History, Memory and Forgetting

Stasiland by Anna Funder and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro both explore the depths of the concepts of remembering and forgetting. The two texts present the extremely dichotomous nature of memory. First, that it can be positive to remember things to assist wellbeing in the present and to protect the future by ensuring history’s mistakes are not repeated. Second, it can be important to forget the past to allay the trauma in the present and ensure a happier future. Additionally, the texts reveal that memories of history can be distorted both intentionally and through the unreliability of personal recollection. Stasiland presents a conundrum that illustrates this when, upon discovering Hitler’s bunker, the German society was torn between preserving the site or burying it. To preserve the site offered the chance to remind people of their history, in the hope they didn’t repeat it, to face the past head on. This also meant the possibility of a constant reminder of the painful past and perhaps, for some, the chance to enshrine the location in order to try and relive the past. To bury it meant the painful reminder was gone. However, it also appeared as if the people had simply swept a horrendous period under the carpet without acknowledging it as wrong. Herein lies the dilemma for many of Funder’s contacts: whether it was better to remember or try and forget. Many of the people Funder talks to had buried their story but the pain resurfaces as they open up in their interview. Some, like Klaus, Herr Christian and Herr Bohnsack, seem to have made peace with the past and, open about their contrasting roles, are willing to move on. Many are still living in the past, some torn by the events and some longing for them to return. Frau Paul and Hagan Koch keep the past alive through museums and tours, each for their own reasons. Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler longs for the communist state to return, bitter at the socialist world in which he now lives. Miriam, like the puzzle women she hopes will discover a file about her husband Charlie, is in a constant state of repairing the damage caused under the Eastern State.

Likewise, in Never Let Me Go, the value of holding on to 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 she tried to ‘leave Hailsham behind’ when she thought she ‘shouldn’t look back so much’. However, the time came 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.

The two texts probe the reliability of memories and the accuracy of reporting history. Stasiland, through Kathy, explores the idea that memories are never entirely accurate. She realises when dealing with a clone, who is donating under her care, that he is 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 text challenges how memories are constructed, with individuals able to exert control over what they remember or forget and even able to add memories that did not occur. Kathy 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’. Funder also could be said to be unreliable, though perhaps not entirely on purpose, as she experiences similar events told from widely different points of view and even inserts herself and her own beliefs into the collection of stories in Stasiland. Her portraits of the people and their past are instrumental in remembering. Her disdain at the tacky representation of history in the ‘Disney’ style museum with the recreated wall section indicate she has a personal agenda to preserve a more genuine slice of history. One obstacle that is faced by all is that memory is malleable; it is open to be interpreted and edited both consciously and unintentionally. There are countless examples of forgetting in Stasiland where people overwrite and reconstruct the past. Funder observes this in her local neighbourhood where streets are renamed to deny the area’s ‘socialist past’ and in the new ‘Ostalgie’, a nostalgic way some recall the Eastern State as if through rose-coloured glasses. The collective memory is also incomplete due to the extraordinary lengths the Stasi went to in order to destroy evidence as the revolution swept through East Germany. The problem with deliberately forgetting, as Funder sees it, is that it allows people to make themselves innocent of their past, both personal and collective. Herr Christian claims to be innocent of causing any real damage to the women and children he sent back from the border, just as von Schnitzler can claim that shooting of an escapee at the border was ‘an act of humanity’. Funder’s concern at the collective view to forget is evident in her wonderment at how quickly the Wall went up and came down again and notes Hagan Koch’s observation that it is hard to even tell where it was.

Never Let Me Go, like Stasiland, also has the presence of the author as narrator. Never Let Me Go‘s  Kathy is aware her memories are flawed but overall sees them as precious. At the time of narrating the story she 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.’

