Memory

At the time of commencing the reflective narrative of Never Let Me Go, Kathy is in her thirties, and although this seems young, she is near the end of her life as she will soon finish her job as a carer and begin a series of organ donations that will inevitably lead to her death. At this point of her life, she has already lost everyone and everything that was significant for her. Her treasured school, Hailsham, is closed and her closest friends, Ruth and Tommy have ‘completed’, that is, donated until death. All Kathy has left are her memories; looking back with nostalgia to the past is all Kathy can do in order to comfort herself. She says: ‘The memories I value most, I don’t see them ever fading. I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy, but I won’t lose my memories of them’.

Kathy explores the idea that memories are never entirely accurate. She realises when dealing with a clone that was donating under her care that he was always asking her to describe Hailsham to him in order that her memories may become his. That, during the pain and exhaustion, they would blur together and her happy memories might replace his unhappy ones. In this way, the construction of memories is challenged that individuals have control over what they remember or forget, and can even add memories that may not have occurred. She admits she has manipulated the importance of memories, suggesting that she had ‘exaggerated it in [her] mind’ and that she needed to put in ‘order all these old memories’.

The value of holding on to these memories is tested by Kazuo Ishiguro through Kathy and Ruth. Kathy considers the impact of memories on her life and that they might be holding her back when she admits that there were times that she tried to ‘leave Hailsham behind’ when she thought she ‘shouldn’t look back so much’. However, there came a time when she just stopped resisting and let the memories take hold. Ruth, on the other hand, controls the memories she is willing to admit and only engages with the ones that resonate with the character she is trying to portray. She forgets childish things when trying to impress the more mature veterans at the college and even adds memories to appear more knowledgeable and intriguing to them. Notably, the story is a collection of Kathy’s memories and she too may have added, subtracted or manipulated her memories, and Tommy and Ruth’s perspective is ultimately unknown.

Memory Quotes

There have been times over the years when I’ve tried to leave Hailsham behind, when I’ve told myself I shouldn’t look back so much. Chapter 1

What he wanted was not just to hear about Hailsham, but to remember Hailsham , just like it had been his own childhood. (About Donor from Dorset) Chapter 1

This was all a long time ago so I might have some of it wrong; … Chapter 2

She was probably embarrassed about it and so the whole thing had shrunk in her memory. About Ruth’s memory of the Secret guard episode. Chapter 5

But those last years feel different. They weren’t unhappy exactly—I’ve got plenty of memories I treasure from them—but they were more serious, and in some ways darker. Maybe I’ve exaggerated it in my mind, but I’ve got an impression of things changing rapidly around then, like day moving into night. (Memories of the last years at Hailsham) Chapter 7

And then there was the way Ruth kept pretending to forget things about Hailsham. Okay, these were mostly trivial things, but I got more and more irritated with her. Chapter 16

It was that exchange, when we finally mentioned the closing of Hailsham, that suddenly brought us close again, and we hugged, quite spontaneously, not so much to comfort one another, but as a way of affirming Hailsham, the fact that it was still there in both our memories. (Laura and Kathy) Chapter 18

The memories I value most, I don’t see them ever fading. I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy, but I won’t lose my memories of them. Chapter 23

I was talking to one of my donors a few days ago who was complaining about how memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. Chapter 23

Power and Manipulation

Unlike many dystopian novels, Never Let me Go does not clearly detail the governing power structures that have led to the domination of a certain class of citizen. It only reveals in some small detail, in the final chapters, the situation around the school and cloning. What is omitted is the clever manipulation that has occurred, resulting in masses of clones willingly reporting for harvesting and, ultimately, death.

The importance of conformity to each other and to an ideal, drives much of the decision making for the clones, classically seen in the café at Norfolk when they all order the same meal and not having developed a sense that they can be truly different. While pressure to conform is common in a narrative regarding power, Ishiguro never presents an alternative for the clones. With the exception of Tommy, who erupts into tantrums that are perceived as immaturity but are later revealed to be his processing of the conforming pressure, no other characters really engage in any physical rebellion. At most, they question the process but this is done within their own fate, only asking if they can delay their inevitable outcome, not asking if they can avoid it. This learned helplessness is tied to a sense that they are at the lowest end of the hierarchy. There is a sense of their own worth as Ruth blurts out that clones are only ‘modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps’. Kathy herself imagines that she may have been modelled from a pornographic model.

The predestined nature of their lives offers a sense of freedom but never any real freedom. They travel and interact while living at the Cottages but still return to their roles without exception. Kathy’s dreams of holding a child, symbolised most strongly by the Judy Bridgewater tape of the song ‘Never Let Me Go’, Ruth’s dreams of an office job, and Rodney and Chrissie’s dream of living together in love offer some hope or fantasy, but the clones never truly believe that they will become anything else other than that for which society has created them.

