Never Let Me Go Summary

Never Let Me Go is set in a dystopian world in which human clones are created
so that they can donate their organs as young adults. The novel follows the life
story of Kathy, a clone who is raised at a boarding school for future donors. It is
related in flashback: Kathy is now thirty-one and about to start her first
donations. For the past eleven years, she has worked as a carer, a nurse and
companion to clones who are in between donations.
Kathy reminisces about her time at Hailsham. Her two most important friends
were Ruth, a charismatic but manipulative and dishonest queen bee, and
Tommy, a kind boy with a bad temper who is disliked by the other students.
Kathy relates a number of anecdotes about how her relationships with Ruth and
Tommy change over time.
Hailsham places a great emphasis on art, writing, and other forms of creativity.
A mysterious woman named Madame comes periodically to take the students
best artwork away to an off-campus Gallery. Tommy is not particularly good at
these things and never gets pieces into the Gallery, which is part of why he is
ostracized. One day when he is thirteen, Miss Lucy, a teacher and guardian,
informs Tommy that it is all right if he has trouble being creative because it does
not matter anyway. Kathy is shocked by this.
Kathy relates several anecdotes about Ruths pathological lying. At one point,
Ruth pretends to be talented at chess when she does not actually know how to
play. At another, she pretends that a pencil case was a gift from her favorite
teacher when in fact she bought it for herself. Nevertheless, Kathy becomes good
friends with her, and when she loses her favorite cassette tapewhich features a
song called Never Let Me Go,Ruth tries to help her find it.
One day, Miss Lucy tries to explain to the students about how tragic and difficult
their lives will be once they become donors. However, the students are unable to
process the information. Around age sixteen, Tommy and Ruth begin dating each
other. Kathy is slightly jealous but tries to hide her feelings for Tommy. A few
months after Tommy and Ruth get together, the students graduate from
Hailsham and go to live at the Cottage, a more relaxed holding facility where the
students are free to drive and otherwise act as they wish.
At the Cottages, Ruth becomes fixated on impressing the older students, or
veterans. Two of these veterans, Chrissie and Rodney, take Kathy, Ruth, and
Tommy on a trip to Norfolk because Rodney believes he has found Ruths
original, the person from whom she was cloned. On the trip, Chrissie and
Rodney confront the younger students about a rumor that if two Hailsham
students are truly in love, they can get their donations deferred so they might
have a few years together. No one has heard of this program, but Ruth pretends
that she knows all about it.

Tommy and Kathy split from the rest of the group. At Tommys suggestion, they
look in secondhand stores for the favorite music tape that Kathy lost so many
years ago. They find it and have an emotional moment together. Ruth begins to
notice the growing affection between Kathy and Tommy, and does what she can
to sabotage the budding relationship. She tells Tommy that Kathy dislikes his
drawings, and tells Kathy that Tommy could never fall in love with someone who
has had casual sex, as Kathy has.
Kathy is saddened by the situation, so she voluntarily leaves the Cottages to
begin her carer training. Several years later, rumors begin to circulate that
Hailsham has closed. One day, Kathy encounters an old friend from Hailsham
who informs her that Ruth has begun her donations and is doing poorly. Despite
their tumultuous relationship when they were young, Kathy volunteers to
become Ruths carer.
Ruth asks Kathy to take her to see an abandoned boat several hours away. Kathy
agrees, and they stop to visit Tommy, who has also begun his donations.
Tommys recovery center is near the boat, and Kathy suspects this is why Ruth
wanted to make the trip. When the trio is back together, Ruth apologizes for
keeping Kathy and Tommy apart. She encourages them to apply for a deferral so
they can have a few years together, and gives them the address of Madame,
whom she believes will be able to help.
Shortly after this, Ruth dies. Kathy becomes Tommys carer. By this point, Tommy
has made three organ donations and is approaching his fourth, which clones
generally do not survive. Kathy and Tommy go to visit Madame, who kindly tells
them that the deferral program never existed. She explains that Hailsham was a
progressive school, and that she and the other guardians were actually
activists for the humane treatment of clones. The emphasis on artwork was to
show the public that the clones had souls. However, the humane-treatment
movement has petered out and Hailsham has lost its funding.
On the way back to the recovery center, Tommy is overcome with emotion and
throws a tantrum. However, he gets past this and comes to accept that he will
die soon. Because he is suffering from increasingly gruesome medical problems,
he asks Kathy to stop being his carer. Kathy reluctantly agrees, and she bids
farewell to Tommy as he gets ready to make his fourth donation.
Back in present day, Kathy is about to make her first donation herself. She is
calm and even happy about this, because it will give her a chance to reflect on
her life. She has only permitted herself one indulgence: a few weeks after
Tommy dies, she goes to mourn him in a field in Norfolk. There, she imagines
that all the things she has lostmost importantly, Tommywill return to her.

About Never Let Me Go

By the time Never Let Me Go was published in 2005, author Kazuo Ishiguro was
already one of the most renowned and critically acclaimed British writers. He had
previously received the Whitbread and the Booker Prize for earlier works, and his
The Remains of the Day was adapted into a highly successful film.
Never Let Me Go addresses some contemporary issues. In 2001 and 2004, major
legislation permitting stem-cell research was passed in the United States and the
United Kingdom, raising questions about the role cloning ought to play in
improving the health of normal humans. It also explores more timeless
questions like childhood bullying and the role of sex in relationships.
Never Let Me Go was extremely well-received critically, and is included in the
curriculum of many high-school and college courses. It was adapted into a film
by Mark Romanek in 2010.

Character List

Kathy
Kathy H. is a thirty-one-year-old clone who has been bred for her organs to be
harvested when she reaches adulthood. She works as a "carer," a kind of nursecum-companion to clones who are in the process of making their donations, and
is very good at her job. Never Let Me Go follows her life story. Kathy is
empathetic, mild-mannered, and passive.
Ruth
Kathy's best friend from childhood. Despite her selfishness and pathological
lying, Ruth has excellent social intelligence, and often perceives realities that
others miss. For example, she is the first to notice that Madame is afraid of the
students, and she correctly deduces Kathys feelings for Tommy when they live
together at the Cottages. Ruth goes out with Tommy, but eventually feels badly
about keeping him away from Kathy. Late in life, she tries to make amends.
Tommy
Tommy D. is another one of Kathy's classmates at Hailsham. As a boy, he is
ostracized by the other students because of his short temper and immaturity. As
an adult, he is kind-hearted, enthusiastic, and painfully nave. He is involved in a
love triangle with Kathy and Ruth.
Crow Face
Also known as Nurse Trisha, Crow Face is the students' nickname for the
unpleasant nurse at Hailsham.