History, Memory and Forgetting Quotes

To remember or forget-which was healthier? To demolish it or to fence it off? To dig it up, or leave it lie in the ground? (About Hitler’s bunker – Funder’s thoughts about the past) Stasiland Chapter 5

If I were Miriam and had told the most painful and formative parts of my life to someone, I’m not sure I’d want to see that person again either. (Funder) Stasiland Chapter 8

Does telling your story mean you are free of it? Or that you go, unfettered, into your future. (Funder considering Miriam) Stasiland Chapter 8

She was remembering as I watch, summoning presences more real than mine. ‘There are some things-‘ she stops. ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to remember this. I haven’t remembered this.’ (Julia) Stasiland Chapter 11

I’m making portraits of people. East Germans, of whom there will be none left in a generation. And I’m painting a picture of a city on the old fault-line of east and west. This was working against forgetting, and against time. Stasiland Chapter 14

Memory, like so much else, was unreliable. Not only for what it hides and what it alters, but also for what it reveals. Stasiland Chapter 22

He had learned not to play the ‘if only’ game… (about Torsten) Stasiland Chapter 23

I am annoyed that this past can look so tawdry and so safe, as if destined from the outset to end up behind glass, securely roped off and under press-button control. … Isn’t a museum the place for things that are over? Stasiland Chapter 28

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. Never Let Me Go, 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) Never Let Me Go, Chapter 1

This was all a long time ago so I might have some of it wrong; … Never Let Me Go, 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. Never Let Me Go, 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) Never Let Me Go, 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. Never Let Me Go, 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) Never Let Me Go, 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. Never Let Me Go, 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. Never Let Me Go, Chapter 23

Conformity, Power and Manipulation

Despite the varied genre and setting there are striking similarities between Anna Funder’s Stasiland and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go in relation to power and manipulation. The primary similarity is the absolute control one group has over another and how this is achieved through manipulation of that group. The noticeable difference between the texts is the lack of resistance shown by the clones in Never Let Me Go compared with the brave and heroic opposition documented in Stasiland. Funder presents the East German State as an authoritarian power that has seized control of its citizens through any means necessary. Although she interviews people who genuinely believed that the state was right in taking drastic steps to remain separate from Western influence, and even notes reports from people on the street who believe they were better off under communism, Funder’s premise is that the power exerted over the people cannot be justified. Through inclusion of stories that demonstrate heartache and pain, loss and grief, she shows that the use of power by the East, in particular the Stasi, was excessive and egregious. In contrast and, 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 use of propaganda and teaching to sway and ultimately change the minds of citizens is shared by the texts. The Stasi network and the government’s use of the schools and guardians similarly infiltrate the lives of the citizens and clones, respectively. Stasiland reveals a world where the government’s source of power comes from a carefully orchestrated network of state police that rely heavily on propaganda and information collection through spies and informants. The East cut off its citizens from outside information when possible and this chasm of understanding was then filled with its own perspective and stories. This is demonstrated through the childhood memory of Hagan Koch, who remembers being told British and American planes were dropping beetles to eat Eastern German crops. The children gladly and unquestioningly collected these beetles and handed them in for treats. The suppression of Western music and the manufacture of the Lipsi dance, to hopefully replace the Western trends, is another example of propaganda. When the Western television could not be blocked, despite Stasi looking to see which way people’s antennas were pointing, a ‘Black Channel’ was set up to debrief citizens and ‘set them straight’ according to the communist worldview. Through the use of spies and informants, the government collected huge amounts of information into detailed files about its citizens and used that information to pressure the citizens into conformity. In many cases, this meant finding a weak spot, such as a sick child being leveraged against Frau Paul, an Italian boyfriend used against Julia, or a person’s past recalled such as Heinz Koch.

Never Let Me Go discloses the use of a continual message presented to the clones that hides the reality of their fate under a sense of pressure to conform and a learned helplessness. 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 having not developed a sense that they could 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 the clones are at the lowest end of the hierarchy, or as Ruth blurts out, ‘modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps’. Kathy herself imagines that she may have been modelled from a pornographic model.

