Never Let Me Go Part 2

Chapter 10

Kathy’s memories move to a time after Hailsham to when the students moved to ‘the Cottages’, when they are instructed to complete a major essay but it seems the essay is just a time filler to keep them busy for about two years. This meaningless task aims to keep the reality of their situation off their minds and keep them occupied until they are old enough to donate. Kathy feels that the essay helped initially as it helped the students keep a hold on Hailsham after they had left.

Time at the Cottages is a bleak existence compared with Hailsham. The supervision and structure provided by the guardians is gone and the students are left to fill their own time. Later, it is established that Hailsham was a particularly pleasant place compared to other institutions clones attended. Now, by comparison, the Cottages are only attended by a gruff caretaker named Keffers and they are remarkably cold and uncomfortable. The sense of hope conveyed in their childhood has evaporated and the students are aware that they are closer to donating and completing.

The veterans are other older students that are already living at the Cottages, who come out to bring the new students into the house, something Kathy and the others will do in one year’s time. Kathy describes the day they arrived to the cottages and paints a picture of them huddled together, fearful. She explains that for the first few months they never left the cottages in a sort of self-imposed isolation. The students were not well-prepared for the world outside Hailsham. Kathy notices the inconspicuous nature of the couples and how their gestures and mannerisms mimic those of the characters on the television shows they watch. Having being separated from the guardians who instructed them on how to act, the clones who could not develop as individuals look to television shows for help and inspiration. They lack a social and moral compass that a true parent or nurturer would provide.

There is an element of irony to the fact that the clones mimic each other and the television. Kathy notices how Ruth finally catches on to this and begins to change her behaviour. Ruth’s drive to be mature and a leader continues, and she taps Tommy on the elbow when leaving as the veterans did when copying the shows. Tommy struggles at first to understand what this means, highlighting his innocence. This, with Ruth’s attempt at pretending she knows everything and has read more than Kathy, is annoying Kathy and she calls Ruth out on the elbow tapping, suggesting Ruth is only doing it because another couple, Chrissie and Rodney, do it. Ruth reacts badly and tells Kathy she is only jealous because she is not getting enough attention and includes a remark about some possible sexual relationships she is having after which Kathy gets up and leaves.

Chapter 10 Quotes

… no one really believed the essays were that important, and among ourselves we hardly discussed the matter. Chapter 10

We certainly didn’t think much about our lives beyond the Cottages, or about who ran them, or how they fitted into the larger world. None of us thought like that in those days. Chapter 10

He was this grumpy old guy who turned up two or three times a week in his muddy van to look the place over. He didn’t like to talk to us much, and the way he went round sighing and shaking his head disgustedly implied we weren’t doing nearly enough to keep the place up. (About Keffers) Chapter 10

A few of us, for a time, even tried to think of Keffers as a sort of guardian, but he was having none of it. Chapter 10

You have to remember that until that point we’d never been beyond the grounds of Hailsham, and we were just bewildered. Chapter 10

There was, incidentally, something I noticed about these veteran couples at the Cottages—something Ruth, for all her close study of them, failed to spot—and this was how so many of their mannerisms were copied from the television. Chapter 10

‘So that’s it, that’s what’s upsetting poor little Kathy. Ruth isn’t paying enough attention to her. Ruth’s got big new friends and baby sister isn’t getting played with so often…’ (Ruth to Kathy) Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Kathy explains how sex in the cottages is different from Hailsham and that if someone wants sex they just asked and no one spoke about it after. She mentions that the sex is normally in a cold room and under blankets and that she had a couple of one-nighters after getting to the cottages. Kathy reveals that sometimes she really wants to have sex and cannot explain the feelings. Ruth cannot fully understand this and struggles with advice, even calling it ‘strange’. Ruth blames the food they are eating, once again revealing the half-information the clones have been told about sex, typical of the lack of clarity around anything in their life.

