People In Parts

I love distopia novels: novels written about societies designed to be utopias but in execution are seriously flawed. I couldn’t help but notice a strong parallel between my two favorite distopia novels, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishigori. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margret Atwood, is the story of the overthrow of the US and its fall into a totalitarian government, known as “The Republic”. The book is narrated by Offred, who tells of life as a handmaid, a rare fertile woman pressed into sexual service for important government officials in a world where most women are sterile. Never Let Me Go centers around the experience of the narrator, Kathy, and her experience in growing up at the elite private school, Hailsham, as clone destined to donate organs once physically mature. Both women in these books have limited power of their bodies for a so-called greater good- reproduction and longevity as the case may be- and are dehumanized in the process. Without power over one’s body, an individual cannot live a true life or be respected as a real human with a personality leading to loss of freedom, ability to have relationships, and right to knowledge.

Famously in The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred states, “Waste not, want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?” (7). The reoccurring tragedy in this novel is in the view of sexulaity for women by the Republic. In the society where few women retain their ability to procreate, handmaids become such an important commodity that they become overshadowed by their sexuality. Handmaids have uniforms, specific duties and set limitations on any activity or interaction that may jeopardize their enslavement or ability to bear children, including interaction with any person, reading, and relationships. There is a tragic loss of identity that occurs with being so highly valued for something so banal. Offred is still a person within her prized body, but it is significant to no one other than herself.

Kathy and Offred share the same inability to take control of their lives. Although Offred lives in a very defined and strict world, Kathy has the same limitations but in a quieter way. Kathy, like Offred, is separated from the world in isolation at Hailsham, where information about the outside world is strictly monitored and escape is simply inconceivable because of lack of knowledge.  There is no one keeping them in Hailsham by force but they simply couldn’t survive outside because they lack practical abilities like confidence around outside people, even for something as simple as small purchases at shops. They are allowed to read, but have censored material. These milder restrictions, kinder and gentler, still bind them to their identity as subhuman. Most significantly there is a similar sexual restriction on both women. Towards the end of the novel, Kathy graduates from the school and is reunited with her best friend Tommy by becoming his “carer” (almost like a baby sitter) while he is going through the donation process and they are able to have a short relationship ending with Tommy saying, “ ‘It’s a shame, Kath, because we’ve loved each other all our lives, But in the end, we can’t stay together’” (282).  Although the two are allowed to have a relationship as clones, their entire lives are influenced by the fact that they will die long before they reach middle age and their time together will be tainted by obligations from not being in control of their physical bodies with donations and medical problems. Their inability to physically take control of their bodies hampers their mental freedom and their way of looking at their relationship. This block of freedom is just as tangible as Offred’s blatant rule forbidding dating. The free will of the clones is undermined by the simple fact that their bodies are not their own, and society owns them from conception until they die.

It’s interesting to think that despite being valued for different things physically and in entirely different societies, Offred and Kathy have the basic same restrictions on their life. It’s ironic: they are both extremely valued by their societies, so being dehumanized superficially seems odd. However, be it carrying vessel for children or “Organ sack” (as one of my classmates put it)… when a person is valued as piece or a part they stop being human to society even when they are still individuals with the same universal need to be free.

 I would recommend everyone to read A Handmaid’s Tale along with 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World if you liked Never Let Me Go!