Miss Geraldine
A kind guardian and art teacher. Miss Geraldine is especially beloved by the
younger students.
Miss Emily
Miss Emily is the head guardian and the leader of Hailsham. As adults, Kathy and
Tommy learn that she was a prominent advocate for the humane treatment of
clones.
Miss Lucy
A brusque, athletically built guardian who believes the students should be taught
everything about their futures as organ donors.
Madame
A mysterious French woman who periodically visits Hailsham to take the
students' best art away to "the Gallery." It is later revealed that she is also an
activist for progressive treatment of clones, and the art is to prove that the
clones have souls.
Roy J.
A Hailsham student one year older than Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth. He initiates the
tokens controversy.
Moira B.
A Hailsham girl in Kathys year who is expelled from Ruths secret guard.
Laura
An outgoing, vivacious Hailsham student in Kathys year. She has great difficulty
when she is required to become a carer.
Harry C.
A handsome, quiet boy with whom Kathy plots to have sex in her last year at
Hailsham. This never happens and when she sees him at a recovery center years
later, he does not recognize her.
Keffers
The grumpy caretaker at the Cottages.
Hannah
A close friend of Kathys from Hailsham.
Chrissie

A very beautiful "veteran" at the Cottages who seems to suffer from low selfesteem. Chrissie is unusually interested in Hailsham, which she did not attend,
and is in a co-dependent relationship with Rodney.
Rodney
A handsome, laid-back veteran in a relationship with Chrissie.

Glossary of Terms

bedsit
A modified studio apartment that includes a bedroom, a sitting area, and a
kitchenette.
bluebottle
An insect similar to the common fly.
bonhomie
Friendliness and camaraderie.
carer
A clone who acts as a nurse and companion to other clones who are undergoing
their donations. Clones become carers through an application process; it is
unclear whether being a carer actually results in deferring donations.
collection
Students at Hailsham have few possessions, so they put great care into their
"collections"artwork that they buy from other students at the quarterly
Exchanges.
complete
A euphemism that the clones use for death. Most clones "complete" after their
third or fourth organ donation.
Cottages
After graduating from Hailsham around age 16, the students are sent to live in
the Cottages, where young adult clones are allowed to live freely until their
donations are scheduled to begin. This is where Kathy and her friends meet nonHailsham clones for the first time.
Courses

The training that donors must undergo to become carers.

Culture Briefing
A class where older Hailsham students role-play situations they will encounter in
the outside world, such as ordering in a restaurant or talking to a police officer.
donor
Most of the characters in Never Let Me Go are clones designed to become
"donors"that is, organ donors. When they reach young adulthood, they are
forced to begin a series of organ donations that will eventually kill them.
Exchange
The students at Hailsham are encouraged to create art. Each quarter, they bring
their artwork to a special event called an Exchange where they can trade their
pieces for those done by other students.
Gallery
Growing up at Hailsham, the students' best artwork was taken away to a
mysterious "Gallery" off campus. We later learn that the Gallery was created by a
group of activists, including Madame, to demonstrate to the public that the
clones are human beings with souls and thus should not have their organs
harvested.
guardian
Refers to the adults who run Hailsham and act as both teachers and parentfigures to the children there.
Juniors and Seniors
The children at Hailsham are divided into three classes: Infants, Juniors, and
Seniors. Kathy is "thirteen or fourteen" in her Senior 3 year, which suggests that
students become seniors in what corresponds to sixth grade in the United States.
lorry
A British word for a truck.
possible
The clones use this slang term to refer to "normal" people who could potentially
be the "originals" from which they were modeled.
recovery centre
The buildings where clones are held between donations. Some of them, like
Kingsfield, are repurposed hotels or "holiday camps," while others, like the one in
Dover, seem to have been built expressly for the recovery of donors.

rounders
A British game similar to baseball.
Sales
At Hailsham, the periodic Sales are the students' only connection to the outside
world. At these events, they can use tokens earned for good artwork to buy toys,
clothes, and knickknacks. It is unclear where the items at the Sales come from,
although they are pre-used which suggests that they are charitable donations
from non-clones.
snogging
British slang for heavy kissing.

Major Themes

Conformity
The characters in Never Let Me Go place a cultural premium on conformityfor
example, Kathy repeatedly emphasizes how "typical" she is, and Ruth blatantly
copies the gestures of older students at the Cottages. The organ donation
system seems to run relatively smoothly because everyone is willing to accept
docilely their fate as donors. Conformity is a common topic for dystopian science
fiction novels like Never Let Me Go, but Ishiguro is unusual in that he does not
suggest a better alternative to conformity. With the exception of Tommy's brief
tantrum in the field, no character indulges in any act of rebellion, large or small.
The novel's universe is one in which conformity is an immutable quality of human
nature.
Willful ignorance
Ishiguro highlights many forms of willful ignorance, of social issues (like the
organ donations) as well as personal issues (like sex and virginity). Often, his
characters shy away from pressing for information when they sense they do not
want to know the answers to their questions. He suggests that willful ignorance
is the mechanism by which social injustices are perpetuated.
Free will
The clones are unable to change their fates as organ donors, but their lack of
free will affects many other elements of their lives as well. For example, Ruth
never achieves her dream of working in an office, and Kathy gets precious little

time with Tommy. Ishiguro is ambiguous about where this lack of free will comes
frombecause Ruth never tries to work in an office, we never learn whether her
unhappy life is due to the system or her own lack of initiative.
Communication
Part of the novel's heart-breaking, elegiac ending can be attributed to the
characters' failure to communicate. Communication failures factor into pivotal
moments in the plot, such as Ruth's mocking of Tommy's drawings. However,
there are also barriers to communication that lie beyond the characters' control;
for example, Ruth never finds out whether her plan to reunite Kathy and Tommy
worked.
Hope
Ishiguro's outlook on hope is highly conflicted. It may make people feel better
and allow them to live "decent lives"; the clones are happier at the Cottages
because they have the idea that they can apply for deferrals if they wish, a
rumor that Miss Emily allows to exist because it gives people hope. Nevertheless,
in the novel's universe, hope only comes from falsehoods and delusions, from
Kathy's hope that Ruth will break up with Tommy, to the illusive hope offered by
the imagined deferral program.
The individual's obligation to society
The organ donation program is premised on the idea that the clones owe their
lives to society, and should be prepared to sacrifice them. This principlenot the
actual donation programis the novel's real point of interrogation. Madame
explores this notion when she tries to explain to Tommy and Kathy that they
should be happy they had happy lives at all, given that so many clones did not.
Playing God
The most common objection raised to cloning and genetic engineering, both in
Never Let Me Go and in general, is that it involves playing God. In the novel,
Ishiguro explores other ways that individuals might play God: arguably, the
clones who try to change their fates are playing God as much as the scientists
who created them in the first place.

Quotes and Analysis

1.I dont know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham we had to
have some form of medical almost every week. Kathy, Page 13
Here, it seems apparent from "I don't know how it was where you were" that
Kathy's story is addressed to other clonesa reading that is reinforced by similar
comments later in the text. This interpretation helps to explain Never Let Me Go's

polarizing ending. Although readers might object to Kathy and Tommy's docile
acceptance of their fate, Ishiguro implies that only someone who has shared
Kathy's experience as a clone can understand her choices.

2.Then there were rumours almost every day of pranks that had been
played on him. ... I thought sooner or later someone would start saying
it had gone too far, but it just kept on, and no one said anything.
Kathy, Page 15
Kathy's account of Tommy's youthful trials foreshadows one of the novel's major
themes. Ishiguro does not suggest that people are immoral; rather, he portrays a
world in which individuals always assume that someone else will take a stand for
moralityand then no one does. It may seem crass to compare Tommy's bullying
to mass slaughter, but this is part of the pointto Kathy and her peers, forced
organ donations have become so commonplace that they are no more upsetting
than a disturbance in the schoolyard.