The clones of Never Let Me Go have been so indoctrinated they require no physical actions as restraint, threat or correction. However, throughout Stasiland Funder describes how, above all, the citizens were subjected to military control through brute physical force. While under the control of Erich Mielke, the Minister for State Security, and Erich Honecker, the Secretary-General, citizens were exposed to a combination of excessive authoritarian techniques. Mielke and Honecker were both Soviet-trained soldiers and during their time in office they commanded powerful military force that included soldiers and the Stasi, the secret police and surveillance agency. Through the Stasi, anyone who openly opposed the East German state’s leaders or policies could be arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed. Charlie’s story, as recounted by Miriam, is an example of the abuses of totalitarian control. There was little chance of fighting the system legally as the actions of the government were largely unaccountable. The East German powers also built the Berlin Wall in order to prevent citizens from escaping through to West Germany (West Berlin) and arrested or shot those who tried to escape. The wall for the characters in Never Let Me Go is invisible, a sense and understanding for the clones that they are on a path and cannot leave that destiny. The predestined nature of their lives offers a sense of freedom but never 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’.

Conformity, Power and Manipulation Quotes

As the government controlled the newspapers, magazines and television, training as a journalist was effectively training as a government spokesperson. Stasiland Chapter 2

‘It was silly. I stopped thinking I’d ever get out. They were playing with me like a mouse.’ (Miriam) Stasiland Chapter 4

‘We are not immune from villains among us,’ he told a gathering of high-ranking Stasi officers in 1982. ‘If I knew of any already, they wouldn’t live past tomorrow.’ (Recalling of Mielke to the Stasi) Stasiland Chapter 6

‘It has to do with how I can’t subject myself to any sort of authority. It’s now to the point where I can’t commit myself to coming anywhere on time.’ (Julia) Stasiland Chapter 14

To start a new country, with new values and newly minted socialist citizens, it was necessary to begin at the beginning: with children. Stasiland Chapter 16

I wonder how it worked inside the Stasi: who thought up these blackmail schemes? Did they send them up the line for approval? Did pieces of paper come back initialled and stamped ‘Approved’: the ruining of a marriage, the destruction of a career, the imprisonment of a wife, the abandonment of a child? Stasiland Chapter 17

‘And then she said to us, “We are here to inform you today, that you don’t exist any more”.’ (Klaus recalls a woman from the committee about Klaus’ band) Stasiland Chapter 19

‘I suppose it is a bit cruel,’ Ruth said, ‘the way they always work him up like that. But it’s his own fault.’ Never Let Me Go 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) Never Let Me Go Chapter 6

The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. (Miss Lucy) Never Let Me Go  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. Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go 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. Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go  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) Never Let Me Go  Chapter 22

Individual Experience

Funder and Ishiguro both paint a typically grey world that is to be expected in the dystopian genre. However, they highlight that within the grey worlds are a rich and colourful history, and life made of important individual stories. Whether a cog in the Stasi machine, an anonymous clone, a resistance fighter or a guardian, history and events are made of the will of the souls of individuals. Funder’s exploration into lives of those behind the Wall reveals the best and worst of human nature. Amongst those who conducted themselves dishonourably, some appear to have buckled to fear, some aligned themselves with those in power and some, driven by a personal goal, placed themselves above others. When presented with the option to inform, citizens knew that refusal would place them under investigation, which could mean losing career opportunities and the imposition of extra surveillance, thus they often chose to be a part of the machine rather than fight the system. Others, like Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, saw the State’s communist view as the only acceptable worldview and viewed any act against citizens as justifiable under this cause. Von Schnitzler’s view that shooting men and woman at the border was humane is an example of placing this ideology above the welfare of his fellow citizens. Others may have taken some delight in the opportunity to betray fellow citizens; Herr Bock of Golm, when asked why people became informers, said a few were convinced of the cause but, mainly, it was because ‘they felt they had it over other people’. Never Let Me Go reveals that cruelty can come on a large scale or as small acts of individuals. Ruth’s selfish act of holding on to Tommy to ensure she was not alone rather than let him and Kathy pursue a relationship is a special kind of torment. On a larger scale, the Guardians play their part in creating a mass delusion for the clones to live in that leaves them helpless to resist their dreadful fate. Miss Emily may have feigned some effort at helping establish that the clones have souls and deserved better treatment but she gave up the fight easily. When Tommy and Kathy encounter her again as adults, Miss Emily is self-satisfied and complacent about her failed charitable work on behalf of the students. Others, like Keffers, were happy participating in a system that sacrificed the vulnerable, some for the benefit of others in power.

