Similar to Trethewey, Kazuo Ishiguro uses the symbol of visual art to represent a method of comprehending and coping with one’s situation; however, while Trethewey uses the symbol to understand history and take control of the past, in Never Let Me Go, the students of Hailsham use art to deal with their current situation. At the beginning of the book, Kathy H. introduces the idea of “how you were regarded at Hailsham, how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good you were at ‘creating,’” revealing visual art’s crucial role in Hailsham culture (Ishiguro 18). As she details an account of the art lessons, the reader understands that art’s role at Hailsham is not accidental; the “guardians” encourage and reinforce the importance
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Conrad uses oil painting to represent Kurtz’s attempt to hold onto what is comfortable and familiar to him and to ultimately keep control over himself as he is immersed in a chaotic and unfamiliar setting. The symbol occurs in the first part of the book, after Marlow has been in the Congo for some time. As he is speaking with the brickmaker, he notices a “small sketch in oils...representing a woman” Kurtz painted “while waiting for means to go to his trading post” (26). During the time Kurtz was waiting in this “mysterious,” wild, new place, seemingly filled with darkness and immorality, he creates the portrait of his Intended--a symbol of morality and civilization--as a way to keep control over what he knows: European life, civilization, and what he believes are moral values (73). However, because Kurtz does not continue to create visual art during the rest of his time in the Congo, he fails to keep control of himself and becomes lost in a flood of his own selfish, immoral desires and rapacious emotions, leaving behind his “values” and a “civilized” life. In the criticism, “An Ashy Halo: Women as Symbol in ‘Heart of Darkness,’” Edward A. Geary agrees that Kurtz paints the woman as a “high symbol of civilization,” but also suggests
Conrad uses oil painting to represent Kurtz’s attempt to hold onto what is comfortable and familiar to him and to ultimately keep control over himself as he is immersed in a chaotic and unfamiliar setting. The symbol occurs in the first part of the book, after Marlow has been in the Congo for some time. As he is speaking with the brickmaker, he notices a “small sketch in oils...representing a woman” Kurtz painted “while waiting for means to go to his trading post” (26). During the time Kurtz was waiting in this “mysterious,” wild, new place, seemingly filled with darkness and immorality, he creates the portrait of his Intended--a symbol of morality and civilization--as a way to keep control over what he knows: European life, civilization, and what he believes are moral values (73). However, because Kurtz does not continue to create visual art during the rest of his time in the Congo, he fails to keep control of himself and becomes lost in a flood of his own selfish, immoral desires and rapacious emotions, leaving behind his “values” and a “civilized” life. In the criticism, “An Ashy Halo: Women as Symbol in ‘Heart of Darkness,’” Edward A. Geary agrees that Kurtz paints the woman as a “high symbol of civilization,” but also suggests