3. Didnt we all dream from time to time about one guardian or other
bending the rules and doing something special for us? A spontaneous
hug, a secret letter, a gift? Kathy, Page 60
This passage serves several functions. On the most basic level, it demonstrates
that the clones are fundamentally human and desire elements of the human
experience (like having parents)even those elements to which they have never
been exposed. It also shows the extent to which the strict rules at Hailsham
discourage human intimacy; any special relationship with a guardian is strictly
forbidden and must be conducted in secret. At another point in the novel, Kathy
explains that students at Hailsham do not hug each other much. In Never Let Me
Go, human intimacy is the only way the clones rebel against the system. By
introducing human intimacy as rebellion early in the book, Ishiguro sets the
stage for Kathy and Tommy's romance later in the novel.

4.If youre to live decent lives, you have to know who you are and
what lies ahead of you, every one of you. Miss Lucy, Page 81
In some ways, Never Let Me Go revolves around the question of how to live a
'decent life' in the face of impending death. Miss Lucy, arguably the most heroic
character in the novel, suggests that it is better to face death with full awareness
of what's coming, rather than trying to ignore it. Kathy's approach is slightly less
bold; after eleven years as a carer, she knows exactly "what lies ahead," but she
tries to focus instead on her memories and her present life. It is left to
interpretation whether this pragmatic approach is better or worse than Miss
Lucy's gloomy outlook.

5.We all know it. Were modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes,
winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they arent psychos.
Thats what we come from. We all know it, so why dont we say it?
Ruth, Page 166
Ishiguro uses the clone's origins as an opportunity to explore questions of selfknowledge and free will. The clones become fixated on finding their 'originals'
because they believe that it will offer them insight into their personalities and
their futures. However, they are conflicted about whether they actually want to
know their origins because as Ruth says, "clone models" are often somehow
undesirable. Ruth and Tommy ruminate frequently about whether finding one's
original is actually worthwhile, raising questions of whether a person's fate is
determined by their birth or by their choices.

6.Something in me just gave up. A voice went: All right, let him think
the absolute worst. Let him think it, let him think it. And I suppose I
looked at him with resignation, with a face that said, Yes, its true,
what else did you expect? Kathy, Page 195
This passage typifies Ishiguro's exploration of agency and passivity. Kathy's
decisions to be passive are never characterized as voluntary; she does not give
up, but rather "something in [her]" gives up. Her deep psychological resignation
here is significant, because similar emotions lead her to accept her fate as a
donor. This becomes a kind of chicken-and-egg problem: Ishiguro never clarifies
whether this sense of resignation causes her to surrender to fate, or whether her
seemingly inevitable future as a donor is what inspires her pervasive sense of
futility.

7.The fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart
by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task. If
wed understood that back thenwho knows?maybe wed have kept a
tighter hold of one another. Kathy, Page 197
Here, Kathy looks back on her final months at the Cottages with nostalgia and
resignation. Again, she denies her own role in making things turn out as they did,
explaining, "The fact was ... there were powerful tides tugging us apart." Kathy
sees herself as completely powerless to change her future or her present life,
opting instead for non-actions like leaving the Cottages, that do not actually
address her problems.

8."Why would he know? ... How could he possibly know what Chrissie
would have felt? What she would have wanted? It wasn't him on that
table, trying to cling onto life. How would he know?" Ruth, Page 226
Ruth's comments may be poignant, but they also problematize some of the
novel's fundamental premises. Much of the novel's appeal and tragic effect is
based on empathy, the assumption that Ishiguro can make readers feel what the
characters feel. Here, Ruth calls attention to the flawed logic of empathy; no one
can ever understand what another individual goes through. This concept reminds
readers to think about the story analytically, as an abstraction; it also invites a
more sympathetic reading of Ruth, whose behavior may have been motivated by
emotions to which readers are not privy.

9.Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us,
encourage us, make us produce all of that? If were just going to give
donations anyway, then die, why all those lessons? Why all those books
and discussions? Kathy, Page 259
Kathy asks these questions about Hailsham, but they could easily be applied to
the world outside the novel as well. Throughout the novel, Ishiguro explores the
question of whether it is worthwhile to live a decent life if one is going to die no
matter what. Madame, Miss Emily, and the other humane-treatment advocates
believe that "books and discussions" are worthwhile even if a person is
condemned to live a short life. Kathy, who must actually live the consequences
of this mentality, grapples with this question throughout the novel.

10.I can see ... that it might look as though you are simply pawns in a
game. It can certainly be looked at like that. But think of it. You were
lucky pawns. There was a certain climate and now its gone. You have
to accept that sometimes thats how things happen in this world. Miss
Emily, Page 266
Ishiguro carefully builds up the plot's poignancy so that readers will be frustrated
when Kathy and Tommy do nothing to try to change their fatesthere is no
escape, no rebellion. However, Miss Emily's explanation reminds readers that
Kathy and Tommy's mentality is familiar; platitudes like "You have to accept that
sometimes that's how things happen" are used in real-life situations as well.

Chapters 1-3
Summary

Never Let Me Go takes place in a dystopian United Kingdom, where disease has
been eradicated. This apparent blessing has been accomplished by breeding
human clones, who are forced to donate their vital organs when they reach early
adulthood. Kathy H., a thirty-one-year-old clone who will soon make her first
donation, narrates the novel.
Kathy is a carer: she acts as a nurse and a companion to clones that have
started the donation process. She is proud of her skill as a carer, and her
superiors seem to have recognized her success, as she is allowed to choose the
donors she cares for, a special privilege. She often chooses to work with students
from Hailsham, the boarding school she attended in her youth. It is implied that
Hailsham was a very special school, and most clones did not have happy
childhoods, as Kathy did.
Kathy often reminisces about her time at Hailsham. As a child, she mostly played
with other girls, especially Ruth, her best friend and occasional rival. She recalls
watching from the sports pavilion as one boy, Tommy, was bullied by his friends.
The other girls laughed when Tommy threw a tantrum, but young Kathy was
concerned that he would get mud on his favorite shirt. She tried to interfere with
his tantrum but Tommy accidentally hit her in the face. He felt guilty
immediately, and Kathy did not hold the incident against him.
A few days later, Tommy apologized to Kathy on their way to a medical check-up.
Kathy was slightly embarrassed by his awkward behavior and the public setting
of his apology, but she began to pay more attention to him. Because of his
awkwardness, his short temper, and his bad work in art class, all of his peers
reject Tommy, and they often play cruel pranks on him. Kathy is upset by this
mean treatment, but Ruth believes he deserves it, since if he controlled his
temper the bullies would lose interest.
Kathy digresses briefly, explaining that she pulled strings early in her career so
that she could be Ruths carer. Although the two women had a tumultuous
relationship in their youth, they enjoyed reminiscing about Hailsham together as
Ruth recovered from her donations.
Kathy can trace Tommys status as a pariah to a single incident in art class when
they were children. At Hailsham, art was an important part of student culture,
and a persons social status was often tied to the quality of their creations. One
day, Tommy purposely painted a bad picture as a joke. The kind teacher, Miss
Geraldine, did not understand that it was in jest and took Tommys effort
seriously, resulting in an awkward moment that highlighted Tommys actual lack
of art talent.
Eventually, Tommy stopped throwing tantrums and the other students stopped
bullying him. Kathy asked him how he managed to turn things around for himself.
It turned out that Tommy had a long talk with Miss Lucy, a brusque but honest
guardian. She had told him that it was all right if he wasnt creative. Kathy was
shocked to hear this, and initially did not believe Tommy. When he recounted the
conversation in more detail, he added that Miss Lucy seemed angry, and had

