Commodity and Exploitation in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chiang, Fu-Ju
Abstract
This thesis will delve into the issue of exploitation by contextualizing Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go in terms of a capitalist milieu. The clones in the story can play the following three different roles in a capitalist society. First of all, the clones can be sold as commodities with exchange value as backups of human beings. Second, as consumers, the clones are able to purchase commodities in a wide range of consumer activities. Last but not least, as laborers, the clones are capable of producing a variety of commodities. These three roles of the clones—as commodities, consumers, and laborers—all revolve around the concept of commodity, with an eye to generating profits. Nonetheless, it is the humans rather than the clones that receive the majority of profits through these economic activities. The unequal relationship between the capitalists and the working class in the contemporary society is epitomized in the human characters’ absolute superiority over the clones in Never Let Me Go. This thesis, apart from discussing various forms of exploitation by investigating into the three roles mentioned above, also aims to reconstruct the formation of a disadvantaged class via an examination of the life course of the clones.
Subjects
Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go
exploitation
commodity
capitalism
Type
thesis
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