The Othering in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Abstract

In this article, I will investigate the concept of ‘othering’ originally as part of a post-colonial theory. This concept is interested in many academic areas, including a literary study. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go is about human clones raised for organs. The clones are excluded and discriminated to be ‘the other’ from the normal people. The manifestations of othering in Never Let Me Go can be presented in the forms of linguistic features, indoctrination, objectification, and assimilation. Although the othering phenomenon can be found in the reality, it can be appeared in literary texts as well. The findings show that the study of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go helps us to understand and aware of how the negative consequences of the othering process affect undesirable treatments in the society as a whole.