mentioned that the students werent taught as much as they should be about
donations. Kathy and Tommy were puzzled by this, since there was no apparent
relationship between Tommys creativity and the donations.
At Hailsham, a mysterious woman known as Madame took the students best
artwork to a place off-campus called the Gallery. The students were never
allowed off campus, so they were not sure that the Gallery even exists, but it
became a point of pride to have ones work taken there. One time when Kathy
was eight, the students swarmed around Madame to test their suspicions that
she was afraid of them. She became very stiff and uncomfortable, and the
incident hurt the students feelings.
Analysis
Never Let Me Go is famous not only for its provocative plot, but also for its
unusual mode of narration. Narrated in the first person, the novel uses the
rhetoric of speech, as opposed to the literary register more common in fiction.
Ishiguro takes pains to make Kathys voice seem spoken, as opposed to written.
He accomplishes this primarily through a series of qualifications and
modifications.
For example, he writes on page 21:
Then it all stopped, not overnight, but rapidly enough. I was, as I say, watching
the situation closely around then, so I saw the signs before most of the others. It
started with a periodit might have been a month, maybe longer, when the
pranks went on pretty steadily...
Here, the appositive phrases (as I say) and the corrections (not overnight,
maybe longer) lend Kathys narration an immediate, on-the-fly quality.
The narrative rhetoric is only one element of Ishiguros characterization of Kathy.
As we learn in these chapters, she is bland, digressive, and excessively focused
on details. For example, she recounts the childrens prank on Madame for
multiple pages but gives little expository information about the organ donations
or her relationship with Tommy.
While it makes sense for her not to dwell much on the donationsafter all,
Ishiguros main point is that in his universe, forced organ donations are quotidian
and even banalit makes less sense that she would not explain her romance
with Tommy. Given that we can infer Ruths demise in the second chapter, it
seems that Ishiguro isnt worried about spoilers. That suggests that the
withholding of important information is a characterization technique; it shows
how emotionally distant Kathy has become, possibly as a coping mechanism.
Small hints in the text reveal that the novel is addressed to an audience of other
clones. At one point, Kathy modestly acknowledges, I dont know how it was
where you were (11). Her descriptions frequently refer to the second person; for
example, she says, The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a
person like that, its a cold moment (36). Through this stylistic technique,

Ishiguro suggests that only someone with similar experiences can truly
understand Kathys story, and that readers must make an effort to relate to her.

Chapters 4-6
Summary
Kathy explains that she looks forward to becoming a donor because the process
will give her time to relax and think over the events of her life. With that, the
narrative flashes back to her youth at Hailsham.
In Junior 4, the students begin to resent Madame for taking their best artwork
away to the Gallery. They would otherwise be able to trade these pieces for other
students work at Hailshams quarterly Exchanges. Eventually, the Guardians
agree to reimburse the students with tokens for the art that is taken away.
However, the controversy inspires one girl to ask Miss Lucy why the art is taken
to the Gallery in the first place. Miss Lucy refuses to explain because she
believes the students would not understand if she told them.
There are many confusing moments at Hailsham. Sometimes students
misbehave at the Sales (where they are allowed to trade tokens for items from
the outside world), and Miss Emilys lectures after these incidents always
bewilder; she frequently becomes emotional and alludes to concepts the
students do not understand.
Kathys narrative goes further back, to her earliest days at Hailsham. She
becomes friends with Ruth around age 7, and they often play games involving
pretending. One day, Ruth invites Kathy to join the secret guard, a group of
girls who pretend to be bodyguards to Miss Geraldine, their favorite guardian.
They imagine a plot to kidnap Miss Geraldine and take her into the terrifying
woods that surround Hailsham.
Chess is rather popular at Hailsham, and growing up, Ruth often comments on
peoples games when she sees them playing. Because of this, Kathy assumes
that Ruth is very good at chess and asks to be taught how to play, but it soon
becomes clear that Ruth actually knows nothing about the game. Kathy is
disgusted and storms away, which leads Ruth to expel her from the secret guard.
Three years later, Kathy notices that Ruth has a flashy new pencil case. When
Kathy asks where she got it, Ruth insinuates that it was a present from Miss
Geraldine, a forbidden gesture of favoritism. Annoyed by the obvious lie, Kathy
suspects that Ruth actually got the pencil case at a Sale. She begins to confront
Ruth about it, but when she sees how uncomfortable her friend becomes at
having her fib exposed, she backs off and allows Ruth to save face.

Things are awkward between Kathy and Ruth for a while after the botched
confrontation. Eventually a mutual friend asks where the pencil case came from;
this is uncomfortable for Ruth because she must answer the question
consistently, but she also doesnt want to continue with the lie now that Kathy
knows the truth. Kathy intervenes, explaining, There are some very good
reasons why we cant tell you where it came from (63); this smooths things over
between the two girls.
One day in geography class, Miss Emily characterizes the county of Norfolk as a
lost corner because it is so rural and remote. Hailsham also has a lost corner:
this is the students nickname for the lost-and-found area on the third floor. It
becomes an inside joke that all items lost in England somehow end up in Norfolk.
At a Sale, Kathy buys a cassette tape by a singer from the 1950s named Judy
Bridgewater. The music is cocktail-bar stuff, not the sort of thing any of us at
Hailsham liked (70), but Kathy is especially taken with a song called Never Let
Me Go. She interprets the song to be about a womans love for her baby. One
day, Madame stumbles upon Kathy dancing and singing the song to an
imaginary baby. Madame becomes very emotional and begins to cry, resulting in
an awkward and unsettling moment for Kathy.
Several months later, Kathy loses the cassette and is very upset, but tries not to
make a fuss about it in front of the other students. Ruth tries to find the tape,
and when that fails, gives Kathy another one. Although the music is nothing like
Judy Bridgewaterit is orchestral music for ballroom dancingKathy is touched
by the gesture, which she recognizes is intended to repay her for the pencil-case
incident.
Analysis
At this point in the text, we both know and dont know about the organ donation
systemjust like the students of Hailsham. In this section, more information is
gradually revealed about the donation process and the political realities that
underlie it. Ishiguro suggests that there is another secret beyond the organ
donation systemthat Hailsham plays a special role in this brave new world.
However, he only alludes to this reality briefly, at moments like Miss Emilys
incomprehensible lecture.
The pencil-case incident is a pivotal scene in this section. The case itself does not
sound especially remarkable, but as Kathy says, a gorgeous item like that
wouldnt have gone unnoticed (56) at Hailsham. This reveals the low quality of
the items in the Sales (suggesting that they are cast-offs or charitable donations
from normal), and alludes to the general sense of economic malaise that
pervades Ishiguros universe. It is clear that this alternate England suffers from
all kinds of material shortages, a situation that both parallels and helps to
explain the organ donation system.
This scene also highlights some important developments in both Kathy and Ruth.
In the previous scene, Kathy reacts cruelly when Moira tries to talk to her about

