Kathy's Characterisation 1

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  • Kathy
    • Vehicle for enigma
      • "My name is Kathy H"
        • No surname
          • Emphasizes lack of family
          • Individuality not appreciated
      • Intrigue and disturbs reader
    • Intimate relationship bw narrator and reader
      • Informal language
        • Some use of idiom
          • Carer described as a "complete waste of space" pg 3
        • Characteristic of speech between friends
      • First person narrator
        • Everything filtered through her apart from when reader's see past her
          • Tape stolen and we suspect Ruth to be the culprit
          • Realise her calm words are a way of controlling fear of future and sense of loss
      • Direct address
        • Reader positioned as a carer who didn't attend H (already familiar with system)
          • Reference to "donors", "guardians" and "completing"
          • Reader may find disconcerting
          • "I don't know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham we had to have some form of medical almost every week" pg 13
      • Reader knows more about K than herself
        • Knows she avoids dwelling on emotionally painful events
        • Knows she has more depth and complexity than role as a carer
        • Untitled
    • Unemotional/ flat tone
      • "looking forward to a bit more companionship come the end of the year when I'm finished with all of this" pg 232
        • Doesn't admit, even to herself, that she's soon to face "ghastly battles" of donations
      • Reader gradually becomes aware of much of what is not being said
      • Detached in keeping of a medical or social worker
        • Immense restraint in demeanour and sense of confinement (physical and psychological) which pervades novel
        • Evidence of survivor's guilt
          • Ironically, her competence has extended her life more than anyone else's
      • Doesn't allow herself to lose control on return to Norfolk
        • "the tears rolled down my face"
    • Attitude towards fate
      • Ignoring the inevitable
        • Shown by convoluted storytelling of flashbacks and digressions
      • Passive acceptance
        • Allegory of human mortality
          • Mirrors British attitudes to death with acceptance of society
            • Euphemisms e.g. passing away
            • Feudal system commentary on classism
        • Calm and accepting of inevitable when told deferrals didn't exist
          • Contrast to emotional T to emphasise her passivity
          • Perhaps as she feels attempting one was pointless
            • T's drawings has lost power like him
      • Implicitly frightened
      • Copes with sentimentality
        • Reflection common approach to deal with awareness of no future
          • Adds to her humanity
        • "I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy, but I won't lose my memories of them. I suppose I lost Hailsham too" pg 280
      • Starts asking Qs as early as 13
        • Analyses Miss Lucy ch7
      • More practical attitude than others
      • Emotional numbness a manifestation of confusion and anger over fate
        • I uses context to build characters

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