Power Is Everywhere—An Interpretation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go on Foucault’s Discipline Power

Abstract

The present paper attempts to interpret Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go in the framework of Foucault’s discipline power and investigates how those clones are transformed to be docile organ donors. It is found that Hailsham, Cottage, and recovery center are all disciplinary establishments in the shape of a Panopticon, where discipline power is exercised upon the clones constantly through three instruments: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgement, and examination. These subtle disciplinary elements fill every corner of their lives, and they are effectively observed, manipulated, and trained to behave “normally” as human society expects.