the secret guard. Three years later, Kathy seems to be at a liminal stage in her
development; her choice to confront Ruth in the first place indicates a degree of
immaturity, but she is considerate enough to allow her friend to save face.
Similarly, Ruth remains aloof in this section but begins to recognize that social
relationships involve give-and-take; she fervently searches for a way to repay
Kathy after the latter refrains from humiliating her about the pencil case. This
contrasts sharply with the way she handled the chess incident several years
earlier; rather than being grateful to Kathy for keeping her secret, Ruth expelled
her from the secret guard.
The theme of willful ignorance begins to take center stage in this section. The
students often choose not to press Miss Lucy for more information about
donations because they sense that they are not ready for the whole truth.
Similarly, all of the girls in the secret guard recognize that its not real, but they
willfully suspend disbelief. The stakes are much lower in the latter situation, but
it demonstrates that the impulse to willful ignorance is inherent to human
natureits not just something that crops up in life-or-death matters like the
organ donations.
Chapters 7-10
Summary
As the students get older, Miss Lucy continues to make cryptic comments,
including an allusion to terrible accidents that have happened at other schools.
One day when Kathy is fifteen, Miss Lucy overhears the students talking about
the careers they want when they grow up, and she becomes very upset. She
gives a speech to the students around her, explaining to them that they will
never grow old or have careers because they will be compelled to make organ
donations as young adults.
The speech fails to make an impression on the students. Kathy thinks this is
because they have already been told and not told (84) about the donations
that is, the information has been presented to them, but in such a way that they
will never question it. However, after Miss Lucys speech the donations go from
being the topic of jokes to a sombre and serious (88) subject that is rarely
discussed.
Miss Lucy continues to behave oddly. One day when she is 15 or 16, Kathy
stumbles upon Miss Lucy furiously underlining a page of handwritten text.
Meanwhile, Ruth and Tommy have become a romantic couple. The guardians
send very mixed messages about sex: On the one hand, the students are given
detailed sex education and taught that sex can be fun and beautiful when its
with the right person; on the other, the students are not allowed to be intimate
with each other on campus.
At 16, Kathy decides to lose her virginity and begins making overtures to Harry
C. Although she is not interested in him romantically, she rationalizes that she

should practice having sex with someone she doesnt care about first, so she
will know what shes doing when she does fall in love with someone.
This plan runs amok when Ruth and Tommy break up. Many of Kathys friends
believe she will be Ruths natural successor (100) as Tommys girlfriend; Kathy
begins to like this idea and loses interest in Harry. However, before Kathy can
pursue the relationship, Ruth confides that she wants to get back together with
Tommy and asks Kathy to help her do so. Kathy reluctantly agrees to help.
She goes to encourage Tommy to patch things up with Ruth, but Tommy is not
interested in talking about relationships. Instead, he tells Kathy about another
conversation he has had with Miss Lucy. The guardian seemed very upset, and
told Tommy that Madames gallery is much more important than I once thought
(108). Contrary to what she told him as a child, he must actually try very hard to
be creative. Kathy is unsettled by this, so she abruptly ends the conversation by
urging Tommy to get back together with Ruth. A few months before Kathy leaves
Hailsham, Miss Lucy is fired, and Ruth and Tommy begin dating again.
At sixteen, the students are dispersed to living facilities across England for young
adult clones. Kathy and seven others from Hailsham, including Tommy and Ruth,
are sent to the Cottages, a repurposed farm. There, they are expected to write a
long academic essay, but no one takes this assignment very seriously. At the
Cottages, Ruth and Tommy begin indulging in very public displays of affection.
Kathy notices that many of the older clones, or veterans, copy their
mannerisms from television sitcoms, and Ruth is starting to pick up this habit as
well. One day Kathy confronts Ruth about this, explaining, It looks daft (124).
Ruth bitterly implies that Kathy is jealous because she hasnt befriended the
older students like Ruth has.
Analysis
This section covers the end of Part One and the beginning of Part Two. In Kathys
final years at Hailsham, secrets begin to assume an ever more important role in
the students lives; in their conversations, the substance of the exchange is often
in what lies unsaid. A prime example of this is Kathys exchange with Tommy; she
implies that she cares deeply about him and he suggests that he is unsure
whether to pursue a romance with Kathy or with Ruth.
The characters new appreciation of subtlety helps to explain why the
conversation at the end of Chapter 10 is so shocking. This is not the first time
Kathy has confronted Ruth about her disingenuous behavior; the discussion is
very similar to the pencil-case incident from the previous section.
In this case, though, Kathy does not let the matter go when she sees Ruth is
uncomfortable, and the girls openly discuss matters that are usually not spoken
aboutfor example, the difficulty of adjusting to life at the Cottages and Kathys
affairs with the veterans. As we learn in Chapter 11, this discussion is itself in
violation of the unspoken rule that anything we told each other during these

[bedtime heart-to-hearts] would be treated with careful respect ... we wouldnt

use against each other anything wed talked about (126).
This section displays Kathys pragmatic regulation of her emotions. She decides
early on that she will lose her virginity to someone she does not care much
about, so that she will have experience when she falls in love. Likewise, she
cares deeply about Tommy but does not allow herself to think of him as a
romantic possibility until Cynthia and Hannah suggest that he likes her. This
personality trait helps to explain her emotional reserve later in the book when
Tommy makes his final donation.
However, we might also view Kathys pragmatism as an intellectual posture
towards death, to be contrasted with Miss Lucys outlook. Miss Lucy chooses to
be fully aware of death and its consequences, as she believes this is the only
way a person can live a decent life. However, this brutal honesty costs Miss
Lucy her job and more importantly, her emotional health; she often seems upset
and barely able to control herself. Although Kathys worldview requires her to
avoid thinking too carefully about the donations, it also allows her to experience
some happiness and inner peace in spite of her bleak future.

Chapters 11-14
Summary
Kathy is extremely upset with Ruths comment about her sexual escapades.
Right after arriving at the Cottages, Kathy casually had sex with a number of the
older boys there. During one of their intimate conversations before bed, Kathy
confided this in Ruth, and she is now upset that Ruth would bring up Kathys
secret during a fight.
In her early months at the Cottages, Ruth becomes fixated on becoming popular
among the veterans. She often behaves oddly in their presence, and throws
away her collection of art from Hailsham when she realizes the veterans do not
have similar collections. One day, Tommy catches
Kathy looking at some pornographic magazines. He observes that she appears to
be looking for something in the magazines, as opposed to doing it for kicks
(136).
One day, Chrissie and Rodney return from a trip to Norfolk; they believe theyve
spotted a possible for Ruththat is, the normal person whom she was cloned
from. Rodney, Chrissy, Ruth, Kathy, and Tommy all go to Cromer to look for the
possible.
Ruth and Kathy fight during the long car ride. When they all stop to eat in a caf,
Kathy notices that Chrissie and Tommy seem to be under the impression that
Hailsham students are exempt from the normal donation process, and that they
can pursue other jobs besides being a carer. Ruth encourages their

