Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go takes place in a dystopian version of late 1990’s England. In this version of England, although it is not clearly described by the naïve narrator, a state-sanctioned program of human cloning takes place. The control of the government and the lives of the ordinary citizens is only briefly seen and mainly perceived by the narrator, who has little true knowledge of their place and power. Society has accepted cloning as a way to produce replacement parts for citizens, outside of the awareness of clones, enabling ‘originals’ to harvest medical transplants from their clones when required. Clones exist in a series of institutions, with ever decreasing human warmth, away from the rest of the world. The institutions hosting the clones become more and more isolated, giving a bleak and clinical overtone to the lives of clones. The first institution, Hailsham, is a seemingly typical boarding school but the place of ‘guardians’ without real parents causes it resemble an orphanage more than an educational facility. The schoolwork seems meaningless without any clear vocational purpose, however, there is a stress on art and creativity. Upon meeting other clones, the residents of Hailsham realise their school is remarkably humane compared to the other institutes. Hailsham serves as a political intervention wherein a small group of people aim to convince the government that clones have a ‘soul’ through showcasing their art and poetry. After this experiment fails, Hailsham is shut down and the remaining institutions become simple holding pens for the ‘spare parts’.

After graduating, the clones move to ‘the Cottages’, a small farm in rural England, where they live like university students, focused on a major essay they may never get to complete or fast aware does not really matter. The farm is remote and only one person, Keffers, deliberately interacts with them. The clones are left to their own musings and travel to the seaside town of Dover for an excursion. This typical day out seems like a commentary on their intended lifepath, and as they move around the town almost anonymously, their uncertainty of what to order at the café and sticking to themselves reveals their isolation from the real world.

The donation centres are the final institutions for the students, and where they will undergo a series of painful donations of body parts until ‘completion’, that is, their death. The clones fulfil their purpose, largely without questioning, in a sterile, surgical facility. Through the eyes of Kathy, now a veteran carer, we see a small amount of humanity offered in a palliative manner as the clones are systematically harvested for their parts. As she travels from centre to centre, the rural landscape of England plays a part in adding to the isolation felt by Kathy and reveals her fond memories of Hailsham, seen when she believes she glimpses a setting like the school and stops to investigate.