Never Let Me Go: 12

ALLUSION

"That's why she often looked more like the Wicked Witch than a movie star - an impression reinforced by her irritating way of jabbing you with a finger the second before she said something to you." p. 141

In this part of the book, Kathy is describing the character of Chrissie. She has the ability to be very pretty but does not recognize this. So then, Kathy compares her to the Wicked Witch. This was probably the first time I have seen some sort of allusion to something that I know of. I love the Wizard of Oz so it was exciting to see it made it into this book. The Wicked Witch has become a timeless character that almost everyone knows about. In some way, she has become sort of a cliche. People are so often compared to her that one does not even have to think about where the allusion came from. It is just universally excepted as a bad connotation. This was also enlightening because the author showed how cultured Kathy and the students at Hailsham really were. I was beginning to wonder if this was supposed to be set during a time when our real society was happening, unlike Brave New World where normal society was so far gone.