Hailsham and Hogwarts: The Connection Between Two Imaginary Boarding Schools

      The most obvious connection between Hailsham and Hogwarts is that they are both settings for the fantastical and imaginary lives of two less than normal teenagers in twentieth-century England; however, beyond the obvious, Hogwarts and Hailsham have other similar characteristics.
      One of the most intriguing concepts that Hailsham and Hogwarts both exhibit is the idea of being "hidden" from the public eye – and the students that attend them as well. Both Harry and Kathy H don't know where their schools are. While Harry leaves and comes back to Hogwarts every year, Kathy H has been there from infancy and has never left. Thus, she has never been able to trace the journey to her school and has been left searching for hints as to where Hailsham might be located ever since. The common characteristic of a secret location adds to the mysterious and magical atmospheres of these two schools which is Rowling and Ishiguro's intended goal.
     A second commonality between these two schools are the dark and dangerous forests that surround them. The Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter series is one of the greatest sources of Hogwarts lore among students as entry is forbidden (obviously) and no one knows the full contents of the Forest. This leads students to spread rumors about what creatures, such as werewolves, might lurk in the Forest at night. At Hailsham, there is a similar air of mystery and danger that surrounds the woods that encircle their school grounds. Rumors of dead bodies tied to trees and lingering ghosts cause the students of Hailsham to regard the woods with fear. The students are so terrified by the forest that it is used to punish fellow students; Kathy H and her friends forcefully held one of their roommates to a window overlooking the woods because they knew it would be "enough to ensure for her a sobbing night of terror" (51 Ishiguro). The woods in Never Let Me Go serve as a physical boundary separating Hailsham from the outside world. The Forbidden Forest similarly isolates Hogwarts students as it keeps them from exploring too far beyond the Hogwarts grounds for fear of what is truly out there. The Forbidden Forest and the woods surrounding Hailsham serve similar purposes: they both keep students from wandering off school grounds, thus ensuring they remain isolated from the outside world.
     The third similarity I drew between Hogwarts and Hailsham were the young ages of the students enrolled at these two schools. (This practice might seem abnormal to us, but it is accepted in England. After doing some research, ironically on The Guardian, I found that some British boarding schools enroll children as young as seven, but this is becoming an outdated practice.) Hogwarts students are enrolled as young as eleven and Hailsham students start in infancy, both ages in which children are still emotionally dependent on the adults in their lives. This serves to reinforce the idea that students at these schools must be separated from the outside world because of their unique natures.
    Both Hogwarts and Hailsham through their mysterious locations, dangerous forests, and young enrollment ages, serve to foster an environment of separation from the outside world. In the Harry Potter series, this separation is for the good of muggles and wizards alike who cannot peacefully coexist in full knowledge of each other. This leads us to wonder.... why exactly are the students of Hailsham being isolated from the outside world? One can only speculate that there must be something strange about Hailsham students than separates them from the rest of England's youth population which is yet another connection between Hogwarts and Hailsham.