The clones’ subjection to authority is seen in their reaction to it rather than in its visible presence. Hailsham students follow the guardians unquestioningly as they are given strict instructions about smoking and sex and are exposed to ongoing medical tests. They have obviously been given an extra set of rules, as seen when Chrissie and Rodney wish to visit a carer and they all agree that they are ‘not allowed’ to do so. However, the authority comes from an almost invisible government that has made specific rules and controls the clones, their lives and their perceived worth. When Madame and Miss Emily question this, using Hailsham to demonstrate clones have ‘souls’ and should have more rights, they are unsuccessful and are eventually pushed to the side. All that is left can be seen in the architecture of ‘vast government “homes”’, and even if they’re somewhat better than they once were, Miss Emily believes that ‘you’d not sleep for days if you saw what still goes on in some of those places’.

Power and Manipulation Quotes

‘I suppose it is a bit cruel,’ Ruth said, ‘the way they always work him up like that. But it’s his own fault.’ Chapter 1

She stopped again and looked at us in a strange way. Afterwards, when we discussed it, some of us were sure she was dying for someone to ask: ‘Why? Why is it so much worse for us?’ But no one did. (Miss Lucy discusses smoking) Chapter 6

The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. (Miss Lucy) Chapter 7

Tommy thought it possible the guardians had, throughout all our years at Hailsham, timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us, so that we were always just too young to understand properly the latest piece of information. Chapter 7

So I say: ‘But I’ll be all right, Miss. I’m really fit, I know how to look after myself. When it’s time for donations, I’ll be able to do it really well.’ (Tommy to Miss Lucy) Chapter 9

‘Look, there are all kinds of things you don’t understand, Tommy, and I can’t tell you about them. Things about Hailsham, about your place in the wider world, all kinds of things. But perhaps one day, you’ll try and find out. They won’t make it easy for you, but if you want to, really want to, you might find out.’ (Miss Lucy to Tommy) Chapter 9

Then they were both looking at me, like I was now in charge of everything and it was up to me what happened next. Chapter 16

‘I bet he was cut up about Chrissie though,’ said Ruth. Then to Tommy: ‘They don’t tell you the half of it, you see?’ (About Rodney after Chrissie completed) Chapter 19

‘Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?’ She let that hang, and I thought I could see tears in her eyes again. (Madame) Chapter 21

‘… You Hailsham students, even after you’ve been out in the world like this, you still don’t know the half of it. All around the country, at this very moment, there are students being reared in deplorable conditions, conditions you Hailsham students could hardly imagine. And now we’re no more, things will only get worse.’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

‘I can see,’ Miss Emily said, ‘that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game. It can certainly be looked at like that. But think of it. You were lucky pawns…’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

‘All you’ll find, as ever, are those vast government ‘homes,’ and even if they’re somewhat better than they once were, let me tell you, my dears, you’d not sleep for days if you saw what still goes on in some of those places.’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

Dignity and Humanity

Although it becomes painfully clear that the clones live in a world that offers them little or no status and treats them with disdain, they still manage to preserve some dignity and represent humanity with the hopes, joys, disappointments and sorrows that define human experience. Even those who would advocate for better conditions for clones, such as Madame and Miss Emily, never offer any true human compassion for the students. Madame is seen as frightened by the students, who test this by crowding her one day and read the reaction on her face, which confirms their theory. Miss Emily herself tells the students that she would ‘look down at you all from my study window and I’d feel such revulsion…’. Keffers, the caretaker at the Cottages, and the only other person to know who the clones are, also seems to view them as second-class citizens. He is unemotional about their fate when they start their journey to carer and donor, and simply retrieves paperwork for them. Although, contrary to this point is that the only glimpse of humanity actually comes from Keffers who, seeing Ruth’s dismay at his dismissal of her belongings, tells her they are good to placate her feelings.

The dignity and humanity of the clones is established by Ishiguro in a subtle way before revealing that they are clones. The reader is invited to see the students as young, typical students with everyday schoolyard romances, group dynamics and friendships. The novel, as an example of a ‘bildungsroman’, or coming of age story, is saturated in the struggles of growing up, including sexual encounters and transition to adulthood. Combined with individual’s artistic and poetic endeavours, these elements paint a fully human side to the clones. This is ironic, as the administrators at Hailsham search to prove the students have a soul, and the reader joins a shocked Kathy who asks Miss Emily ‘Did someone think [clones] didn’t have souls?’ Perhaps the best argument for the humanity of the clones is Kathy herself who, when she fully comes to an understanding of her life, and her constrained choices, does so not really as a clone but as a human being. Still, she believes that although her life is small, brief and filled with uncontrollable obstacles, life is more than worth the living, and is filled with all kinds of friendships and happiness.

