ABSTRACT
Moreover, preterition constitutes a significant rhetorical choice for Kathy, as a human clone created by man, if considered under the light of the Christian doctrine of preterition, which branches out of the doctrine of election. According to the latter, God actively designates some men for salvation and others for damnation. The doctrine of preterition adds a third category to the elect and the reprobate; this
would be the preterite, the multitudes who are simply passed over and damned, as it were, by inertia rather than any divine decree. ‘Deprived of the dignity imparted by God’s individuating wrath’, notes the critic Louis Mackey, ‘the Preterite perish en masse in His ignorance’ (56). The clones of Never Let Me Go follow a surprisingly similar path to that of the preterite, with silence surrounding all their existential struggles, and their lives consumed before their indifferent creators. Such a drama repeats the old story between God and Man, only redistributing the roles between Man and Clone. And thus, rhetorical preterition comes to echo only too clearly the position of Kathy H., acting as the voice of the preterite.
