"An Exchange would come along and we'd be standing there torn between Susie K.'s poems and those giraffes Jackie used to make."
"Jackie's giraffes," Ruth said with a laugh. "They were so beautiful. I used to have one." (2.24-25)
Animals sure do pop up a lot in this book, especially when the students are creating art. These giraffes remind us of Tommy's childish elephant drawing and the imaginative animals he draws when he's older.
If Tommy had genuinely tried, she was saying, but he just couldn't be very creative, then that was quite all right, he wasn't to worry about it. (3.14)
At Hailsham, Tommy has trouble getting into a creative groove. The poor guy feels like everyone blames him for his lack of artistic talent. But at least he has one guardian, Miss Lucy, in his corner.
Quote 45
The gallery Tommy and I were discussing was something we'd all of us grown up with. Everyone talked about it as though it existed, though in truth none of us knew for sure that it did. I'm sure I was pretty typical in not being able to remember how or when I'd first heard about it. Certainly, it hadn't been from the guardians: they never mentioned the Gallery, and there was an unspoken rule that we should never even raise the subject in their presence. (3.51)
Is it just us, or does Kathy have trouble remembering when she learned anything at this so-called school? This moment has us thinking about how Kathy doesn't remember when she first learned about donations. For some reason, Kathy's selective memory loss kicks in on both occasions.