Thursday, May 2, 2013
The Lying Game
Now that things have started to pick up, I'm starting to understand a lot more about the personalities certain characters. In the last few readings, Ruth has really been developed as a character, and I can see now why she and Kathy have such a complex relationship. The beginning of the book shows Ruth's tendency to lie, and that has only become more pronounced now at The Cottages. I don't think however, that her dishonesty is really intended to be malicious. At Hailsham when Ruth lies about where she got her new pencil case and insists that Miss Lucy gave it to her, I think she's trying to fill some desire for love. The students at Hailsham are clones and so their existence comes from only one other person, meaning that they have no parents. Even worse, they have no connection to that original (or "possible"). So I can definitely see why Ruth feels the need to lie. This theory is further supported I think by the lie Ruth tells Chrissie and Rodney about "deferrals". I'm a little confused by this concept, but I think it means that before becoming a carer, it is possible for students to be together if they are in love. Although Kathy and Tommy are annoyed by the fact that Ruth pretends that this is true for Hailsham students, I took it more as a little sad. I feel like Ruth is trying to delude herself into believing it is true because of an inner longing for the possibility of love. I think this comes from both the restrictions placed upon couples during adolescence, and also from the absence of any real family. The students seem to put a lot of importance on who their "possible" is. When Ruth sees someone who may have been her clone, it's a cause for a lot of excitement. It also causes some more negative emotions when it turns out that the possible is not her clone. The fact that Ruth is so upset by the mistake shows a lot about her hidden need for some confirmation of her identity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You're right, Nikita - this novel is definitely about love, and not necessarily the romantic story line, but the need for love, especially in this environment. I also feel sad for Ruth, that she feels so alone that she will go to these lengths to find some version of love. And you're right, too, that love is, in some ways, a version of self-affirmation, as the characters can "matter" more if they are the recipient of love.
ReplyDeleteThe character from my book, Guy, would be able to relate to Ruth. He is married, but has absolutely no relationship with his wife. He is not in love and only seems to be in the relationship to be with someone. Him and his wife never spend time together, she only uses him for his money, and they cant even remember why/how they met. For all this time Guy has just told himself that he is in love, instead of actually stopping and thinking about it. It seems as if most authors worry that in the future there will be no relationships between people because other everyone gets caught up in other aspects of life.
ReplyDeleteThe way that Ruth responds to an inner emptiness by lying and deceiving herself is connected in a strange way to how Alex in A Clockwork Orange deals with difficult truths. He does less direct lying, but he cloaks his meanings in slang-ridden language that acts to emotionally separate him from the brutality he witnesses and takes part in. In a way, Ruth's fixation on love is the opposite extreme compared with Alex's apathy and disconnection. It seems that though these characters are very different, they have a similar problem of lacking human connections and significant relationships, as well as not being honest with themselves and others.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nikita with the fact that Ruth has the desire to love. This reminds me of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. All humans have these needs, especially the one to love and be loved, which makes Ruth connected to the real humans, not the clones, in this story. It upset me when I read about how Ruth had false hope in finding her possible, and she found out it wasn't actually the right person. This false hope breaks these people down, and I personally think that their rights and their lives are just completely inhumane. They grow up just to donate their organs and die. The rumor of the deferrals was also false hope for these characters, because even though they feel like they are in love, they will still have to donate their organs as they grow older. This desire for love, and Ruth's desire for finding her possible will never be able to be repressed. It will always be there, even unconsciously, which will come back and backfire if she does have to repress it, which is what this society forces them to do.
ReplyDelete