misunderstanding by insinuating that she will be allowed to work in an office

after she graduates from the Cottages.
Chrissie and Rodney ask about a rumor theyve heardthat Hailsham students
are allowed to apply for deferrals before beginning their donations if they are
really, properly in love (153). Chrissie and Rodney believe this is so the
students who are in love can have a few years together before beginning the
donation process.
Kathy knows the rumor is false, but again, Ruth encourages Chrissie and
Rodneys mistake, claiming that the deferral program exists but she does not
know exactly how to apply. Tommy is angry that Ruth would mislead them and
tries to explain that there is no deferral program. However, Ruth explains that
Tommy simply doesnt know about the program because he was left out of
everything [at Hailsham] and people were always laughing at him (155).
Before finding Ruths possible, everyone goes to Woolworths so Chrissie and
Rodney can shop for birthday cards. Inside, Kathy overhears Ruth lying to
Chrissie again about the donation deferrals. After shopping, the group goes to
the office to spy on Ruths possible. Everyone agrees that the woman, about fifty,
strongly resembles Ruth and is a very likely candidate.
They follow the woman to an art gallery, where they see that she is definitely not
Ruths model. Ruth is despondent and has an angry outburst, complaining that
we are modelled on trash (166) and an office would be the wrong place to look
for possibles, anyway. If you want to look for possibles, if you want to do it
properly, she continues, then you look in the gutter. Chrissie, Rodney, and
Ruth go to visit an older friend who has graduated from the Cottages and
become a carer. Kathy doesnt want to go, and Tommy stays with her to explore
the city.
Analysis
In this section, Ishiguro hones his focus on the clones origins, using Ruths quest
to find her possible as an opportunity to explain how the clones came to be,
and how the shroud of mystery around their origins affects their psyches. In
Ishiguros world, the longing for a parent is a crucial component of human
natureeven for those who have no parents. As Kathy tries to explain, finding a
possible might lend some insight on a clones present and future.
The clones obsession with finding their originals reveals a deep-seated belief in
fate and predestinationafter all, finding ones original is only meaningful if the
clones are in some way bound to a fate. Their mentality on issues of free will is
consistent with their lives: they are bred solely for the purpose of organ
donation, and it makes sense that they might feel that other parts of lifetheir
personalities, their futuresare similarly out of their control.
Individual lives in Never Let Me Go seem predestined, but Ishiguros portrayal of
a world without free will is dark and bleak. The truly subversive element of his
allegory is the degree to which the clones are reconciled to their fates; they do

not consider the angst that might result if, for example, their original turned out
to be someone undesirable (as Ruth suggests many of the originals are). They
can only imagine a positive outcome from knowing their futures, a detail that
resonates poignantly with the gruesome deaths they will experience as donors.
Ruths character becomes more complex in these chapters. In Norfolk, her
pathological lying crosses a line when she lies to Chrissie and Rodney about the
deferral program. While her previous deceptions have been petty and selfserving, this is the first that is overtly cruel. On the other hand, we also begin to
understand why Ruth and Kathy are friends at allthey are loyal to each other
no matter what, and for all her flaws, Ruth can also be encouraging, funny,
tactful, wise (126).
Despite the comprehensive sex education at Hailsham, Kathy has a conflicted
relationship with sex. As a young adult, she does not realize that her sexual
urges are normal, and Ruth is little helpalthough she tries to support Kathy, she
agrees that her friends casual liaisons are strange. Despite knowing about sex
objectively, Kathy and her peers suffer because they do not communicate much
about sex and relationships (much of Kathys anxiety comes from concerns about
whether her urges and sexual habits are normal). The harm that noncommunication wreaks on the psyche is one of the novels main thematic
concerns.

Chapters 15-17
Summary
Kathy and Tommy are left alone together. Tommy reveals that in Woolworths, he
had tried to find a copy of the Judy Bridgewater tape that Kathy lost so many
years ago to give to her as a present. Kathy is touched but explains that
Woolworths wouldnt carry old music like Judy Bridgewater, so they go to look for
it in secondhand stores. They have great fun looking for the tape together, and
when Kathy eventually finds it, she and Tommy have an awkward but emotional
moment of connection.
Tommy continues to dwell on the rumor about the deferral program. Although
they never heard anything about it at Hailsham, he believes that the rumor helps
to explain the schools focus on art. The art in Madames gallery, he believes,
reveals our souls (176).
He thinks Madame uses the art created at Hailsham to determine whether a
couple is truly in love. As he puts it, She could decide for herself whats a good
match and whats just a stupid crush. Later, Tommy confronts Kathy about the
time he caught her looking at porn magazines. He guesses correctly that Kathy
was looking for her possible in the photos.
As time goes by, more rumors begin to circulate about deferrals for couples who
are in love. Tommy begins to draw fantastic animals, hoping that these pieces

will make up for the fact that he never got artwork into the Gallery when he was
a Hailsham student. When he shows them to Kathy, she is very impressed by
their quality.
Months later, Ruth discovers Kathys Judy Bridgewater cassette. Kathy knows
that she will be jealous that Tommy bought the cassette for her, so she passes it
off to Ruth as a harmless, platonic interaction. Ruth accepts this but remains
suspicious.
Eventually, Ruth learns about Tommys drawings and his plans to use them to
defer his donations. She is extremely jealous that he told Kathy first, so she tells
Tommy that both she and Kathy think his drawings are pathetic. Kathy is too
stunned to react, so she just resigns herself and tells Tommy it is true.
Several days later, Ruth and Kathy discuss the incident. Kathy tries to advise
Ruth to be kinder to Tommy, because sometimes he is upset by the way in which
she behaves. Ruth seems to take this advice well. However, she then informs
Kathy in a very patronizing way that she knows Kathy has feelings for Tommy,
but Tommy could never see her like a proper girlfriend (201) because Kathy
has slept with too many other boys. Kathy is upset but takes Ruths barbs calmly.
After this discussion, though, their relationship becomes distant and empty.
Soon, Kathy decides to leave the Cottages and begin her training to become a
carer.
Analysis
In these chapters, Ishiguro provides a detailed depiction of how hope can cloud a
persons clear judgment. Initially, Tommy reacts to the deferral rumors with the
most sanity. He flatly informs Chrissie and Rodney that he never heard of any
such thing in his time at Hailsham, a choice that Ruth interprets as stupidity but
actually involves a conscious decision on his part.
However, it is only a few hours before he begins to rationalize the rumors,
admitting that they explain a lot about life at Hailsham. By the end of the
section, he is more completely invested in the hope of getting a deferral than
anyone else at the Cottages.
Through Tommys changing beliefs, Ishiguro illustrates that people believe what
they want to believe, even when they have good reasons not to do so. This
tendency in human nature also helps to explain the donor program; as becomes
clear later in the novel, the normal dont want to accept that the clones are
human, so they willfully ignore evidence to the contrary.
Of course, the fact that the clones do the same thing in their own lives only
demonstrates that they are in fact human, and have more in common with the
normal than it initially seems. This point was compounded in the previous
section, when the clones are mistaken for normals in the art gallery in Norfolk.
Because Never Let Me Go is related from Kathys perspective, Ishiguros critiques
of her behavior are exceptionally subtle. However, it becomes obvious in this

section that Kathy is almost pathologically passive and unable to make decisions.
This becomes clear through her inaction when Ruth claims that Kathy dislikes
Tommys artwork. It is significant that Kathys only important act of agency in
this section is effectively a non-actionby choosing to begin her carer training
early, she avoids resolving her problems with Ruth and Tommy.