Tension between Kathy and Ruth continues, only lessening when they confide in each other and increasing as they squabble over Ruth’s antics as she tries to impress the veterans or maintain ascendency in relationships. Kathy recalls later when she is looking after Ruth in the recovery room in Dover that they discussed the collections from Hailsham and how Ruth discarded hers on arrival at the Cottages as she saw that the veterans did not have any of their own. Ruth reveals that she asked Keffers to take her collection to a charity shop and he laughed at the quality of the collection, however, when Ruth insisted it was good, he agreed when he could see she was emotional. This reinforces the poverty that the clones lived in as their collections and personal belongings, along with their austere accommodation, was nothing to be treasured.

When Kathy considers it, she recalls that all the students at the Cottages were interested in pornography and, although they never let on, everyone looked at pornographic magazines before nonchalantly discarding them. One day, Kathy took a stack of magazines into the boiler room after Keffers accidently left them behind. She is flipping through them to look at them when she catches Tommy spying on her. When Tommy inquires what Kathy is doing, she claims to be enjoying the magazines and that she will gladly pass them on to him when she has finished. Tommy suggests that she does not look like she is enjoying them. She doesn’t tell him why until later, on a trip to Norfolk, that she is looking for her potential original as she is still confused about her sexual urges and wonders if she was cloned from a woman like the ones in the magazine. Interestingly, Kathy lets us know that she liked feeling protected as Tommy comes into the boiler room after her.

Chapter 11 Quotes

To me, it was a betrayal. Because there wasn’t any doubt what she’d meant by it; she was referring to something I’d confided in her one night about me and sex. (About Ruth) Chapter 11

But I hadn’t minded him coming into the boiler hut after me. I hadn’t minded at all. I’d felt comforted, protected almost. (Kathy about Tommy) Chapter 11

Anyway, the point is, I’d had a few one-nighters shortly after getting to the Cottages. I hadn’t planned it that way. Chapter 11

Ruth shook her head. ‘It does sound a bit weird. But it’ll probably go away. It’s probably just to do with the different food we’re eating here.’ Chapter 11

Okay, she often bluffed and implied all sorts of things I knew weren’t true. Sometimes, as I said, she did things to impress the veterans at our expense. But it seems to me Ruth believed, at some level, she was doing all this on behalf of us all. Chapter 11

My plan was I’d find a really good wooden box for it all once I got to the Cottages. But when we got there, I could see none of the veterans had collections. It was only us, it wasn’t normal. (Ruth about throwing out her collection) Chapter 11

Another thing I noticed—and I could see it tied in—was the big hush that would descend around certain veterans when they went off on ‘courses’—which even we knew had to do with becoming carers. Chapter 11

Chapter 12

As mentioned earlier during Kathy’s time at Hailsham, a running joke had emerged about Norfolk being the place where lost things ended up. A veteran couple, Chrissie and Rodney, with whom Ruth is friendly, tells her they saw a woman who may be Ruth’s ‘possible’ working in an open-plan office in Norfolk. Kathy explains a ‘possible’ may be the person, or model, from whom the clones were made. At Hailsham, the topic was not discussed, and at the Cottages, it is not one for casual conversation. Kathy explains it is the most awkward conversation they could have, even more so than talking about sex. However, they are fascinated and consider that possibles may provide insights into their character and predict the future.

Kathy is sceptical about Chrissie and Rodney’s claim because they know Ruth’s dream job would be to work in an open office, like the one she saw in a picture. Chrissie frequently asks Ruth to talk about the dream office, and at this point Kathy thinks Chrissie’s questions about the office and about Hailsham are suspicious. People who did not go to Hailsham, believe Hailsham students get special privileges, and working in an outside job may be one of them. Chrissie and Rodney offer to take Ruth to Norfolk to see her possible in person, and Kathy and Tommy say they’ll go with Ruth. It is through Chrissie and Rodney that differences between the clones are noticed. They did not enjoy the privilege of being students of Hailsham and they fear they are missing out on further special consideration.

