An authority figure is a person whose real or apparent authority over others inspires or demands obedience and emulation. Never Let Me Go is a scientific fiction novel written by Kazuo Ishiguro, in which multiple authority figures exist, impacting the character throughout the novel. A young girl attends a special school for clones, as part of an experiment. The goal of this school is to study the clones' actions and the effects different forms of art have. As a clone grows older, he/she is sent to the cottages, a farm where they must work. Subsequently, they develop careers, similar to nurses, however, they help other clones. The final stride is organ donation. The clones' bodies are stripped to the minimum, still giving them a chance to survive. If they survive, living with one liver, half a lung, one kidney etc., they are free to start their adventure in the real world. At Hailsham, the school the clones grow up in, there are two main authority figures that certainly impact their development: Miss Emily, the Head Guardian at Hailsham and Keffer, the custodian at the cottages. I suggest that both authority figures are very dominant, influential and demand respect. Miss Emily is more of a caring mother while Keffers is a grumpy care taker.
In the early stages of a clone's life the main authority figure is Miss Emily. Even though she is the head guardian at Hailsham, the students respect her and feel safe around her. "It was like she had some extra sense" (Ishiguro 40). Miss Emily has a strict and dominating appearance, "She wasn't especially tall, but something about the way she carried herself, always very straight with her head right up, made you think she was," (Ishiguro 39).¬ It continues by saying, "We were all pretty scar...
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...simply doesn’t work. The clones do not respect him nearly as much as Miss Emily and when he tries to take control, for example the magazines, it is not effective. Miss Emily has taken care of the students from an early stage, however when Keffers tries to take control when they are much older, the influence or ability to control is not the same.
In the end, Miss Emily and Keffers can both be seen as an authority figure, however Miss Emily is more of a parental authority and Keffers a cranky care taker. The influence that these authority figures have on different times of the development of the students is very important. The difference is when these figures came into the students' lives, as it results in a different relationship and connection. An authority figure has a major responsibility, which despite their differences both Miss Emily and Keffers fulfilled.
To begin, Granny Weatherall is full of pride and has a need for control. In contrast, Miss Emily lives in a fantasy land and obstinate. Miss Emily and Granny Weatherall are traumatized woman who, like any person dealing with trauma have to find a way to deal with it. Their differing personality traits dictate how they do so. Granny Weatherall pushes away the hurt and Miss Emily denies it in favor of clinging to a fantasy. Granny Weatherall and Miss Emily may both have skeletons in their closets but what they have done with them is what separates the
This passage displays a tone of the men’s respect and sense of protection toward Emily, which is very different from the other women’s reaction to her death. It also shows the reader that Emily was honorable in the eyes of the men of the town. We have seen this need to protect women throughout history, but in recent years there has been a great decline and it is sad.
While having too much authority can lead to complication and dilemmas, too little authority can lead to an overthrow of leaders in a situation. Authority is like a ticking time
We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn 't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.’ (25) This complete sheltering leaves Emily to play into with in her own deprived reality within her own mind, creating a skewed perception of reality and relationships”(A Plastic Rose,
For years Miss Emily was rarely seen out of her house. She did not linger around town or participate in any communal activities. She was the definition of a home-body. Her father was a huge part of her life. She had never...
Having been the only daughter of a noble family, Emily was overprotected by her father who had driven away all the young men wanting to be close to her. As a result of that, when she got to be thirty, she was still alone. It was Mr. Grierson who alienated his daughter from the normal life of a young woman. If she weren?t born in the Grierson, if she didn?t have an upper-class father, she could have many relationships with many young men in order to find herself an ideal lover. Then she might have a happy marriage life with a nice husband and children.
The protagonist of this story is Miss Emily Grierson, an old maid spinster without family who becomes a “tradition” and a “sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 299). The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, so I will rearrange my analysis of the character to begin with what we first know about Miss Emily.
In Never Let Me Go, the clones(Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth) experience isolation from the outside world, but not from people altogether. At Hailsham the clones were raised in a semi normal way with no real knowledge of what they were made to do and no real knowledge of their isolation from the outside world. They did normal things like play sports, gossip with friends and attend class.”About our guardians, about how we each had our own collection chests under our beds, the football…”(Ishiguro 5). At Hailsham they are not individually in isolation, but in isolation as a group. Because of this the effects from isolation that was present in clones from other places, was not present in Hailsham students until later in life. Once they get to the
Similar to “they” who lend advice to Emily’s mother, strangers and institutions also pertain to choice. Specifically, Emily’s mother’s decision to repeatedly send Emily away emphasizes the consequences of such choices and the concept that one’s environment may automatically make choices for them. Emily’s mother does not have a choice in where Emily stays, for in order to even remotely provide for Emily, she must find a job and work most of the day. For example, Emily’s mother must leave Emily with an unappreciative neighbor as she “work[s] or look[s] for work” (Olsen 2). This is ironic in the fact that her work simultaneously provides for Emily and puts greater distance between them. Nonetheless, as a consequence of the choices Emily’s mother
Miss Emily’s isolation is able to benefit her as well. She has the entire town believing she is a frail and weak woman, but she is very strong indeed. Everyone is convinced that she could not even hurt a fly, but instead she is capable a horrible crime, murder. Miss Emily’s actions range from eccentric to absurd. After the death of her father, and the estrangement from the Yankee, Homer Barron, she becomes reclusive and introverted. The reader can find that Miss Emily did what was necessary to keep her secret from the town. “Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years” (247).
“A Rose for Emily” is a typical southern story which showcases an old aristocratic woman who is unwilling to change. This is similar to that of the grandmother in “a good man is hard to find”. Both characters believe that their views are correct and moral. In “a Rose for Emily” Miss Emily is discovered to be a hypocrite by breaking all rules a lady of her stature lives by. The Grandmother in “A good man is hard to find” like Emily lives by these values. However once she is threatened by the
William Faulkner used indirect characterization to portray Miss Emily as a stubborn, overly attached, and introverted women through the serious of events that happened throughout her lifetime. The author cleverly achieves this by mentioning her father’s death, Homer’s disappearance, the town’s taxes, and Emily’s reactions to all of these events. Emily’s reactions are what allowed the readers to portray her characteristics, as Faulkner would want her to be
Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little? There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order to handle each situation in the best possible manner.
Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal girl with aspirations of growing up and finding a mate that she could soon marry and start a family, but this was all impossible because of her father. The father believed that, “none of the younger man were quite good enough for Miss Emily,” because of this Miss Emily was alone. Emily was in her father’s shadow for a very long time. She lived her li...