Chapters 18-20
Summary

The narrative shifts closer to the present day. Kathy is proud of her work as a
carershe feels she has the right disposition for it, and she is proud of the fact
that she is bold enough to stand up to doctors on behalf of her patients.
However, other carers, like Kathys Hailsham friend Laura, find the job difficult
and draining. One day, Kathy runs into Laura, who tells her some rumors about
how Ruth is doing. Apparently, Ruth had a very difficult first donation and has
had to change carers multiple times due to personal differences. Laura suggests
that Kathy become Ruths carer.
There are rumors that Hailsham has closed recently. Kathy is profoundly affected
by this news, and realizes that times are changing and she must begin wrapping
up the loose ends in her life. She goes to Dover and becomes Ruths carer.
Although it starts out well initially, the two women have an awkward moment
one day when Kathy arrives early and walks in on Ruth coming out of the shower.
Kathy interprets Ruths fearful facial expression to mean that Ruth does not trust
her, and their relationship becomes chilly for a while.
Rumors circulate among the donors about an abandoned boat in the middle of a
marsh. Apparently, several carers have taken their donors to see the boat. Ruth
hints that she would like to make such a trip, and Kathy suggests that perhaps
the real reason for the trip would be to see Tommy, whose recovery center is
near the abandoned boat. Kathy is initially reluctant to take Ruth on the trip, but
Ruth keeps asking about it and eventually they set a date. Kathy learns that after
she left to become a carer, Ruth and Tommy drifted apart, but never formally
broke up.
Kathy notices that Tommys recovery center is poorly appointed and not nearly
as nice as Ruths. Nevertheless, he seems to be in good spirits and is very happy
to see his old friends. When they go to see the boat, Ruth is frailer and more
docile than they remember. She is very bitter about her donations; she
speculates that many donors complete (or die) after their second donations,
although they are supposed to survive the second and third and die on the
fourth. Tommy has a better outlook; he believes that he is good at being a donor
the way Kathy is good at being a carer.

On the way back, Tommy and Kathy nag Ruth, asking her why she never even
tried to become an office worker, as she had once dreamed. Ruth is agitated by
this and eventually changes the subject. She earnestly apologizes to Kathy for
the way she handled Kathys confidences about her sexual urgesin fact,
Kathys urges were completely normal, but Ruth pretended they were strange to
make her friend feel bad. She also apologizes for keeping Kathy and Tommy
apart when they were clearly meant to be together.
Ruth wants Tommy and Kathy to apply for deferrals so they can have a few years
together, and she has procured Madames address to help them do this. Kathy
believes the idea is silly and that it is too late, but Tommy seems to like it. Ruth
also advises Kathy to become Tommys carer, which Kathy is eventually able to
do a year later after Ruth dies.
She enjoys caring for Tommy, and they quickly begin a sexual relationship.
However, Kathy cannot get past the nagging sadness that they did not have
more time together when Tommy was at the peak of health. She learns that
Tommy has been continuing with his drawings and still hopes to apply for a
deferral. Kathy is dubious that the plan will work but she agrees to try it.
Analysis
As Never Let Me Go reaches its denouement, Ishiguros tone becomes noticeably
more elegiac. Kathy begins to put aside the trivial concerns of her childhood and
adolescence and focus on the donations looming ahead of her and Tommy.
Accordingly, she focuses much more on the near present in these chapters than
she does on her memories, and the narrative develops a cohesion and linearity
that it lacks in the first two parts, which are highly digressive and discursive.
Kathys focus in these chapters shifts rather abruptly from Ruth to Tommy; we
see Ruth struggling to survive after her second donation, and then in the
following chapter, it is one year later and Kathy is Tommys carer. There is little
emotional resolution offered to the Ruth plotline; it drops off abruptly almost in
media res.
Although Ruths fate is discussed later in the novel, Ishiguro withholds this
information to narrow the novels emotional focus on Ruth and Tommys tragedy.
To lose Ruth would distract from and complicate the heart-rending scenes after
Tommy and Kathy find out they will not be able to defer.
The abandoned boat that the trio visits is an important symbol of their shared
past. Like Hailsham, a boat offers a small, isolated place of refuge in the ocean,
where people would otherwise be lost to cold, ruthless nature. And like a boat,
Hailsham is also subject to forces much larger than itselfjust as a boat can
easily be wrecked in a storm, so too can Hailsham easily lose funding and close
at the turn of public opinion.
Abandoned and decaying, the boat foreshadows the intense grief and loss that
will come in the final chapters. Although Hailsham has been repurposed rather
than actually abandoned, Tommy admits that since it has closed, he visualizes

Hailsham as empty and surrounded by marshlands, not unlike the boat.

Importantly, Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy are only able to seriously discuss their role
as donors after confronting this symbol of their shared past. This suggests that
the past might prevent people from seeing the present clearly, a thematic idea
that also lends insight into Kathys narrative, which relies heavily on memory.
Chapters 21-23
Summary
Kathy and Tommy go to Littlehampton to find Madame. They see her in town and
follow her to her home. Although she is shocked and uncomfortable to see them,
she invites them inside. Kathy feels oddly intimate with Madame since the older
woman is a figure form her past, and she explains that they have come to her
home to apply for a deferral.
Tommy adds that he believes he knows why Madame had the gallery, and
explains that it was so authorities could discern whether two students were really
in love. Kathy suddenly realizes that someone else is in the room, listening to the
conversation. She turns to see Miss Emily, now in a wheelchair.
Miss Emily kindly welcomes Kathy and Tommy. She says that she is very proud of
how they have grown into adults, and she apologizes for Madames sour attitude.
She goes on to explain that the deferral rumors are not true, and she sincerely
apologizes that Kathy and Tommy were misled.
Miss Emily explains many of the unresolved mysteries about Hailsham. It turns
out that Hailsham was considered a progressive place to raise clones, many of
whom were kept in deplorable conditions at other schools and holding centers
(261). The purpose of having the students make art was to demonstrate to the
public that they had souls and deserved to be treated humanely. Miss Emily and
Madame became the leaders of a small but vocal movement advocating for
humane treatment of clones, but it reached the peak of its influence in the 1970s
and has been in decline ever since.
She explains to them that Hailsham lost its funding due to something called the
Morningdale Scandal. A scientist named James Morningdale tried to create
clones of superior intelligence, and when news of his work leaked, the public
became very uncomfortable with the idea that clones might somehow be
superhuman. This indirectly led to the closing of Hailsham. Miss Emily tries to
explain that Kathy and Tommy have already had much better lives than most
clones, but Madame snaps that they probably will not be grateful for all the hard
work that went into providing them with such a privileged youth.
Miss Emily explains that Miss Lucy was fired from Hailsham for her different
views about raising the children. Miss Lucy believed that the children should be
informed of their origins and their futures as fully and honestly as possible, while
Miss Emily believes that doing so would have prevented them from having happy
childhoods.

