Self-awareness Versus Social Identity In Never Let Me Go

Self-awareness is a concept that refers to an individual's perception of “self” in relation to the characteristics.It synthesizes the inner sense and external evaluation through the experience,introspection and feedback.The study of self-awareness not only gives the answer to the question “who am I?”,but also provides the individual with a deep understanding of himself or herself.The individual can construct his or herself-awareness in the process of social activities.Moreover,the concept of self-awareness lies inside the area of Identity and Social Identity Theory.The process of constructing self-awareness is exactly the process of seeking the self-identity.Kazuo Ishiguro is an outstanding representative of contemporary British ethnic minority literature.In his works,Kazuo Ishiguro pays close attention to human universals in pursuit of the cosmopolitan of literature works.Never Let Me Go,a Kazuo Ishiguro's work in 2005,makes a profound exploration of the social problem----“cloned human” and has attracted wide resonance in the world literature.By comparing cloned human's self-awareness with human's callous and cruel attitude to cloned humans,the paper reveals the trauma of “cloned human” from body to soul;What brought these wounds : modern humans in the world of confusion and contradiction.Through the description of cloned humans and their tragic ending,Kazuo Ishiguro reveals human's injustice to them.The very cause of injustice is human's “non-human” definition of “cloned human”.This thesis consists of an introduction,the main body and a conclusion.Its main contents are as follows:The first part is the introduction which mainly introduces the writer Kazuo Ishiguro,and his work Never Let Me Go,along with the present state of criticism and studies on him and his works both at home and abroad.It is pointed out that this thesis contributes a lot to the research on Kazuo Ishiguro and his works.The second part is the main body,which is made up of four chapters:The first chapter makes a layered analysis of self-awareness of the trio protagonists —Kathy,Ruth and Tommy— to show the diversity and complexity of their inner worlds.This chapter describes Kathy's mildness and calmness,Ruth as a domineering girl at first,but when she faces the donation and even death,she makes an expression of broad-mindedness,and Tommy's process of growing up: from a natural young boy to a responsible man.The second chapter compares the cloned human's wonderful memory of the institution Hailsham when they are young and the cruel and complex world they live in.An account of cloned human's suffering from body to soul is also given to reveal the human's indifferent,cruel attitude to cloned humans.The third chapter makes a further analysis of cloned human's suffering from body to the soul.The cause of such sufferings is the very need of the environment where humans live,and humans create “cloned humans” for their selfish purposes.This symbiotic predicament not only makes the human tangled and uncomfortable,but also gives rise to trauma and sorrow of “cloned humans”.The fourth chapter presents Kazuo Ishiguro's ethical reflections on cloned humans: “cloned human” is also a life with emotion,so it's unfair to simply think that it is the organ bearer.The last part is the conclusion,which makes a summary to the preceding analysis,and points out the main purpose of this thesis.The writer Kazuo Ishiguro describes these cloned humans as the normal humans who are full of dreams,emotions,tricks,jealous,suspect and triangle love…It is these human emotions in the subjects of the “cloned humans” makes us upset and thus reveals the theme: it is better to say it's a question about life,fate and responsibility than the question about bioengineering ethics.The writer Kazuo Ishiguro also affirms that the power of love,human's sin and weakness will be redeemed by adhering love,and therefore,sorrows will sublimate.