Sorrrry I took longer than I intended in doing the second part of 'Part 3'! Since then I've seen the film as well so I might talk about that a bit too.
Ok so we left it where Ruth had told Kathy and Tommy that they should finally be together. Now it takes Kathy about a year to finally admit that there is any point in being with Tommy after such a long time, and this seemed a bit strange seeing as she knows how much she felt for him, but I think that maybe it's more of the fact that she'd acceoted years before that she would never be with him, and it's hard for her to think that after all this time it's hard to imagine what it would be like to actually be together. I completely understand this: the whole liking someone for ages and not expecting anything to come from it, then when it's a possibility you wonder if you really want it, or if you're happy to just keep it to yourself. It must be a scary thing.
So anyway, Ruth dies (or "completes") and Kathy becomes Tommy's carer. They get on perfectly well, and slowly they become a couple. It was great to read this, to know that they get time together, but it was bittersweet (I think that word is thrown around a lot, but I can't think of a word that describes it better). Tommy is seriously weak, and it's obvious that if he does another donation he will die. It becomes increasingly important to go and visit the mysterious 'Madame', but they certainly take their time in doing so.
They finally go to find her, and whilst I had some hope at the beginning it was completely dashed by the end of the Chapter. Kathy and Tommy went to her house and were invited in - it was mentioned how she tried to walk past them without touching them again - and she is forced to reveal the truth: the rumour was just that: a rumour with no truth to it. There is no way that Kathy and Tommy - or indeed the various other couples who came to her - could buy more time. The fact is that 'normal' people simply don't see them as humans. They are clones, unentitled (is that a word?) to any rights, and made to serve their purpose. This strightforward acknowledgment was pretty harsh. What happens if you're told that the point of your life is to do die (Harry Potter again... ;] )?
But then a person comes out of the shadows and it turns out to be Miss Emily (their headmistress at Hailsham) who goes deeper into it and shows how their world is not dissimilar to ours. Hailsham, which has recently been closed down, was the first humane place to raise these children. Before, and still now, the 'schools' were more like prisons or hospitals - maybe even farms - that were used just to keep the children until they were old enough to donate. The idea of this is just horrific, but you can see how soemthing like that would happen. Obviously I relate to the characters in the book, but how would I feel if we really had clones who healed diseases like cancer? The honest answer is that I don't know. I'd like to think that I wouldn't be repulsed by them, that I would treat them the same, because they are still human... but then if it was me who had cancer would I really refuse life-saving treatment just to help these people?
That leads on to the main question that Miss Emily and Madame have been trying to prove right: do the clones have souls? I have absolutely no idea what I think, because they were technically man-made and I can't see how men and women could make souls... and yet I've read about these characters and they're no different to humans with their thoughts, emotions, feelings etc, which seems to prove that they do. Maybe souls are not 'physical' things but essensces, something within you that nothing and no one can make or change. Wow I'm getting into existentialism here, all very deep stuff!
So anyway remember what Tommy said about the Gallery where all their art went being used to determine if two people were in love? Well he was semi-right. The Gallery is in fact used to attempt to prove the children have souls. Miss Emily argues that they cannot have produced such personal things, such as poetry and meaningful art, if they didn't have souls. However they failed to make people believe, and owing to circumstances I won't get into, people became unwilling to accept the presence of the clones and refused to listen to these arguments. Hailsham was closed down, and Miss Emily and Madame had fallen back to square one. Here I expected there to be some sort of miraculous loophole that would let these two off, but there was nothing. Kathy and Tommy had to leave.
And it was so hard to accept that Tommy was going to die - and that Kathy would too. I suppose I just didn't think it would end that way. The bit that realy got me (and I think it was done really well in the film) was on their drive back to the hospital, and Tommy got out of the car, walked into a field and just shouted. No words, just a piercing shriek of pain and anguish. This was so much more effective than any words, and when Kathy ran to him and they clung on to each other it was so desperately sad. I have to admit I was in floods by this point. So they go back to the hospital with this clock ticking over their heads and Tommy is given notice for his next donation. We know this is it, he's not going to survive another one, and as we prepare for the inevitable he tells Kathy that he doesn't want her to be his carer anymore. It's not because he doesn't love her, but just because he can't bear to put her through the agony of seeing him in so much pain, without being able to help. I suppose this was a good thing to do, but it just brought their separation closer and OH MY GOSH I'M NEARLY CRYING JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
So Kathy leaves. And we both know it's the last time she'll ever see him. She gets notice a little later that he has died, and then we seem to join the narrator Kathy in her real time, rather than being stuck in her path. I don't think I mentioned that when they were children they had this idea that everything you lost somehow ends up in Norfolk, and we leave Kathy at the side of a road in Norfolk, staring out over a field. She says the most poignant, heartbreaking thing in the entire book. She stands there and imagines that all the things she lost when she was younger are in this field, and then that if she waits long enough, she'll see Tommy walk towards her over the horizon. She doesn't let herself imagine anything else, but feels that if he were ever to come back that's where he'd be.
Kathy tells us that she's recieved her notice for her first donation, and we know that soon she will die too. It's strange, as I couldn't tell if I was glad or not. She's the last of her friends left, and if she dies she can hopefully be reunited with Tommy; but she's such a good person that she doesn't deserve to die.
The book ends in this poignant note, and left me feeling really strange - sad and not sad at the same time. The story really made me think (which I think is important for any story) about humanity, how humans treat each other, but also about relationships between different people and in a way what it is to love.
Ok so the next book I'll be doing is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill and I've just started it, so should do the next post in a few days hopefully :)
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