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.