Norfolk

In Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, the city of Norfolk held an importance throughout the entire novel. It wasn't brought up every chapter and would often be forgotten for a long stretch. We see in this last section, that it was a concept that was very near to Kathy's heart always. The students at Hailsham used Norfolk as a way to joke about where all the things that they had lost over the years had gone. As they got older, they didn't really think that old belongings had ended up there but that it was still a mysterious place. The mystery behind it was something that brought all of those students together as they moved towards the Cottages. Even as they got older, those who went to Hailsham would remember the rumors that they believed of Norfolk. This memory, as well as all of the memories of Hailsham, allowed donors and carers to cope with the harsh reality that lay before them.

Kathy still uses her memories as a way to cope up until the end of the book, and I'm sure, until she completes. "So maybe on some level, I am on the lookout for Hailsham" (Ishiguro, 286). She never wants to forget their memories and claims she never will. They are ingrained within her. These memories take her up to the very last aspect of the book in the very last paragraph. She brings up the rumors about Norfolk from when they were young for the very last time. She just lost the love of her life and was using Norfolk as a way to feel his presence again. Since he was lost, she wanted to believe that she would find him in the place that all lost things go. "I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough...I'd see it was Tommy" (Ishiguro). She would always remember her journey. She would never give up that livelihood in which had been instilled inside her.

Never Let Me Go

As the reader, when one sees the title of a novel come up in the story line, there is definitely some significance. In Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, the title comes up as an extremely important song. It comes up over and over again throughout the novel. In this last section, however, we really see how significant it really was. 

The song "Never Let Me Go" was one that carried both Kathy and Madame through hard times in their lives. Both women interpreted it's meaning in different ways. It's ironic that the song's intentional message had no effect on either of the women, either. Both took the song for how they needed to. 

Kathy envisioned this song as a mother who originally couldn't have children, holding her miracle baby in her arms. This mother was then singing the chorus to her baby as she cradled her tight and close to her heart. Kathy must have interpreted this song to mean this subconsciously if not consciously of the fact that none of her kind could have children. It was instinctual, however, that she would want a child to love and to hold. This further signifies that these clones have feelings, emotions, and souls. 

Madame's interpretation of the song after witnessing Kathy sway to the song in her daydream was quite different. "When I watched you dancing that day, I saw a new world coming rapidly...a harsh, cruel world. And then I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain"  (Ishiguro, 272). This is a pretty long quote and I have cut it down quite a bit. However, I felt it to be one of the deepest, most significant points of the whole novel. Madame took this moment and used it to further drive her feelings of a change in the way things were done. This moment touched her deeply to the fact that she's never forgotten it. In it, we see that she was never really afraid of the students. She was afraid of the new world in which she lived in. She longed for a better future for Kathy, for these other children. However, society was too far gone for any hope of the resurrection of the old way of life. 

The Truth Comes Out

By this last section of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, the mysteries behind every secret come unveiled. These truths that Kathy and Tommy found, weren't all that heartwarming. In my opinion, they were downright depressing. Yet, I am conflicted as how to feel, and it is evident that the characters in this novel have that same feeling.

On one hand, Kathy and Tommy feel as if they have been cheated out of life. Cheated out of a chance to be a normal human being. They feel that since deferrals aren't real, then there was no point in going through grueling years of creativity and art classes. They feel as though their lives had been pointless up until the part of their caring and donating. "Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that? If we're just going to give donations anyway, then die" (Ishiguro, 259). And then, the next question that is brought up is "Why Hailsham at all?" (Ishiguro, 259). The confliction occurs then when Madame and Miss Emily express why they did what they did. These women, and the other schools that were opened that resembled Hailsham, sought out to protect these clones, these children. The world had become so complacent in this new technology and new realm of using clones to cure normal humans, that no one wanted to face the reality of it. "How can you ask a world that has come to regard cancer as curable, how can you ask such a world to put away that cure, to go back to the dark days?...you were kept in the shadows, and people did their best not to think of you" (Ishiguro, 263). Madame and Miss Emily started a movement to help students like Kathy and Tommy. They wanted to prove that these clones were like any other human being, they had souls.

The discrepancy occurs when students like Kathy believe that the whole world is full of hope. They had, after all, been raised in school that allowed hope. Only, these Hailsham students come to find that there was never hope. Never was and never will be any hope. So who was better off in the long run: those who were never given the opportunity to hope for a better future? or those who were allowed hope only to be crushed by reality?

Ruth's Confession

All along as I've read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, I have longed for a deeper relationship between Tommy and Kathy. I finally got my wish in section 4! All along, I would get hints that the two were really made for each other. There seemed to little bits of foreshadowing that these two characters had a deep connection that Ruth never really shared in, even though it was Ruth and Tommy that had been a couple for a long time. Kathy even expresses that she had always felt this separation between the three of them. "The way it is, it's like there's a line with us on one side and Ruth on the other" (Ishiguro, 285). I think that Ruth always knew this in her heart. That is why she went out of her way when they were at the Cottages to exaggerate the fact that Tommy supposedly would never like Kathy "like that."

