Stasiland

Buildings

Throughout Stasiland, Funder records the state and appearance of the interior and exterior of many buildings. For the most part, they are descriptions of standard, grey, utilitarian government buildings. Hospitals, schools and Stasi headquarters almost appear the same, usually with a grey exterior and brown linoleum interior, showing a uniformity expected in a regime dedicated to efficiency and control. The generic exterior of buildings, in hiding their interior purpose and working, symbolise the secrecy of the regime; inside a building that looks similar to a school or hospital, files can be kept, prisoners tortured or operatives trained. The buildings mimic the Stasi, who may wear uniforms or everyday suits, but who are working at a sinister plot. The bureaucracy associated with the buildings represents the regime to citizens. This is why, when they begin to protest, they flock to the government buildings and surround them in a candlelit vigil of protest. The buildings also become reminders of the past; even after the Berlin wall has gone, they remain, smelling of the old men who inhabited them making decisions that would harm many, but which now house files, museums and archives. At the conclusion, Funder notes how the buildings have started to be painted, glossing over their past and seemingly offering some hope of change, or simply that people are forgetting the past.

Buildings Quotes

And it was furnished if, as Julia warned me, ‘only sparsely’. This was even truer now. (About the apartment, a metaphor of GDR) Chapter 5

What surprises me about living here was that, no matter how much was taken out, this linoleum palace continues to contain all the necessities for life, at the same time as it refuses to admit a single thing, either accidentally or arranged, of beauty or joy. (Funder) Chapter 5

Most of the cranes are gone. New facades of buildings in sun-yellow and dusky pink, some even gilded, have been revealed from behind scaffolding. (Leipzig) Chapter 28

But I did scream, so loud,
That this land howled back at me,
As hideously,
As it builds its houses. (From Charlie’s poem) Chapter 28

Plastic Plate

The plastic plate that hung on the wall of Hagan Koch’s office was an award ‘for cultural work by his unit’. After he resigned, knowing that another uniform would simply take his place in the machine that was the GDR, Hagan Koch took the plate home without permission. The plate represents the over-efficient and depersonalised nature of the systems that were in place before and after the Wall, which is seen in the working committee that is formed to investigate the whereabouts of the plate after Koch denies taking it. Although the value of the plate is minimal, the Stasi investigate saying, ‘at the Ministry for State Security nothing just disappears’. Even after the Wall has fallen and Germany is reunified, members of the new order arrive at Koch’s house after they see the plate on his wall during a TV interview in which he participated. He resists handing it over and eventually the persecution over the plate ends. The plate shows the level of detail observable in German society. A simple rule must be followed no matter how arbitrary it seems, something Funder muses over at the pool when she tries swimming on a non-swimming day.

Plastic Plate Quotes

‘My little private revenge,’ he says. ‘That plate’-he looks straight at me-‘was all I had the courage for.’ (Hagan Koch) Chapter 18

Shredded documents

At the fall of the GDR, many of the files that weren’t simply destroyed or burnt were shredded and placed in sacks. The sacks were recovered by the population and taken to Berlin where ‘puzzle women’ worked tirelessly to piece them back together. The files that contained some of the deepest secrets of the citizens represented their lives, the details of which were taken simultaneous to the taking of their right to privacy and freedom. Allegorically, the citizens’ lives were shredded by the oppressive nature of the government. This metaphor is extended as Miriam, who lost her husband under dubious circumstances, relies on the puzzle women to rebuild files and reveal the truth. To Miriam, rebuilding the files concerning her husband could rebuild part of herself. However, Funder learns that the process of putting the files back together is only a tokenistic effort and that, in reality, it is likely that citizens will die before their files, or lives, are reconstructed.

