Ickapoo is an outcast alien. But he has feelings too.
In Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, the question of the humanity of artificially
produced life is raised: Do Clones have souls? Ishiguro’s answer is a resounding yes. In his
imagined dystopia, clones are raised with an eye on harvesting their organs in the form of
donations to complete their life span. The highlight of the novel is the relationship that
develops between Tommy and Kathy, and a love triangle that involves Ruth, a fellow clone.
Throughout the novel, the emotional passage of the clones as they grow up and struggle to
come to terms with their fate in Hailsham is documented, and it is made lucidly clear that
clones do indeed have a thriving inner life and are thus virtually indistinguishable from
normal human beings.
Hailsham, the boarding school in which the clones are raised, is a cruel experiment.
While most of the school’s activities are difficult to distinguish from those of a normal