Never Let Me Go

S102

NEVER
LET ME

GO

Kazuo Ishiguro

CONTENTS

MEET THE CHARACTERS

KATHY H.
TOMMY D.

RUTH




VOCABULARY



SUMMARY

PART I
PART II
PART III



DYSTOPIA

Kathy H.

Kathy is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. She
was a self-sufficient, kind-hearted child who loved and spoke
up for what was right. Kathy is a young woman at the end of
the novel who doesn't display any emotion as she reflects on
her past. She is less judgmental of others and more
accepting of the lifestyles of her friends.

MEET
THE CHARACTERS

Tommy D.

As a child, Tommy battled with "being creative"
and was teased for his lack of artistic skills. He has a
fierce temper that he eventually learns to control.
Tommy has an open and honest demeanor.

MEET
THE CHARACTERS

Ruth

Ruth's charismatic and fiery attitude makes
her an obvious leader in their group of friends. Ruth
has periods of true compassion and care for her
pals, despite being deceptive and nasty at times.

VOCABULARY

You should know when reading
Never Let Me Go

Aura:
distinctive but intangible quality around a person or thing.
Blase:
nonchalantly unconcerned.
Breach:
act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises.
Carer:
a person who take care of the donor.
Contraption:
a device or control that is very useful for a particular job.
Cottages:
a small house in the country.
Crushed:
to press something in order to break it into very small pieces or into a
powder.
Donor:
a person who donate the organ.
Emaciated:
very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold.
Escalating:
if fighting, violence, or a bad situation escalates, or if someone
escalates it, it becomes much worse.
Exchanges:
the event that exchange the art work.
Furrow:
hollow out in the form of a groove.
Gallery:
the place that guardian keep the best art work.
Guardian:
a person who cares for all student in Hailsham.
Incongruous:
lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness.
Languid:
lacking spirit or liveliness.
Loathe:
dislike intensely; feel disgust toward.

Parasol:
a handheld collapsible source of shade.
Pavilion:
a temporary building or tent which is used for public entertainment or
exhibitions and is often large with a lot of space and light.
Prune:
weed out unwanted or unnecessary things .
Rambling:
straying from the main point or covering a range of subjects.
Relentless:
something bad that is relentless continues without ever stopping or
getting less severe.
Reprehensible:
bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure.
Shroud:
cover as if with a burial garment.
Shrug:
to raise and then lower your shoulders in order to show that you do not
know something or do not care about something.
Tenuous:
lacking substance or significance.
Token:
a medal which given to student who chosen to keep art work in gallery.
Tormentors:
severe mental or physical suffering.
Umbrella sex:
homosexuality (gay, lesbian)
Unzip:
to make a computer file its normal size again so that you can use it,
after it has been made to use less space.
Veteran:
an experienced person who has given long service.
Wariness:
the trait of being cautious and watchful.

NEVER
LET ME

GO
SUMMARY

PART
I

Chapter 1-9

Narrator Katie begins by introducing herself and
her current work. She took care of her donors and
began to flashback to where she had left of Halsham,
a boarding school. Kathy reminisces about her high
school days as she drove around the country or saw
anything, she thought was similar to what was in
Halsham. She recalls when she was a child in
Halsham. her relationship with Ruth and Tommy got
its start from there, Kathy's memories of the Hailsham
Sports Hall built her relationship with both Ruth and
Tommy.

Katie is close to Ruth because of her secret
service. which is a small group of students dedicated
to protecting Miss Geradien from a speculative
kidnapping plot by Ruth. in that Tommy Katie became
close as she was uneasy about him being teased by
others, and Tommy's decision to tell Katie about
talking to Miss Lucy reflects her trust in Katie. Here's
how Katie and Tommy bond in their quest for the truth
about Helsham.

The parm also mentions Madame's Gallery, which
holds the best student art pieces chosen by the
woman known to the students as Madame, who keep
their work in the gallery.