Shredded Documents Quotes

But this was done in such an orderly fashion – whole drawers of documents put into the same bag-that now, in Nuremberg, it was possible for the puzzle women to piece them back together. Chapter 7

Germany was the only Eastern Bloc country in the end that so bravely, so conscientiously, opened its files on its people to its people. Chapter 7

I have been thinking about this place for so long as the focus of Miriam’s hopes; I want there to be stainless steel benches and people wearing hair nets and white cloth gloves … I want them to find out what happened to Charlie Weber. (The Stasi file authority) Chapter 27

This means that to reconstruct everything it would take 40 workers 375 years. I am speechless. Chapter 27

I look out the window, thinking about Miriam and her hopes that the torn-apart pieces of her life will be put back together in those airy rooms, some time in the next 375 years. Chapter 27

The Wall

The Berlin Wall, constructed in 1961, stood for almost thirty years as a symbolic division between Western, capitalist society, and Eastern, Communist society. However, the wall would emblematise more than just a split ideology, it would also serve as a reminder of a deprivation of freedom and access to opportunities imposed by the GDR government. On another level, the Wall would be referred to as a wall within people’s minds, a shaping of their thinking and mistrust, a barrier to them finding peace of mind. On occasion, Funder personifies the Wall as an emotional scar, describing its leftover presence as a scar on the city. She depicts how it brutally divided families and communities in half, leaving behind irreparable damage. The decision to erect the Wall and its location seems almost arbitrary, as seen by a young Hagan Koch scrawling a chalk line across a city. The sudden appearance and disappearance of the Wall also adds to its mystical, yet sinister, qualities.

The Wall Quotes

… it was one of the longest structures ever built to keep people separate from one another. (About the wall) Chapter 1

… to build an ‘anti-fascist protective measure’. … which had something of the prophylactic about it, protecting easterners from the western disease of shallow materialism. It obeys all the logic of locking up free people to keep them safe from criminals. Chapter 17

‘The Wall Went Straight through My Heart.’ (Heading on Frau Paul’s notes) Chapter 21

Smells

Funder employs a keen sense of smell through Stasiland. She opens the text with a reference to a smell of disinfectant used to cover a worse smell. This represents the beginning of Funder’s journey; she is aware that hidden secrets lurk underneath the surface of the East German society that is now covered by a new order. As she digs deeper, she finds a new smell, ‘the smell of old men’, which represents the remnants of the old Stasi men who filled the government buildings, planning and plotting to hold onto an oppressive regime. Miriam is living near the big cat enclosure, from where a smell wafts past her from time to time. This gives the impression that predators are always close by and the haunting past, while invisible, is still near. The Stasi themselves collected smells in jars, knowing each individual had a unique smell. The fact they felt they could capture the essence of a person and put it in a jar mirrors their understanding that a file could fully capture a person’s life and personality.

Smells Quotes

It occurs to me that the purpose of disinfectant globules was to mask the smells of human bodies with something worse. Chapter 1

The Stasi had developed a quasi-scientific method, ‘smell sampling’, as a way to find criminals. Chapter 1

‘It was the smell,’ she says, ‘of old men.’ (Cleaning lady at Stasi HQ) Chapter 7

Berlin was green, a perfumed city. I realise I have never been here in full spring. Chapter 25

 

 

 

Never Let Me Go

Hailsham

The institution or school called Hailsham was formed by Miss Emily and Madame and offered certain clones a better life than most clones would experience. It is a sign of innocence as the students play together and enjoy their childhood. They focus on art and poetry and have a set of guardians that seem to watch over them to keep them safe. This innocence is something Kathy tries to hold on to throughout the novel. She is forced to hold on to it in her memories after she leaves Hailsham. The arrival at the Cottages signals that the students have left their innocence behind. Later, with the closing and abandonment of Hailsham, the mature and knowledgeable students gain insight into and accept their fate.

Hailsham Quotes

And I’m a Hailsham student—which is enough by itself sometimes to get people’s backs up. Chapter 1

There have been times over the years when I’ve tried to leave Hailsham behind, when I’ve told myself I shouldn’t look back so much. Chapter 1

When you come across old students from Hailsham, you always find them, sooner or later, getting nostalgic about their collections. Chapter 4

‘Look, there are all kinds of things you don’t understand, Tommy, and I can’t tell you about them. Things about Hailsham, about your place in the wider world, all kinds of things. But perhaps one day, you’ll try and find out. They won’t make it easy for you, but if you want to, really want to, you might find out.’ (Miss Lucy to Tommy) Chapter 9

