Normalizing the Unzipped

Society tends to turn a blind eye towards majorly inhumane activities. One such activity that is overlooked is organ trafficking. The fictional novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro covers the lives of children who were cloned specifically to give their organs for non-clones to live. The article “Not properly human”: literary and cinematic narratives about human harvesting” by Henriette Roos explores the reality of human organ trafficking and how people who want the organs believe the act is normal and acceptable. As inhumane as each circumstance is, the people of the outside world who utilize the organs try to validate the victimization through word choice, daily lifestyle behavior, and stereotypical acceptances.

Examples of dulled realities are found throughout Ishiguro’s book as well as Roos’ article. These normalizations are found in Ishiguro’s book when Miss Lucy explains why the children need to keep healthy (Ishiguro 68) and when a “special” way of verbalization is used to describe their fate (68-69). Two instances that show the children normalize their own fate is when Kathy dances around to her favorite music causing an emotional reaction by a “normal” human (70-71) and when Ruth fantasizes about her “proper career” as if she has a choice to acquire one (144). In the article “Not properly human” the act of normalization can be seen: when they host a game show that gives people human organs from cancer patients (Roos 3), when they say that organ trafficking has to happen because the wait list is too long (3), and when prisoners are forced to give up organs because they “deserve it” (4). In both situations, society attempts to normalize this grueling activity in various ways.

Normalization is significantly outlined through healthful living styles, positive word choice, and regular development pace in children. In Never Let Me Go, Miss Lucy, who is a guardian