Contoh
Ulasan Novel
ZZZT2213
BENTUK-BENTUK PENULISAN
Humanity
in Dystopian Background of ‘Never Let Me Go’
by Kazuo Ishiguro: Deprived
and Limited;
Can It Defend Itself?
Surajwaran Mangaleswaran, Muhammad Fadhli Bin Aminuddin,
Mohamad Iqbal
Afham Bin Mohd Afandi, Al Arimi Bin Mohd,
Wan Nazira Binti Che Nor, W. Syazwani
Nasuha Binti Wan Mazlan
Humanity.
To what extent do humans stop and ponder upon this one word? Do they speak
about it loudly only when wars erupted, killing thousands of innocent children?
Or when there is a woman being raped repeatedly by several men at a time? Or
maybe when there are neighbours screaming at night out of terror but no one
comes to help for the fear that humanity is about service of the court? These
examples of humanity being wronged are clear. They speak for themselves. But
the connotations they ring in humans’ minds are subjective. It is scary and
frightening the moment you realize that more people are concerned about the
news itself, rather than the victims’ situations. People are concerned about
wars; but do they pause for a while thinking about a mother crying and praying
in front of the graves of all of her children, died in one single attack? Or
the emotional burdens and psychological pain of the raped woman that she may
finally hope death is there to save her? Or of those people screaming in terror?
Because we tend to reflect on our position first- wars are not in my country,
it is not my children who died, it is not my sister being raped and it is not
my mother screaming out of terror. It is not happening to us, so why bother at
all? Some people, maybe more in figures than what we could imagine, think this
way and are not ashamed of their own thought. Humanity is served; claimed them-
served because they are safe, while others suffer.
How about those who are groomed in a
happy environment especially so that they will suffer later? They were given
life; so that they can be killed. How does the word humanity respond to this
situation, and to what level it is being dehumanized? Based on the Oxford
Dictionaries, one of the definitions of humanity is the quality of being
humane; benevolence. It underlies actions of humans towards people around them.
But, not necessarily it will be served in its fundamental manner. We do, after
all, have conflicts of interests. There are some people who hide behind the
face of humanity to permit their violent actions- like attacking a country
without solid reason; directly switching off the lives of the innocent citizens
due to unsupported claims. Yes, issues of this kind are the issues that revolve
around the importance of a group of people- around their needs, their cares and
their positions. How about single individuals? Let’s say, if these individuals have
certain shortcomings would they want to think twice of the helps offered to
them; even if acceptance means serious physical or psychological pains to the
sacrificing ones? In certain situations, yes, people can shake off the offer-
dismissing it as an act of nobility. How about in life-threatening situations?
Kill yourself or kill others?
The novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo
Ishiguro has addressed these crucial questions in such a way that readers nod
their heads to the contrasting aspects of humanity and yet made them wonder in
utter bewilderment, what has led them to nod. It is a great writing that
discusses values of humanity from the bottommost aspect of being a human and
how they are reflected in the life of its characters. The reasons we pick
humanity out of so many other values depicted in the story are; it is a
fundamental concern for the existence of the clones which is their purpose of
life- to die to let normal humans survive; yet the creation of these clones
itself speaks contrasted values of humanity more audaciously than ever.
As a start, we agreed to choose and write about a dystopian
novel entitled ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro based on several reasons.
One of them is because the elements used in the novel especially the characters;
has been able to reflect the main theme of the story. This will lay a deeper
understanding in the sense that the relation of the crucial elements in the
novel can be connected with each other in a pack and meaningful way. Also, the novel’s
major focus which is on cloning, stands out in its relevancy which sparks great
debate in today’s world.