PART
II

Chapter 10-17

Life at the Cottages is less supervised than life at Hailsham.
The students' connections with their guardians also begin to erode.
Although they are not responsible for assignments, the students do
continue their academic pursuits in a more leisurely and casual
way. At the Cottages, Ruth seems more prepared than Kathy to
leave the memory of Hailsham behind. This difference is reflected
in the way that each one treats her personal collection as well as
her attempts to fit in with the veterans' rituals and habits. In the
film, Ruth describes her "dream future" of working in an open-plan
office and provokes characteristic reactions from both Kathy and
the veterans. For Kathy, Ruth's dream future is yet another sign
that the students are living in imitation of the outside world. These
acts reinforce the students' own status as copies, cloned from
human models. Norfolk itself has long represented possibility for
the Hailsham students. Ruth's possible reflects the hope of an
alternate future for Ruth. The trip also represents possibility for
Chrissie and Rodney. Instead of dreaming about alternate careers,
they hope only to postpone their future as donors. When viewed up
close, the woman seems much less like Ruth than they had
originally thought. At Ruth's insistence, they follow the possible to
an art gallery called The Portway Studio. Inside, they all agree that
the woman from the office is not Ruth's model. Tommy suggests
that he and Kathy continue the search in Norfolk for her lost tape.
Kathy senses that Hailsham is slipping into the past, and her
friends at the Cottages are drifting apart. She is annoyed at Ruth,
who regularly pretends to forget details about their school days.
One day, Kathy finds Tommy drawing his imaginary animals in a
nearby barn, and feels drawn to them. Shortly afterwards, Kathy
files paperwork to start her training as a carer.

PART
III

Chapter 18-23

Kathy became a good carer, although many caregivers say it was
lonely and tired. One day, Kathy stumbles upon Laura, her classmate from
Helsham, at the car park of the service station. They were talking about
Ruth's having bad first donation rumors, and she asked Kathy why she had
not been Ruth's carer. Before parting, they talked about the closure of
Helsham. It reminded Kathy of the day she was walking down the street.
She saw a clown holding a balloon. She imagined the closure of Hailsham
would be like cutting the strings and letting the balloons drift away. After
that, Kathy decides to become Ruth's caretaker. Their relationship seemed
to be good, but it wasn't because Ruth didn't seem to trust her. Situations
change when they hear rumors of an old fishing boat stranded in the
marshes by the Kingsfield recovery center. Ruth wants to go see it. Katie
suggests bringing Tommy along as it's close to his recovery center. Kathy
then sent a letter to Tommy's carer about going to see the old boat next
week.

A week later, Kathy and Ruth visit Tommy's recovery center. On the
way to see the old boat, Ruth kept talking about other donors until Kathy
couldn't stand it and had to tell her to stop talking and Tommy to support
her. When they arrived, they walked towards the old boat, sat on a dead
tree trunk, and sat and watched that old ship. Tommy said the old boat was
like Hellsham at that closedown. While driving back, Kathy parked her car
in front of a billboard that featured an open-plan office, and she pointed out
to Ruth that it looked like the one they had seen when they went to Norfolk
to look for Ruth's possible. After that, Ruth suddenly apologizes to Kathy
that having sex with someone else is weird, even though Ruth did it too.
And the story of Ruth trying to keep Katie and Tommy apart. So Ruth
asked Tommy and Kathy for a deferral and gave the address of Madame
to Tommy. After that day, Ruth introduced Katie to Tommy's carer, and
Ruth died after his second donation. So Kathy decides to follow Ruth's
request.

Almost a year after they visited the boat. Kathy becomes Tommy's
carer, Tommy made his third donation, and he is recuperating at the
Kingsfield Center. Kathy spends the afternoon to reading and talking with
Tommy. They started having sex and they are happy together. But they
still feeling not good. After Kathy becoming Tommy's carer, she also saw
him draw more imaginary paintings. Tommy does not hide his paintings
from Kathy and also asked for her opinion. Kathy sees these animals as a
sign that Tommy is still preparing to apply for a deferral with Madame.
Kathy thinks his paintings are more challenging, more detail, and not as
fresh as before. It was as if he had copied a painting from his period in the
Cottages. After the summer has passed, Kathy expects to be informed of
Tommy's fourth donation. Kathy tells Tommy that she saw Madame when
she was running errands in Little Hampton, the same town, Madame lived
in, as Ruth had previously given her. A week later, Tommy and Kathy
decide to visit Madame. Tommy tells Kathy to choose carefully his animal
paintings to give Madame for deferral.

Tommy and Kathy arrived at Little Hampton in the evening. They
saw Madame walking down the street. Kathy and Tommy followed
Madame, leaving a small distance. Reminds Kathy as she follows Ruth's
possible at Norfolk. Kathy calls Madame as she stops at the door.
Madame's expression was silent and frightening. But she gave a slight
smile when Kathy said they were from Hailsham. Tommy said they wanted
to talk to Madame. Madame invited them inside and asked them to wait in
the front room as she went upstairs while they wait Tommy pointed out a
framed picture of what he thought was Hailsham hanging in the corner.
They overheard Madame talking with a man at upstairs. When madame
returns Kathy said they had come to ask about the deferral. Kathy explains
that she and Tommy are in love. And Tommy said they thought they knew
the purpose of Madame's gallery. Tommy began to explain his theory. And
Madame realized that they believed she looked at their art to see their
souls. Tommy said he didn't do any art work. In Madame's Gallery at
Hailsham and offered to show her his paintings. Kathy realized that
Madame was talking to someone in the next room. And Miss Emily is in a
wheelchair. Madame tells Miss Emily to speak to them.