The point about Chrissie—and this applied to a lot of the veterans—was that for all her slightly patronising manner towards us when we’d first arrived, she was awestruck about our being from Hailsham. Chapter 12

‘What they said,’ Chrissie continued, ‘was that if you were a boy and a girl, and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so you could have a few years together before you began your donations.’ Chapter 13

‘You don’t understand,’ Ruth was saying. ‘If you were from Hailsham, then you’d see. It’s never been such a big deal for us. I suppose we’ve always known if we ever wanted to look into it, all we’d have to do is get word back to Hailsham …’ (Ruth to Kathy) Chapter 14

But for me at least, this non-appearance of Hailsham students just added to a feeling that Hailsham was now far away in the past, and that the ties binding our old crowd were fraying. Chapter 16

It was that exchange, when we finally mentioned the closing of Hailsham, that suddenly brought us close again, and we hugged, quite spontaneously, not so much to comfort one another, but as a way of affirming Hailsham, the fact that it was still there in both our memories. (Laura and Kathy) Chapter 18

‘… Hailsham was considered a shining beacon, an example of how we might move to a more humane and better way of doing things … ‘ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

‘… You Hailsham students, even after you’ve been out in the world like this, you still don’t know the half of it. All around the country, at this very moment, there are students being reared in deplorable conditions, conditions you Hailsham students could hardly imagine. And now we’re no more, things will only get worse.’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

The Woods

The woods behind Hailsham symbolise realities of which the donor children only have a vague awareness. The dark and ominous woods are distant and unknown, and are only conveyed through rumours and partial information; their presence is a threatening view of the outside world. Kathy knows she ‘wasn’t the only one to feel their presence day and night’. Like those that controlled the clones’ fates, ‘they cast a shadow over the whole of Hailsham’. The controlling measures and rules for the clones are not clearly detailed by Ishiguro but, like the woods, they are ominously present and intimidating.

The Woods Quotes

The woods were at the top of the hill that rose behind Hailsham House. All we could see really was a dark fringe of trees, but I certainly wasn’t the only one of my age to feel their presence day and night. Chapter 5

There were all kinds of horrible stories about the woods. Chapter 5

The guardians always insisted these stories were nonsense. But then the older students would tell us that was exactly what the guardians had told them when they were younger, and that we’d be told the ghastly truth soon enough, just as they were. Chapter 5

You have to remember that until that point we’d never been beyond the grounds of Hailsham, and we were just bewildered. Chapter 10

The Cassette / Never Let Me Go Song

While at Hailsham, Kathy purchases a cassette tape of the Judy Bridgewater album, Songs after Dark, at one of the Sales. Her favourite track on the album, ‘Never Let Me Go’, gives the novel its title. The song itself has dual meaning. Kathy imagines that the song is about a woman afraid of losing her baby and, holding tightly to the child, she sings a song that expresses her happiness as well as her fear of loss. Madame sees Kathy dancing to this song and weeps, imagining the song to represent a ‘new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel world.’ Madame ‘saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain.’

The cassette is lost and represents many of the things that Kathy will lose throughout her short life. The location of a copy in Norfolk raises a few links to the cassette. The fact that it is a copy resembles the clones themselves, as duplicates that can still be as valuable as an original, although never quite the same. It also binds Tommy and Kathy as they search for the tape together and, just as the tape is found in the ‘lost corner’ of England, their deep friendship is found here also.

The Cassette / Never Let Me Go Song Quotes

And that’s why, years and years later, that day Tommy and I found another copy of that lost tape of mine in a town on the Norfolk coast, we didn’t just think it pretty funny; we both felt deep down some tug, some old wish to believe again in something that was once close to our hearts. Chapter 6

And it was because of this cigarette that I got so secretive about the tape, right from the moment I found it at the Sale. Chapter 6

‘.. You see, I imagined it was about this woman who’d been told she couldn’t have babies. But then she’d had one, and she was so pleased, and she was holding it ever so tightly to her breast, really afraid something might separate them, and she’s going baby, baby, never let me go…’ (Kathy’s version of the dance incident) Chapter 22

