Connecting Never Let Me Go and Banksy

Just before you all read this - I know could be totally wrong about what Kazuo Ishiguro's intentions were when he wrote the book and if he even wanted to make any political/social statements. (I didn't look up any interviews or anything) However, this is what I personally got out of some parts of the book.

It seemed to me that along with writing an great book, Kazuo Ishiguro was trying to make a statement about problems in the world such as human rights and equality (clone’s rights and whether they were treated humanely or not), scientific discovery and the social issues that result from it, and hope. Ishiguro also seemed to explore moral issues. For example, is it okay to kill a group of people/clones/animals for the benefit of humanity? Ishiguro used examples in the book of these moral issues. We became attached to the characters, and then we saw the true destructive force of inequality and lies put onto people like Ruth, Kathy, and Tommy. In my opinion, this book got points across in an entertaining way. This is why I am choosing to connect Never Let Me Go and the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy. Banksy’s real name and identity is mostly unknown to people, but he is very well known for the graffiti and artwork that he does throughout cities like New York and London. Banksy shows problems the world has in an engaging art form, similarly to Ishiguro’s writing. Many of the issues he seems to focus on are similar to the ones brought up in Never Let Me Go such as inequality, manipulation of people, innocence and valuing all life. Banksy also focuses a lot on humor, environmental issues, and stopping violence and war.

Another connection that I made between Banksy and Never Let me go was the mystery associated with both of them. Banksy is mysterious because people don’t know exactly who he is. Never let me go is mysterious because as readers, we were never given all the information about what was happening and we were often put in the same position as the main characters who were fairly ignorant about the world around them. Also, not everything in the book was fully explained which makes some parts a mystery. This forces us to interpret some things that happen to the book and are vaguely explained by ourselves. Banksy’s art, for the most part, can also be interpreted differently depending on the person because as an anonymous artist he usually doesn’t want to or feel the need to explain his artwork. The unknown parts of this book and art make both of them much more appealing because most people like being able to figure out things for themselves and determine what something means.

I thought the following examples of his art show obvious connections to Never Let Me Go. (innocence, inequality especially regarding the clone's opportunities and futures, lies and abuse of power, and valuing life)