Dignity and Humanity Quotes

So you’re waiting, even if you don’t quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don’t hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you—of how you were brought into this world and why—and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. Chapter 3

None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars. And none of you will be working in supermarkets as I heard some of you planning the other day. Your lives are set out for you. (Miss Lucy) Chapter 7

‘We all know it. We’re modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren’t psychos. That’s what we come from. We all know it, so why don’t we say it?’ (Ruth) Chapter 14

‘I was pretty much ready when I became a donor. It felt right. After all, it’s what we’re supposed to be doing, isn’t it?’ (Ruth) Chapter 19

It wasn’t until a few days later I came to see what a difference that trip had made. All the guardedness, all the suspicions between me and Ruth evaporated, and we seemed to remember everything we’d once meant to each other. Chapter 19

Her voice sounded almost sarcastic, but then I saw, with a kind of shock, little tears in her eyes as she looked from one to the other of us.
‘You believe this? That you’re deeply in love?’ (Madame) Chapter 21

‘… Well, you weren’t far wrong about that. We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

‘Why did you have to prove a thing like that, Miss Emily? Did someone think we didn’t have souls?’ (Kathy) Chapter 22

‘… You Hailsham students, even after you’ve been out in the world like this, you still don’t know the half of it. All around the country, at this very moment, there are students being reared in deplorable conditions, conditions you Hailsham students could hardly imagine. And now we’re no more, things will only get worse.’ (Miss Emily) Chapter 22

Loss

Through Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro presents a world full of loss but offsets this with the hope of things being found. This is emblematised through the cassette sharing the novel’s title which is lost and later found. Although she is only thirty-one at the start of the novel, Kathy has suffered enormous loss. The novel follows the friendships she holds dear with Ruth and especially Tommy but their fate has caught up with them and they donate until completion. Kathy works as their carer, watching them move from donation to donation, becoming weaker and weaker until death. Along with her friends from the Hailsham school, Kathy feels much grief at the loss of Hailsham itself. Holding it as a compass that points to where she came from, and what her purpose is when she finds it, Hailsham’s closing changes Kathy’s world dramatically. Another loss for Kathy is one that many of the clones have in common, the loss of hope. At several stages the clones are given a glimpse of hope, Ruth hopes to find her possible, Kathy, Tommy, Rodney and Chrissie hope to learn about deferrals of their donations and entertain the hope of living longer. Yet, on all occasions, hope is lost. The natural attrition is seen as the students make various trips. First, a group of eight leave Hailsham and arrive at the Cottages. A journey to Norfolk from the Cottages sees a group of five including Rodney, Chrissie, Ruth Tommy and Kathy head to find Ruth’s possible original. Later, a trip to find the stranded boat is made without Rodney and Chrissie. After Ruth’s completion, it is the couple of Kathy and Tommy that head to find Madame. Ultimately, Kathy is pictured driving alone in the isolated countryside, having lost all.

Countering the tragic loss is the interjection of things and people being found. The mythical place both of losing and finding is Norfolk, the seaside town described by Miss Emily is a ‘lost corner’ of England. Although this is primarily meant to imply that Norfolk isn’t easily accessible by motorway, students joke that Norfolk is the place in England to which all lost things are sent to be collected, like the lost corner at their school. When Kathy finds that her Judy Bridgewater is missing, she wonders if it might not have ‘found’ its way to Norfolk. Later, while at the Cottages, Chrissie and Rodney believe they have found Ruth’s possible, that is, someone who may have been the original from whom Ruth was cloned. The group take a hope-filled trip to find her but further investigation reveals that it is unlikely and hope is lost. However, while in Norfolk, Tommy believes he can find the missing cassette and he and Kathy look in a second-hand store where they fortuitously find a copy of the tape. More than the magic of Norfolk, which Kathy realizes to be a fantasy, this moment with Tommy forms a bond that allows them to ‘find’ each other much later in the novel, having lost the opportunity to be together when Ruth intervened at Hailsham.

Loss Quotes

I can’t remember who it was—claimed after the lesson that what Miss Emily had said was that Norfolk was England’s ‘lost corner,’ where all the lost property found in the country ended up. Chapter 6

‘Do you think it could be the same one? I mean, the actual one. The one you lost?’ (Tommy about the cassette) Chapter 15

‘The Norfolk thing was true,’ I said. ‘You know, about it being the lost corner of England.’ Chapter 16

‘The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart.’ Her voice had dropped again, almost to a whisper. ‘That was the worst thing I did.’ (Ruth) Chapter 19

So that feeling came again, even though I tried to keep it out: that we were doing all of this too late; that there’d once been a time for it, but we’d let that go by, and there was something ridiculous, reprehensible even, about the way we were now thinking and planning. Chapter 20

I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy, but I won’t lose my memories of them. Chapter 23

I suppose I lost Hailsham too. You still hear stories about some ex-Hailsham student trying to find it, or rather the place where it used to be.  Chapter 23