‘.. I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go…’ (Madame’s versions of the dance incident) Chapter 22

The Boat

Like Charon’s boat from Greek mythology that ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hades, the stranded boat that the trio of friends visit reflects their upcoming death. Ruth, who is suffering greatly, sees it as beautiful, and she is the next to complete. Tommy wants to go closer and he will soon be summoned for another and final donation. However, the boat resembles the clones themselves; stranded, it lacks the freedom to move off and take its own course. It is abandoned and, like the clones being harvested, is falling apart piece by piece. Tommy’s comment that links it to Hailsham, now in its own state of decay, means that seeing the sad relic of a boat in the marsh is as close to glimpsing their past as they can come.

The Boat Quotes

But then everything changed again, and that was because of the boat. Chapter 18

‘Oh, it’s just like my friend said it was,’ Ruth said. ‘It’s really beautiful.’ Chapter 19

‘Maybe this is what Hailsham looks like now. Do you think?’ (Tommy compares the boat to Hailsham) Chapter 19

Madame’s Gallery

Like so much of the interaction between the clones and the outside world, only parts of the clones’ understanding is true. Left in the dark about the reason Madame mysteriously appears and selects then removes the best of their art and poetry, the clones fabricate stories and rumours to fill in the gaps. A source of pride in their innocence, the students imagine their art proudly displayed in a gallery run by Madame. Later, Tommy believes art reveals the souls of the creators, and this will be used to validate love and allow a deferral of their processing. Ultimately, the gallery represents lost hope as Tommy and Kathy find out that it was not real and that, although the art was used to try and prove the existence of souls in the clones, it was unsuccessful and causes the final loss of hope.

Madame’s Gallery Quotes

‘… What is this gallery? Why should she have a gallery of things done by us?’ (Kathy to Tommy) Chapter 3

… but we all sensed that to probe any further—about what she did with our work, whether there really was a gallery—would get us into territory we weren’t ready for yet. Chapter 4

Maybe it was the tiredness suddenly catching up with us—after all, we’d been travelling since before dawn—but I wasn’t the only one who went off into a bit of a dream in there. We’d all wandered into different corners, and were staring at one picture after another … Chapter 14

‘… She told Roy that things like pictures, poetry, all that kind of stuff, she said they revealed what you were like inside. She said they revealed your soul.’ (Tommy recalling Miss Lucy) Chapter 15

‘… Well, you weren’t far wrong about that. We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

‘Why did you have to prove a thing like that, Miss Emily? Did someone think we didn’t have souls?’ (Kathy) Chapter 22

Miss Emily’s Cabinet

A seemingly insignificant distraction that appears when Tommy and Kathy visit Madame and Miss Emily, the bedside cabinet that Miss Emily is having removed reveals much about attitudes towards the clones. First, her preoccupation with it despite being confronted by two former students suggests that she has little time or interest in the clones. The cabinet itself is given high praise compared to the students. She says it is a ‘wonderful object’ and a ‘beautiful object’, contrasting the ‘revulsion’ she said she has for the clones, and that she has kept it from her days at Hailsham. By comparison, she has had no contact with the students after they left Hailsham. The cabinet is to be accompanied by Miss Emily and wrapped with ‘protective padding’ so it will not be damaged. No such care has been afforded to the clones. They were in some ways ‘hurled around’ but Miss Emily is determined not to let that happen to her possession. Although it is possible to see the cabinet as the passing of Miss Emily’s fight for cloning rights, it is hard to go past the significance of clones being treated more poorly than material objects.

Miss Emily’s Cabinet Quotes

Unfortunately, my dears, I won’t be able to entertain you for as long as I’d like just now, because in a short while some men are coming to take away my bedside cabinet. Chapter 22

It’s a quite wonderful object. George has put protective padding around it, but I’ve insisted I’ll accompany it myself all the same. You never know with these men. They handle it roughly, hurl it around their vehicle, then their employer claims it was like that from the start. Chapter 22

It’s a beautiful object, I had it with me at Hailsham,so I’m determined to get a fair price. So when they come, I’m afraid that’s when I shall have to leave you. Chapter 22