Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

I have studied “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. The novel is divided into three parts. Kath begins in the first chapter stating that her “name is Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years”. In the opening few pages, Kath speaks about her job as a carer and what her role entails. Upon first reading this, the reader finds it monotonous, and tends to be ignorant of what she is saying. She then begins to tell the story as an adult looking back on her childhood, growing up at Hailsham School with Tommy and Ruth. It is only when you read these first few pages again after finishing the novel that the descriptions which initially had seemed monotonous take effect. In this part of the novel, Kath’s memories are very innocent, and the reader does not appreciate the implications of them. All we know is that the students of Hailsham are “very special” and it is more important for them to never smoke than the guardians. In the second part of the novel, Kath reminisces on her time at “the cottages”, where she and some of her close friends from Hailsham spent a few years after they graduated. “The cottages” is kind of an awkward time in the lives of Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. They are finished their school days at Hailsham, but they still cling to the memories, as Hailsham is the only life they have ever known, without it they seem a bit lost in the world. There are people from other schools like Hailsham in the cottages; the ones who have been there longest are called veterans. At this point in the novel, the reader still does not know that they are all clones, living purely to donate their organs to dying humans, however the term “carer” and “donor” is introduced, but we don’t fully understand what they mean. It is still widely open to the reader’s personal interpretation. In the third part of “Never Let Me Go”, Kath portrays her life as a carer. The novel ends in Part three, in which Kath is still a carer. We never get to see what her life is like as a donor, although we know it will soon be upon her. In this part of the novel, Ishiguro slowly reveals why the students of Hailsham are “special” – they are clones, raised for organ donation. During her time as a carer, Kath is reunited with her friends Tommy and Ruth who are now donors, and who she hasn’t seen since her time at the cottages. For a time, their friendship is rekindled and slowly they begin to shake away the cobwebs of their past. Ruth and Tommy have long split up, and in her final few weeks, Ruth tells Tommy and Kath she knew they were always meant for each other, and they should try to defer the rest of Tommy’s donations, so they can have a few years together. After Ruth “completes” (dies) after a bad donation, Tommy and Kath decide to try to get a deferral for Tommy’s donations. They visit Madame, who was in charge of the art gallery at Hailsham, which Tommy believed was the key to getting a deferral, as art shows the true inclinations of the soul, and true love is the only way to get a deferral. They realise the stories about getting a deferral are nothing but rumours, and the truth about their lives. Having been raised at Hailsham, they have known love and happiness, and so they initially do not understand how people could be so selfish. They then realise love is the reason people are so selfish; and that without their organs, people who are loved all over the world will die. This is a small consolation, as Tommy and Kath realise their love is doomed. Tommy is nearing his fourth donation, which people rarely come through. They discuss what will happen when he completes, and in the days leading up to it. Tommy tells Kath he doesn’t want her to be his carer anymore, as he does not want her to have the memories of him in the horrendous pain he would be in during his last few days imprinted in her memory. Reluctantly, Kath agrees. She keeps visiting him, but they both know their time left together is very limited. The novel ends with Kath in her last few months of being a carer. She speaks of Tommy’s death. She was ready for it, she knew it was coming, but it still had a devastating effect on her. Not only is she mourning the loss of Tommy, her friend, and her lover, she is mourning the days they should have had together, but never could have because the world wanted a way to keep the people they love with them as long as they could. This is ironic, because this is exactly what Kath wanted for Tommy, and it is exactly what he died for. The strongest theme in the novel is the theme of love. The beauty in this novel is what makes its power to distress so poignant. The novel tells the story of depth and quality of the relationships between the three main characters; Kath (Viewpoint character), Tommy and Ruth. The cruelty of their deaths certainly accentuates their love, and the tragedy of how little time Tommy and Kath’s have together. From under the shadow of their fate, Ishiguro draws warmly compelling vignettes of love and friendship that cumulatively establish an urgent and engrossing story. When Tommy and Kath realise the stories about getting a deferral are nothing but rumours, and the truth about their lives, the theme of love is evident more than ever. As they have known love and happiness, from their childhood at Hailsham, they realise love is the reason people are so selfish; and that without their organs, people who are loved all over the world will die. This is a small consolation, as Tommy and Kath realise their love is doomed. Tommy is nearing his fourth donation, which people rarely come through. “Never Let Me Go” is a reminiscent story told through the protagonist Kath. I enjoyed the story being told from Kath’s perspective, as I like the hearing her opinions and insights into things. Having said this, I think it could have been interesting if it was written Ruth and Tommy’s perspectives at different times throughout the novel. I found the way the story was told; Kath looking back on her life, a bit frustrating. Ishiguro was clever; Kath almost tells you her feelings about a particular incident before he explains what actually happened. Maybe it is just because I am impatient, but I found this irritating at times. Ishiguro is clearly an absolute master of writing in first person. He uses it really cleverly in the novel to limit and control what we learn when, using not so much an unreliable narrator but an unquestioning one. He uses the very form of the narrative expectations, to set you up to expect a certain kind of thing, but then it turns out to be completely difference. There is certainly an element of appearance versus reality in this novel, as it is partly told through naive childhood memories. One thing I really admire about Ishiguro’s style in “Never Let Me Go”, is his amazing ability to create a sense of mystery and suspense. He manages to keep the reader in the dark about who the students of Hailsham are, and why they are so special until the very end of the novel. When at times there is nothing else to keep an easily distracted reader like myself reading, it is this creation of suspense and the desire Ishiguro creates within the reader to find out what the purpose of Hailsham is, that keeps the pages turning. “Never Let Me Go” is a revolutionary science fiction novel. Having grown up in Hailsham, a school for clones, being raised for organ donation, Kathy thinks she’s so lucky, she has a bedsit, and the work she does caring and advocating for the donors before she begins her own donations is actually useful. Yet she knows, “knows and does not know” as she says, that normal people can work in offices or as postmen, and she will be dead before she’s thirty-five, so that those “normal people” can have their cancer cured. And the normal people accept it. The most enlightened ones we see think that the lives of the clones shouldn’t be as horrible as they possibly can be, that they should be like Kathy’s lucky life. In a conventional story about clones and their horrible lives, you’d have clones trying to escape or organizing a revolt. They would at very least recognise how awful it is. It’s Kathy’s cheerful acceptance of everything that makes this so brilliant and unbearable. “Never Let Me Go” is simply a fantasy of complete powerlessness. This is what makes is such a heart-wrenching, tragic novel. There’s a rumour that people who are truly in love can get a deferral for a few years, to be together. It isn’t true, and when Tommy and Kath discover it isn’t true they accept it pretty much without protest. They are angry at their situation, but they never really seem to think it is unfair. They only imagined being able to defer, not to escape. That was the most they could hope for. I believe “Never Let Me Go” has the potential to become a classic and to be taught in schools. In reading this novel one may feel that the book addresses out current world, where scientific standings are changing, and so are the morals in the people. These children are raised to be donors. They are never allowed to leave their school grounds; they don’t interact with any other children and do not know any other way of life. I enjoyed this novel because it is thought provoking, and I think it is powerful, in that it has a very compelling plot, an insight to the human condition and it portrays the force of human nature and morals in society. For these reasons, I think it would be good for analysis in a classroom, and so it would be a good novel to study.