In contrast, some stories in Stasiland showed individuals who stood bravely in the face of overwhelming adversity. Frau Paul and others were willing to try and escape and help others to do likewise. When given the ultimatum of betraying a man for a chance to see her sick son, Frau Paul stood firm and chose not to cooperate. Miriam, who had been jailed for defiantly printing posters against the GDR, later defiantly questioned officials in relation to her husband. Hagan Koch dared to steal a plastic plate from his office at his resignation that would have been the centre of an almost humorous investigation. Julia herself stood up to Major N, turning the power structure against itself, by indicating she would not inform but that she would instead inform Major N’s superiors that he had crossed a line. In their day to day actions, some, like the Klaus Renft Combo musicians, bravely pushed forward, knowing they had pricked the curiosity of the Stasi and that their lives were under scrutiny and threat. Others chose love over submission, like two generations of the Koch family. Overall, Funder presents many individuals who bravely resisted and fought the system and the powers that caused others to submit.

Individual Experience Quotes

‘Relations between people were conditioned by the fact that one or other of you could be one of them. Everyone suspected everyone else, and the mistrust this bred was the foundation of social existence.’ (Miriam explains why her story was unbelievable) Stasiland Chapter 3

… it was all over, and people from east and west were climbing, crying, and dancing on the Wall.  Stasiland Chapter 6

The man looks uncomfortable, but he also shrugs as if to say, ‘it was just my job’. (Cemetery worker on video admits to leaving ovens on for Stasi to cremate bodies) Stasiland Chapter 7

‘I conformed, just like everybody else. But it’s not true to say the GDR was a nation of seventeen million informers. They were only two in a hundred.’ (Cleaning lady at Stasi HQ) Stasiland Chapter 7

Everyone, always, was claiming innocence here. Stasiland  Chapter 12

‘For anyone to understand a regime like the GDR, the stories of ordinary people must be told. Not just the activists or the famous writers.’ (Julia encourages Funder) Stasiland Chapter 14

‘Me-bait in a trap for Michael! And of course that was an absolute no. I couldn’t.’ (Frau Paul) Stasiland Chapter 22

Guilt, Grief and Loss

In parallel manner, the texts show that loss, grief and guilt seem to be common aspects to the lives of those oppressed but were rarely grappled with by those in power. Stasiland’s Klaus poses the idea to Funder that he thinks the Stasi have been punished enough. When he is pressed further, he admits: ‘Well, if they’ve got any conscience at all…’. Funder immediately considers many of the former Stasi men she has had conversations with and notes that they did not share feelings of guilt at all. Some, like Von Schnitzler, still declare their innocence and maintain they were in the right. Much like the self-satisfied Stasi, the guardians Miss Emily and Madame justify their actions to appease any lasting guilt that would be expected considering their actions. Unlike Madame, who is disillusioned after the experiment seemed to fail and Hailsham was closed, Miss Emily believes there was some merit in the school, pointing to Kathy and Tommy as examples of ‘soulful’ students. Her role as an activist for clones is an example of the world that Kathy doesn’t fully understand and, therefore, is limited in revealing in the novel. The struggle between activists and government and the rules and regulations around cloning are never discussed in detail but only seen in the consequences they have in Kathy and the students’ world. This world, like that of Stasiland, appears to cry out for justice and anticipates that many will be riddled with guilt, yet justice and guilt seem to be largely absent in both.