Chapter 12 Quotes

Though most of us had first come across the idea of ‘possibles’ back at Hailsham, we’d sensed we weren’t supposed to discuss it, and so we hadn’t—though for sure, it had both intrigued and disturbed us. Chapter 12

Since each of us was copied at some point from a normal person, there must be, for each of us, somewhere out there, a model getting on with his or her life. Chapter 12

Nevertheless, we all of us, to varying degrees, believed that when you saw the person you were copied from, you’d get some insight into who you were deep down, and maybe too, you’d see something of what your life held in store. Chapter 12

In fact, to be honest, my guess was that Chrissie and Rodney had made the whole thing up. (About seeing ruth’s possible) Chapter 12

The point about Chrissie—and this applied to a lot of the veterans—was that for all her slightly patronising manner towards us when we’d first arrived, she was awestruck about our being from Hailsham. Chapter 12

Chapter 13

When Ruth describes her ‘dream future’ of working in an open-plan office, she provokes characteristic reactions from both Kathy and the veterans. Kathy is once again a careful observer, recognizing that Ruth is describing the office in the magazine ad. For Kathy, Ruth’s dream future is yet another sign that the students are living in imitation of the outside world. Just as the veterans copy their gestures from television shows, Ruth copies her dream future from an advertisement—which is itself only a staged copy of real life. These acts of copying also reinforce the students’ own status as copies, cloned from human models in the outside world.

Rodney arranges to borrow a car for the Norfolk trip, but his plans fall through just before they are supposed to leave. Ruth becomes visibly upset, although she has, up until now, treated the trip like a joke. Rodney secures another car and the trip proceeds as planned. On the way to Norfolk, Ruth sits between Kathy and Tommy in the back seat, symbolic of her intent to keep them apart throughout the novel. She spends most of the drive leaning forward to speak with Rodney and Chrissie, which prevents Kathy and Tommy from talking to one another. Kathy suggests that she and Ruth switch seats, but Ruth angrily accuses her of trying to make trouble. Ruth rides in angry silence for the rest of the drive. The mood lightens when they arrive in Norfolk and go to a local café for lunch. Their inability to choose menu items highlights their lack of ability to negotiate the real world.

The real motives of the veterans surface as they begin to question the Hailsham trio about the privileges that they have heard were extended to the students. They believe Hailsham couples in love can apply to defer their donations for a few years, and ask how to apply. Ruth claims to know about deferrals but not to know about the application process. Tommy tells them that he does not know what they are talking about. Ruth belittles him saying he was left out at Hailsham to settle the point.

The trip represents hope for the students. For the veterans, it promises a chance to find out how to defer their donations and to spend more time in love before they have to commit to the medical procedures. For Ruth, the hope of finding her possible and view a future as an office worker and to bond with the veterans and, for Kathy and Tommy, a chance to spend some time together. This sense of hope is in contrast to Miss Lucy’s warning at Hailsham that they should not hold hope for their futures.

Chapter 13 Quotes

Tommy was looking at Ruth, clearly puzzled about whose side she’d taken, and I wasn’t sure either. Chapter 13

‘I heard about this girl up in Wales,’ Chrissie said. ‘She was Hailsham, maybe a few years before you lot. Apparently she’s working in this clothes shop right now…’
… ‘That’s Hailsham for you,’ Rodney said eventually, and shook his head as though in amazement. Chapter 13

‘What they said,’ Chrissie continued, ‘was that if you were a boy and a girl, and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so you could have a few years together before you began your donations.’ Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Rodney leads the group on their walk to find Ruth’s possible, although Chrissie derails the walk hoping to talk with Ruth alone about the deferral rumour. They stop at Woolworths and Kathy can hear Ruth continuing to brag about the rumour being true. The group leave the store to find the office and Rodney points out the woman in question. The woman is much older than Ruth and with darker hair and although the similarity is not obvious at first, the group concede a chance of the woman being an original. They follow her into a gallery, The Portway Studio, but once they get a closer look, Ruth realises the woman doesn’t look like her at all. Seeing the possible from outside a glass window is as close as Ruth, Chrissie, and Rodney will get in their views of the world. They can see it, but they cannot participate in it. Indeed, the trip is a watershed moment in their lives as they face the future. Tommy and Kathy try to make Ruth feel better by joking, but Ruth lashes out at them, saying all models are ‘junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps’. Ruth’s insults at being copied from trash connect with Kathy’s earlier suspicion that she may be cloned from a pornographic model.