On the way back to the recovery center, Tommy asks Kathy to pull over. He has a
tantrum in a muddy field, just as he used to do as a child.
After their trip to see Madame, Kathy and Tommys relationship becomes slightly
awkward and distant. However, they still talk about serious matters, including
Tommys fourth donation, which is coming up. He is afraid that he will still be
conscious after the fourth donation, with nothing to do except watch your
remaining donations until they switch you off (279).
Eventually, Tommy decides that he no longer wants Kathy to be his carer. His
health is getting weaker, and he does not want her to witness his gruesome final
days. She bids him farewell as he goes to his fourth and final donation. In the
present, Kathy meditates about how memories are the only absolute in life. A few
weeks after Tommy completes, she drives to Norfolk to a field with some trees in
it, and imagines that all the lost things from her childhood, including Tommy, will
appear in the field.

Analysis
Kathy and Tommys visit to Madame complicates many of the novels themes
even as it clarifies most of the unresolved plot points. Miss Emily and Madame
seem to see themselves as moral authorities, but it is unclear whether readers
(or Kathy and Tommy, for that matter) are intended to accept that view.
Importantly, Miss Emily appears in a wheelchair, but mentions that hopefully she
will no longer need it. This suggests that she may be planning to receive a donor
organ, which complicates her insistence that the clones should be grateful for
her hard work on their behalf.
Like Kathy, Miss Emilys speech patterns are highly digressive; in her brief
meeting with Kathy and Tommy, she keeps mentioning a cabinet she is going to
sell. This is even more striking given that she offers several important
revelations; Kathy doles out information much more slowly, so her digressions
are less striking.
In this section, Ishiguro finally reveals explicitly that Ruth has in fact
completed. Her arc has a quiet resolution; Kathy and Tommy merely discuss
whether they would have liked her to know her plan to reunite them did not
work. Like all of the deaths in Never Let Me Go, Ruths happens off-screen. Kathy
is surrounded by death and loss but does not actually witness it firsthand.
This speaks to the many layers of mediation that dictate how Ishiguros
characters experience grief. With the exception of Tommy, who throws tantrums,
no one confronts difficult emotions directly. It is ultimately up to the reader to
decide whether it is better to avoid difficult feelings or to face them directly, but

Ishiguro seems to weigh in at the end of the novel: Maybe I did know, Tommy
says, somewhere deep down. Something the rest of you didnt. (275)
Never Let Me Go and The Ethics of Human Cloning
The science of human cloning is not the primary concern of Never Let Me Go, and
Ishiguro takes artistic license with some of the details of how humans are cloned
in his novel. Nevertheless, many of his questions about the ethics of human
cloning are ones that have been raised and debated in real life.
These ethical questions first came to the popular consciousness in the 1960s
and 1970s, when stem-cell research was first beginning to be conceived, and
human cloning began to look like a real possibility. The scientists Joshua
Lederberg and James D. Watson wrote articles in The American Naturalist and
The Atlantic Monthly, respectively, arguing that cloning was dehumanizing and
could result in unforeseen ethical problems. Ishiguro's novel could arguably be
read as a rejection of the notion that cloning is dehumanizing; indeed, the
purpose of Hailsham is to convince the public that the clones are human.
More recently, scientists and the public have made efforts to distinguish between
"therapeutic cloning"that is, the cloning of cells and tissues to help cure
diseasesand "reproductive cloning," which would involve creating whole
individuals. Many countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States,
allow therapeutic cloning, although there is continuing debate, especially in the
U.S., about whether the federal government should fund it. Ishiguro's novel
merges the two; reproductive cloning is pursued for therapeutic purposes.
Suggested Essay Questions
1.What is the significance of the novels title?
The title of Never Let Me Go has multiple layers of meaning. On the most
superficial level, it refers to the (fictional) song that reminds Kathy of her
childhood. However, the title also refers to Madame's perception that the young
clones have been left to cling to the "old, humane world." The novel's title, then,
is also a call to actionnever to forsake our empathy and humanity the way
society has forsaken Kathy.

2. Discuss the images of material deprivation in the novel. Why might

Ishiguro have included them?
The images of material deprivationthe run-down Cottages; the old items at the
Salesillustrate the difficult conditions that give rise to atrocities like the organ
donation program. It also drives home the point that this alternate United
Kingdom is no utopia. The organ donations have only slightly improved life for
the general population, and thus the clones' deaths are especially poignant.

3. Hailsham closes at the end of the novel. Why might this detail be
important?
Hailsham's closing underscores the novel's bleak ending. Readers may be
inclined to see Kathy's tragic life as an accident of history, but Ishiguro suggests
that Kathy is actually more fortunate than those who will come after her because
she at least had a happy childhood.

4. What is the utility of the clones roles as "carers"? What thematic

resonance does this have for the book as a whole?
Within the plot, the carer program seems to exist so the clones will get a sense
of what donations will be like, and also to keep the "normals" segregated from
the clones. On the thematic level, Kathy's role as a carer allows Ishiguro to
explore the limits of empathyRuth and Tommy frequently confront her with the
fact that despite her skill and experience, she cannot truly understand what they
are going through as donors.

5. Compare and contrast Madame and Miss Emily.

At the end of the novel, Madame is bitter and seems disgusted by the clones.
She has a pessimistic outlook toward life that is cast into relief by her
humanitarian work on behalf of the clones with whom she is so uncomfortable.
Miss Emily, in contrast, is much more at peace with the world and with her own
work, and believes the clones are lucky to have benefited from everything she
did for them.

6. Miss Lucy believes that the students should be given full information
about their futures as soon as possible, while Miss Emily believes it is
better to withhold this knowledge. Which of these views is correct?
Which does the narrative seem to endorse?
Kathy and Tommy seem to wish, in retrospect, that they had known about their
futures as donors. However, the narrative itself seems to undercut this reading
with its focus on the happy, mundane events of Kathy's childhood. A parallel to
this problem can be found when Kathy and Tommy discuss whether Ruth ought
to have known that her plan to save Kathy and Tommy did not work. Tommy
argues that it's better she didn't know, while Kathy believes that the truth--the
whole truth--is an inimitable component of a full life.

7. Discuss Ishiguros use of water imagery in the novel.

Water imagery appears frequently in the novel, especially toward the end.
Tommy feels he is being ripped away from Kathy by a strong current (282); Miss
Emily refers to changing "tides" of public opinion; Kathy takes Tommy and Ruth
to visit an abandoned boat. The water imagery alludes to the impossibility of
changing fate, and suggests that the only thing people can do for themselves is
create an "island" or a "boat" of stability within the ocean of humanity.

8. Miss Lucy wants her students to have decent lives. According to the
novel, what is a decent life?
Kathy's happy childhood and her short time with Tommy are important
components of living a decent life. However, Ishiguro also suggests that she is
able to live decently precisely because she has accepted her fate as a donor and
reconciled herself to it.

9. Does Ruth fully redeem herself? Why or why not?

Tommy believes that Ruth's effort to save him and Kathy should be judged the
same way regardless of whether it succeeded. Kathy, on the other hand, believes
that nothing will restore the time together as teenagers that Ruth took away
from them. As for Ruth, she makes a sincere effort to help her friends but
remains difficult to the end. It seems that full redemption is never an option in
this novel, but the characters do the best they can regardless.

10. Does the novel ultimately endorse Kathy's passivity? Why or why
not?
Although the novel cultivates frustration with Kathy's docile acceptance of her
fate, it is clear by the end that Kathy's passivity has its own kind of utility.
Because she is comfortable with her life as a donor and accepts her fate early
on, she is able to focus on her love for Tommy and her happy memories.