Ruth expresses her deep regret of this in this last section. "I'd like you to forgive me, but I don't expect you to...The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart...That was the worst thing I did" (Ishiguro, 232). She had done this because of her nature. She never wanted to be left out of the possibility of getting deferred. She always wanted to be the center of attention. She always wanted to be the most privileged or at least thought to be the most special. However, once she is farther along in her donations, she understands that she may have costed Tommy and Kathy their chance for a positive future. Although Tommy and Kathy find out that there is never hope for a more positive future, Ruth died hoping for them. "Ruth wasn't like that. She always wanted to believe in things" (Ishiguro, 284).

Possibles?

There are many aspects of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. As the end of the second section of this novel draws to a close, there was yet another mysterious piece of the puzzle revealed. Kathy finally brings up an part of their life journey that gives a little more clue as to how and why these certain students were brought into this world. "Since each of us was copied at some point from a normal person, there must be, for each of us, somewhere out there, a model getting on with his or her life" (Ishiguro,139). The book leaves it just at that with no further explanations. There are only skeptical guesses about what these "possibles" really are. No matter what their individual theories were, however, they all had one thing in common. "We, all of us, to varying degrees, believed that when you saw the person you were copied from, you'd get some insight into who you were deep down, and maybe too, you'd see something of what your life held in store" (Ishiguro, 140). These students have been left only to guess really of what their futures hold in store from them. They very minimally know where they came from. I believe that the students, even if they keep it to themselves, feel as though they need to see who they were copied from, or else, they won't feel as if they know where they belong in the world.

I have a few ideas as to what these "possibles" and "copies" mean. I think these copies could be one of two things. I believe that they were genetically manipulated cells that were grown in a lab somewhere so that they are backup bodies of those who's DNA they were copied. It, also, could be that they were physically born from mothers, but then immediately turned over to science so that they were still backup bodies for who they will donate their organs to. I think their copies were born with diseases or illnesses that they will down the road need a transplant. These students then were made for the sole purpose of spare parts. If their possible needs the heart or brain transplant, then he will be made to die for the purpose of their possible living. I find it unfair then for these students from Hailsham. It seems as though they don't really understand what is going on. If my hypothesis is correct, these students will never have the same fate as their possibles.


I found this very disturbing.

Ruth, Ruth, Ruth

Kazuo Ishiguro does not paint Ruth in a very good light in this part of Never Let Me Go. Ruth comes out more and more as an attention seeker. We got this impression of her when she made up the whole story about the pencil case. As soon as the students in Kathy's grade all move on to the Cottages, Ruth stays this same way.

Ruth starts to do whatever all the Veterans are doing, especially when it comes down to interacting with Tommy. Another thing Ruth started to do what pretend as if she knew everything about every book. Everyone of the Hailsham students were trying to fit in and the only way they thought to do this was by reading books. I'm not sure if this had any real significance but they sure thought it did. Ruth also was trying to fit in, but she always takes everything like this to the next level. It seems as if she doesn't know when to stop. By her trying too hard to fit in, she is really drawing more attention to herself. Ruth comes across as a follower of whoever she feels she will benefit from the most. She wants to be the center of attention and just wants to feel important. I agree with Kathy's description of Ruth when she says that "there were two quite separate Ruths. There was one that was always trying to impress the veterans, who wouldn't hesitate to ignore me, Tommy, any of the others, is she thought we's cramp her style.." (Ishiguro, 129).

Since Kathy is the narrator as tells memories and stories with an older perspective, we can see her views change from where she was in the story and how she is now telling the story. We see that she views the way Ruth was differently as she got older. "I never appreciated in those days the sheer effort Ruth was making to move on, to grow up and leave Hailsham behind" (Ishiguro, 130). She even expresses that Ruth was acting this way to represent the her friends and the Hailsham students as a whole. What really stood out to me was when Kathy said, "we were all of us struggling to adjust to our new life" (Ishiguro, 131). They were all trying to fit in, and this was the only way Ruth knew how to do it.

Couples and Sex

Sex seems to become a huge part in this section of the Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is mentioned and described for a few chapters. Because the students at Hailsham, and all of the others like them, cannot have children, having sex has lost alot of the emotions that "normal people" feel. The "normal people," for the most part, have sex as a way to show each other their love and to procreate to bring their love into something tangible in the world. Miss Emily explains to them that they need to realize this difference between them and normal people. She expresses that they needed to "behave like them. (They) had to respect the rules and treat sex as something pretty special" (Ishiguro, 84).

The way this new fad went around Hailsham reminded me of how it is through most high schools. It seems as if everyone has done it, and if you haven't you are the odd one out. Kathy expresses that "sex had got like 'being creative'" (Ishiguro, 98), which meant that if you weren't familiar with it, then you were left out.

I feel as if Kathy's idea of it was opposite of how people today or in the "normal" society thought of it. "I needed to get familiar with sex, and it would be just as well to practice with a boy I didn't care much about too much. Then later on, if I was with someone special, I'd have more chance of doing everything right" (Ishiguro, 98). I can see what Kathy means when she expresses this view. It probably is hard for me to understand fully, though, because I am "normal." I see the biggest difference in that you would want your first time to be with someone you really care about and not who you don't care much about.

I still don't know why Kathy keeps having one night stands. Hopefully that much is explained later on in the novel. I feel as if that represents a deep problem within Kathy's character. I can just only wonder as to what other stories she with tell us about her teen self at the Cottages.