In addition to this, others who were oppressed, like Frau Paul in Stasiland, carry guilt over decisions they made under extenuating circumstances. Miriam’s case further suggests that grief is not easy to overcome, which may mean that East Germany’s painful decisions and memories could haunt them for the rest of their lives. Under the unscrupulous regime, guilt appears to be sent among citizens like a cat among pigeons. Frau Paul, who says, ‘I did not make myself guilty’ when refusing to betray Michael Hinze is complimented by Michael himself, who says, ‘I don’t think I need to feel guilty-I don’t feel guilty’ about Frau Paul having chosen to help him over the opportunity to see her son. Both wrestle with guilt over decisions neither wanted to make. Even Funder is touched by vicarious guilt as she writes that she started to feel guilty about her own luck in life when compared with Julia. Ruth generally quarrels using subtle hints and indirection rather than direct confrontation so that the strain between them is often intense yet unspoken. Ruth dates Tommy at Hailsham and, later at the Cottages while serving as a donor, regrets that she had kept Kathy and Tommy apart. It is clear her guilt has been following her but she had kept it at bay until it was too late. Ruth’s decisions that lead to her guilt and grief were made under pressure, living the isolating and uncertain life of a clone, while those who orchestrated the clone environment seemed callously nonchalant.

Through Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro presents a world full of loss. Although only thirty-one at the start of the novel, Kathy has already suffered enormous loss, and the novel follows the friendships she holds dear with Ruth and especially Tommy, whose fate eventually catches up with them when they donate until completion. While working as their carer, Kathy watches Tommy and Ruth 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. Occasionally, loss is offset by some hoped for gain, such as is emblematised through the cassette that shares the novel’s title being lost and later found. 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 ultimately 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.

Stasiland‘s loss is equally palpable. Frau Paul’s separation from her unwell son due to severed contact caused by the overnight appearance of the wall is only one of many stories of loss within Stasiland. Miriam lost Charlie in the most heart-wrenching of tales. Charlie had given new meaning to Miriam’s life even though the Stasi regularly harassed both of them and his death in Stasi custody shattered Miriam, her grief and anger fuelling her desire to find out the truth behind both his death and his fabricated funeral. Despite the dramatic content, Miriam’s stories are littered with black humour, such as in her account of the guard dog ignoring her and in her caricature of the Stasi efforts to control the fabricated story of Charlie’s death. However, her grief is still profound, and the glimmer of hope she holds that the puzzle women (a group of women who put shredded documents back together) will find evidence to explain Charlie’s death is likely to be a false hope given Funder’s awareness of the time this process will take. The Stasi, like the controlling unseen government in Never Let Me Go, have left the characters with a loss of self-determination, rights, and separation from loved ones.

Loss, Grief and Guilt Quotes

Everyone, always, was claiming innocence here. Chapter 12

‘I didn’t let them get to me.’ This, I think, was his victory. This was what stops him being bound to the past and carrying it around like a wound. (Klaus) Chapter 19

‘She’s a very courageous woman,’ Hinze continues, ‘I have a great deal of respect for her. I’m also grateful to her. But at the same time I don’t think I need to feel guilty … ‘. (Michael Hinze about Frau Paul) Chapter 23

‘I don’t want to be German any more!’ he sobs. ‘I don’t want to be German any more!’ His face was tracked with silver tears…. ‘We are terrible.’ (Man on street) Chapter 26

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. Never Let Me Go Chapter 6

‘Do you think it could be the same one? I mean, the actual one. The one you lost?’ (Tommy about the cassette) Never Let Me Go Chapter 15

‘The Norfolk thing was true,’ I said. ‘You know, about it being the lost corner of England.’ Never Let Me Go 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) Never Let Me Go 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. Never Let Me Go Chapter 20

I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy, but I won’t lose my memories of them. Never Let Me Go 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.  Never Let Me Go Chapter 23