired to educate and control the clones. In Ishiguro's dystopian world, the clone's sense of belonging as its condition is accepted as normal. The loot of clones’ organs is described not only as their destiny but this practice is fictionally described as normal activity. They are well-aware of these practices. They are aware of their identities. The irony is that they accept it as normal and natural while they’re actually controlled by powerful systems. Both the humans and clones are shown as the slaves of some powerful system which controls and decides their naturalness and normalcy of activities and behavior. Both of them are well-aware of their peripheries. The teachers are slaves to the implicit economically powerful system and therefore what they do is considered normal and natural by them. The clones also behave normally because they are educated to do so. Their alien and segregated existence is thought normal and natural in this dystopian world controlled by commerce and science. Art is used to deceive the clones. Education is provided to assure the clones that they are natural and normal and therefore the words like ‘donation’, and ‘donors’ are used to show the loot of vital organs as a normal practice in the age of science and technology. Brilliantly, Ishiguro has used the concepts of love and art as tools to prove normalcy and naturalness in clone's behavior. Art and art practices are provides to clones to make them think that they are brought up or nurtured in world naturally. Interestingly, sex is described as just like game because the clones cannot produce. In contrary, love is implied and demonstrated as pure and natural feeling of attachment in the novel. The writer has skillfully interconnected love and art in the novel.

Conclusion

Ishiguro demonstrates two spaces of belonging. They are visibly separate and yet ambivalent because the novelist shows the clones trespassing the space of human beings. After hearing the rumor of deferral of donation in the case of true love of clones, Kathy tries to enter in the human world and aspires to live some time more but she forgets the fact that she is a clone. She is a product to be used in the medical world of commerce. For the brief span of life belonging is a significant existential problem for the clones. Ishiguro anticipates a world where technology will be used to harm others. He displays how science and technology have made the human beings selfish, cruel and violent. It is like European colonial intrusion at least in two senses: it is a biological loot and the imposition of education like those of missionaries which justified colonial enterprise. The education in Hailsham has trained them to accept their destiny. Kathy can be called the best example of the mimic person who becomes supporter of the exploitation.

The end of novel is quite significant and illuminating about human commerce in the age of science and technology. Kathy H. thinks about her destiny. She has accepted that she will become ‘donor’ now and her organs will be looted. Literature is the reflection of society. Ishiguro, by providing dystopian realities of the new scientific age, explore the politics of exclusion and elimination of the weaker classes of society. It is a new kind of cannibalism which prompts humans to use their own artificial and scientifically produced species or their kinds, i.e., clones (as they are not inanimate and therefore they cannot be pointed out as products or machines) for their selfish purposes. Pointing out the current scenario of the time, Sibley (2002) notes:

The human landscape can be read as a landscape of exclusion. This was clear to Engels in his observations on the industrial city, to Raymond Williams in his account of the landscapes of landed capitals in eighteenth-century England in the The Country and the City, and to Lewis Mumford, writing about Baroque cities in The City in History. Because power is expressed in the monopolization of space and the relegation of weaker groups in society to less desirable environments, any text on the social geography of advanced capitalism should be concerned with the question of exclusion. (Sibley ix)

If the famous concept of hierarchical needs by Abraham Maslow applied to the lives of clones fictionally described by Ishiguro, it can be concluded that their needs including food, sex safety and shelter are fulfilled. It is also clear that this fulfillment is done by creating fake, ambiguous and misguiding environment in which language and art have also been used as a tool to misinform and misguide the clones. In this commercial world of politics, the clones are provided their mandatory roles: to grow healthy and donate. What they are lacking is also not belonging uncertainty as discussed by Geoffrey L. Cohen (2022) in Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides because they are assured about their belonging in Hailsham and they are provided care, education, protection and nourishment. Moreover, there are no issues of discrimination explicitly described by the writers among the clones. All are treated equally: all are destined to sail in same boat. Ishiguro has complicated the issue of belonging. The clones are certain about their brief existence and belonging in the world but their assured and protected belonging is ambiguous because it is controlled commercially, economically and politically by their creators, the man. Their education in Hailsham provides them a collective sense of protected belonging but it is commercially fabricated and need-based. Their sense of belonging appears them to be real but in-depth examination reveals that it is based on human selfishness and greed.

Ishiguro's skill should be praised for the fictional construction of this dystopian world in which an attempt has been made to accommodate both, the master and the slave. Both the humans and clones realize their destinies. The human guardian-cum-teachers try to convince the clones warmth safety and security in their fake belonging at Hailsham and the clones try to accommodate in this place of ambiguous belonging. To conclude, it can be stated that the novelist has fictionally reflected the idea of belonging which is complicated and ambiguous. If the concept of belonging is thought geographically for the clones, the writer has created a fictional space in the novel which can be called colonized, complicated and ambiguous. This confusion is further amplified if the issue of belonging for the clones is thought philosophically. It can be also concluded that Ishiguro ambiguously displays the clones and their brief span of life on the earth. If this is understood as their sense of belonging on the earth, it appears philosophical on the surface but there are political and commercial realities in its depth. This further complicates the issue of belonging. It can be stated that the significance and greatness of a work of art or literature lies in its mysteries. A famous artist confuses its audience and relevance of a literary text lies in its unending interpretations.