When Rodney and Chrissie decide to visit their friend Martin, Ruth goes with them. Ruth, also giving up on finding a possible and real work, joins them, for she too has no future other than the one for which she was created. Having come to Norfolk to find something lost—herself—and with hopes for a different future, Ruth and the veterans now face the reality of their lives. Kathy refuses to break the rules as they are not supposed to visit carers. Chrissie and Rodney, although breaking this rule, cannot break the ones that matter to them—like deferral. Tommy refuses to go anywhere without Kathy revealing how deeply he cares about Kathy’s feelings.

Chapter 14 Quotes

‘You don’t understand,’ Ruth was saying. ‘If you were from Hailsham, then you’d see. It’s never beena such a big deal for us. I suppose we’ve always known if we ever wanted to look into it, all we’d have to do is get word back to Hailsham …’ (Ruth to Kathy) Chapter 14

We kept on staring, and it looked like a smart, cosy, self-contained world. I glanced at Ruth and noticed her eyes moving anxiously around the faces behind the glass. Chapter 14

… and her face, especially when she was finishing her laugh with a shake of her head, had more than a hint of Ruth about it. Chapter 14

Maybe it was the tiredness suddenly catching up with us—after all, we’d been travelling since before dawn—but I wasn’t the only one who went off into a bit of a dream in there. We’d all wandered into different corners, and were staring at one picture after another … Chapter 14

‘But I think Tommy’s right,’ I said. ‘It’s daft to assume you’ll have the same sort of life as your model. I agree with Tommy. It’s just a bit of fun. We shouldn’t get so serious about it.’ Chapter 14

‘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

Chapter 15

After the other three leave, Tommy tells Kathy that he never cared much about the trip as it doesn’t really matter who they’re from, as it’s not as though they’re actually like a parent. Kathy is quiet for a moment, and Tommy tells her that, in Woolworths, he was looking for a present for her, the tape she lost at Hailsham. Tommy learned long ago from Ruth that the tape was missing. Tommy tells her he couldn’t find it primarily because he couldn’t remember it’s title, and Kathy reminds him that the artist’s name is Judy Bridgewater.

Tommy, in his typically loveable and clumsy way, leads Kathy to the place where her new tape can be found, but does not actually find the tape in the stacks. Kathy does that and sees how delightful this coincidence is. The only way this could be more perfect would be if the metaphor were actually true and if Norfolk were in fact a ‘lost corner’ where actual lost things reappeared. Instead, the Bridgewater tape here is a clone, a double, a copy of the original, just as good for Kathy’s purposes, but not quite the same, and not holding the entire sentimental value with which Kathy had viewed the original, all genuine propositions regarding cloning in general.

Tommy expounds another theory about Hailsham that the Gallery was used as a way of selecting art samples from each of the students, as a means of determining whether those students were a genuine romantic couple with similar art and, therefore, similar souls and worthy of a deferral. As it will later turn out, Tommy’s theory is not so wrong. Although the deferrals are not real, the quest to prove or investigate the ‘soul’ of a clone is true. Tommy has always regretted his lack of creativity, and wants to do whatever he can to remedy it in order to make life better for himself and Ruth. Kathy listens to Tommy’s theory and thinks of her own small dance to the song ‘Never Let Me Go’, which caused Madame to cry. But Kathy refocuses and listens to Tommy again who says that he’s worried he and Ruth won’t be able to get a deferral, since Tommy never got any art into the gallery. For this reason, he has been working on new art, a series of small mechanical animals which he hopes will show that he is in fact creative, and that he and Ruth might have matching souls.

Kathy and Tommy continue to chat and consider the idea raised by Ruth that their clone originals were probably from the ‘dregs of society’. Tommy knows that Kathy thought her original was a sex worker or pornographic actress who passed along this desire for sex to Kathy. But Tommy tells Kathy that this is a silly idea, and anyway, if it were true, it wouldn’t matter, since Kathy’s personality does not come from her original. The idea raises thoughts about the souls, personalities and bodies of the clones; what makes them human, if they really are. Perhaps the clones feel they are copies of the unwanted members of society, as they feel they have become the unwanted.

