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.