Mark Johansen answers “Can anyone explain me why didn't they all...”

Jamila Huseynova asked this question about Never Let Me Go:

Can anyone explain me why didn't they all run away from that place? Because I could not figure out that part.

Mark Johansen Where would they go? It's pretty clear from the story that these people have little or no legal rights in their society. Maybe they could flee to anot…moreWhere would they go? It's pretty clear from the story that these people have little or no legal rights in their society. Maybe they could flee to another country and be given political asylum. The story doesn't say what the social and political situation in the rest of the world is. What would happen to someone who tried to run away and was caught? Your question is very much like asking, "Why didn't slaves run away?" Some slaves did, of course, but it wasn't easy. Someone could certainly have written a story that started out the same but ended with these people escaping or rising up in rebellion. But that would have been a very different story. What made the story so powerful to me was the way these people just accept their fate and DON'T try to escape or rebel. Whether because they know escape is hopeless, perhaps off-stage people have tried to escape and been caught and harshly punished, or because they've just been so indoctrinated that the idea of escape never occurs to them.(less)

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