The Bridgewater tape assumes a new symbolic dimension after Kathy and Tommy locate the copy of it in Norfolk. Before, it was a private way for Kathy to reflect with herself, and with the idea of a family life beyond Hailsham. But now the tape has been emblematic of her special friendship with Tommy. Kathy doesn’t share the news of the tape immediately with the rest of the car to preserve that intimacy.

Chapter 15 Quotes

‘… I don’t see how it makes any difference. Our models, what they were like, that’s nothing to do with us, Kath. It’s just not worth getting upset about.’ (Tommy) Chapter 15

Not long ago, when I was caring for Tommy, and I brought up our Norfolk trip, he told me he’d felt exactly the same. That moment when we decided to go searching for my lost tape, it was like suddenly every cloud had blown away, and we had nothing but fun and laughter before us. Chapter 15

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

‘… She told Roy that things like pictures, poetry, all that kind of stuff, she said they revealed what you were like inside. She said they revealed your soul.’ (Tommy recalling Miss Lucy) Chapter 15

‘… You have to think about how they’d protect themselves, how they’d reach things…’ (Tommy about his art) Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Kathy tells us that when they returned to the cottages they never talked about their trip to Norfolk. Kathy never told Ruth about the tape but knew she would find out at some stage. Kathy reveals that soon a lot of people began to leave the cottages and the atmosphere began to change. Kathy is out for a walk when Tommy calls her, he is not wearing his wellies and reveals that he has been drawing and shows her the drawings, which she struggles to recognise at first. He tells her he showed Ruth too. Kathy struggles to give Tommy a compliment and instead says she wonders what Madame would say. Tommy says he needs more practice before he shows Madame.

It is a year after they first arrived and new students come. There are no Hailsham students with them. Kathy and Ruth have an argument because Ruth keeps pretending to have forgotten things from Hailsham. They also have a falling out about the tape. They laugh together when Ruth asks Kathy when she found her tape again. Kathy believes Ruth knew about it before but was waiting for the right time to bring it up. Ruth reacts well to the tape and then they discuss Tommy, sex and his animal pictures. Ruth backs Kathy into a corner to say they weren’t great and uses this later to divide Kathy and Tommy by saying Tommy was making a fool of himself and that Kathy also thinks his animals are a ‘hoot’. Kathy regrets not saying anything to Tommy to try and show Ruth was twisting her words. She leaves as she does not want to be left alone with either of them. There is a shift in power as they both look at Kathy, as if she is in charge, which signifies the rest of the novel in which Kathy as a carer takes responsibility and eventually looks after Ruth and Tommy as they donate and complete.

Chapter 16 Quotes

Perhaps we felt it was up to Ruth, that it was her call how much got told, and we were waiting to take our cue from her. Chapter 16

They’d both asked to start their training, and went off with cheerful smiles, but after that, for our lot anyway, the atmosphere at the Cottages changed forever. Chapter 16

But for me at least, this non-appearance of Hailsham students just added to a feeling that Hailsham was now far away in the past, and that the ties binding our old crowd were fraying. Chapter 16

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

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

Chapter 17

Kathy reveals that after that episode, Ruth and Tommy grew further apart. Ruth tells Kathy that she knows herself and Tommy might not last, but that Kathy should not get her hopes up because Tommy does not think of her like that. After this talk, Kathy tells Keffer she wants to begin her training as a carer and keep a distance from Ruth and Tommy.

Chapter 17 Quotes

It never occurred to me that our lives, until then so closely interwoven, could unravel and separate over a thing like that. Chapter 17

I knew them well enough to see they’d grown quite distant from each other. (About Ruth and Tommy) Chapter 17

‘… We’re not about to split, don’t get me wrong. But I’d think it was completely normal if you at least wondered about it. Well, Kathy, what you have to realise is that Tommy doesn’t see you like that. He really, really likes you, he thinks you’re really great. But I know he doesn’t see you like, you know, a proper girlfriend…’ (Ruth) Chapter 17

It wasn’t long after that I made my decision, and once I’d made it, I never wavered. I just got up one morning and told Keffers I wanted to start my training to become a carer. It was surprisingly easy. Chapter 17