Miss Emily remembers both Kathy and Tommy and
explains that she was familiar with rumors of deferrals. But
insisted that the deferral never existed. Miss Emily explains she
and Madame were part of a progressive movement to make the
donation program less terrible for the clones. Support for the
program ended when James Morningdale, a scientist, tried to
make genetically superior children. Public opinion changed,
becoming less favorable toward cloning. When Tommy asks
about Miss Lucy, they learn she wanted the students to know
about what they were facing, whereas the other guardians
wanted the students to remain sheltered from the awful truth for
as long as possible. She was fired because of her honesty.
When Kathy says Madame was afraid of the students, Miss
Emily admits to being afraid as well, but she was able to
overcome her fear. She adds that Madame was always a strong
supporter of Hailsham and all it stood for. Just after they leave
the house, Kathy asks Madame if she realized what Kathy had
been doing when she saw her dancing to the song “Never Let
Me Go.” Kathy tells her the pillow represented a baby that the
woman was holding. Madame, says she was in tears because
she saw Kathy trying to hold onto the sheltered world they lived
in, to stay safe and never be let go. The reality, Madame says,
was much harsher, and it broke her heart. When Kathy and
Tommy head back home, he says Miss Lucy was right—they
should have been told. Soon they have to stop, for the old anger
has come back to Tommy. In a field, he yells and gesticulates
furiously, similar to his tantrums at Hailsham. Kathy cradles him
to calm him down, thinking Tommy may have known all along
what was in store for them all, screaming at the dreadful truth.

Tommy begins to spend more time with his donor
friends in the recovery center and tells Kathy she can’t
understand all he is going through because she has yet to be
a donor. Kathy feels angry about this but knows Tommy is
right. Tommy decides for the fourth donation, which usually
kills the donor, he wants a carer other than Kathy. He says
Ruth wanted them to be together but not through a possibly
terrible end, where he could remain alive after the fourth
donation, watching as organs continue to be removed until he
dies. Ruth wanted their lives together to be full of love.
Tommy recognizes he and Kathy have to say goodbye at
some point, and he wants it to be when they are well enough
to say goodbye as they are. After a few more weeks together,
they part. They kiss, and Kathy drives away, watching Tommy
in her rearview mirror. Kathy knows she will never lose her
memories of him and of Ruth, even though they are gone.
She describes driving to Norfolk one last time and imagining
Tommy approaching her in a field. She screams out of grief as
the imagined Tommy waves at her, and with that release, she
drives away from Norfolk “to wherever it was I was intended to
go,” to the next stage of her life.

DYSTOPIA

What is a
DYSTOPIA?




A dystopian society or
culture is one that is
fictitious, unwanted, or
terrifying. It is an antonym

for utopia.

Is ‘Never Let Me Go‘
a dystopian novel?

In the story, the three main characters are
Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, who are Hailsham's
students. The students in this school were
created for the benefit of the government and
the common people. The clones, which is the
word that normal people use to refer to these
students.

Students in Helsham were restricted to a
limited area, and having been brainwashed by
the guardian's rumors, the outside world was
cruel and dangerous. They have a limited
knowledge of information and education. If they
are unable to express themselves creatively,
they will be unable to learn other subjects. And
they are unable to obtain information from the
outside world.

When they grow up and come out into
the real world, they can't work the way they
want. Instead, they had to prepare to be
carers and become donors. They could not
choose the way of their lives. Unable to live
happily with loved ones, Because in the
end, their bodies were created for benefit.
The government and the common people
offer them only pain and death regardless
of whether they wanted it or not.

I keep thinking about this river
somewhere, with the water moving
really fast. And these two people in the
water, trying to hold onto each other,
holding on as hard as they can, but in

the end it’s just too much. The
current’s too strong. They’ve got to let
go, drift apart. That’s how I think it is

with us. It’s a shame, Kath, because
we’ve loved each other all our lives. But

in the end, we can’t stay together
forever.

- Tommy D. -

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S102