Anthropomorphism

"When you lift an arm, or when someone sits up in bed, you can feel this pale, shadowy movement all around you in the tiles." - Never Let Me Go, page 18.

The quote above is an example of anthropomorphism that I found in chapter 2.  Kathy was telling how the center that Ruth ended up staying in for her donations was "well-designed and comfortable."  She also told of how it was very clean.  The purpose of using this literary term was to show how although one could not exactly see the reflection of himself or herself, a shadow could be felt.  Giving the tiles these human characteristics was the perfect way to portray to the reader how clean the building was.  Almost like how a human takes a shower everyday and has a shadow, the center is very clean and has a shadow of its own.  Kathy used this cleanliness as a reason for why she would not mind if she ended up in this same center when she began her own donation process.  This sort of sets the stage for the entire book.  The reader begins wondering why such a young person would be thinking about starting her own downations.  I was also confused by what this doning thing she was talking about even was.  Obviously it's something different from what we do in our world today so I assumed I would be reading a book that had more scientific discoveries like those in Brave New World.  Obviously this world isn't as scientifically advanced as the Fordian world but I do see a similarity.