Never Let Me Go Flashcards
Every essay general structure
- Read bullet points to form plan
- Thesis statement / introduction
- Petal paragraphs including Ishiguro purpose, Ishiguro’s style and reader feeling x3 or 4
-context:
Ishiguro’s secluded life during WW2
Science advancements - embryonic stem cells, IVF etc.
Conclusion
Theme of Humanity:
THESIS STATEMENT / INTRODUCTION
INTRO
- Throughout book Ishiguro contrast clones and normals to show being human does mean you necessarily possess humanity
- Clones show human like characteristic like desire for love
- Normals are more barbaric depiction, have lack of empathy and see clones as nothing more than medical supplies
LOVE
-Beginning of book: clones ‘dream’ about a guardian ‘breaking the rules’ and give them ‘a spontaneous hug, a secret letter, a gift’
SINISTER AND SELFISH SOCIETY OF NORMALS:
- All Kathy could see from ‘Hailsham House’ was the ‘dark fringe of trees’
- Shadowy objects in test tubes
NORMALS VIEW OF CLONES:
- Symbolism of cottages converted from farmhouse
- Delivery men calling them ‘sweet hearts’
- afraid of us in the same way someone is afraid of spiders’
COMPARING FRAGILITY OF LIFE BETWEEN NORMALS AND CLONES
- Miss Emily was a ‘frail and contorted figure in a wheelchair’
- Symbolism of tree trunks. Kathy sits on a healthier one, Ruth and Tommy sit on a more ‘emaciated and hollow’ trunk
Ruth Quotes:
THESIS STATEMENT / INTRODUCTION
DOMINATING:
1) At Hailsham: When Ruth lets Kathy ride imaginary horses ‘ride them here’ and ‘come now’
2) At Cottages: ‘Its not just me, sweety. Kathy here finds your animals a complete hoot’
3) At the end: She still has control over Kathy and Tommy’s fate - ‘I kept you and Tommy apart’
She gives them Madame’s Address for a deferral
LOW SELF ESTEEM:
4) When confronted about pencil case - ‘ complete loss of words’ and had ‘turned away on the verge of tears’
5) ‘we’re modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, tramps, winos’
A BELIEVER:
6) Entertains idea she will work in an office: ‘Sort of office she’d ideally work in’
7) ‘If it’s you two,there’s got to be a chance A real chance’
Theme of Identity:
THESIS STATEMENT / INTRODUCTION
HAILSHAM IS THE CLONES IDENTITY:
1) ‘Kathy H. I’m thirty one years old…and I’m a Hailsham student’
2) ‘We hugged, quite spontaneously…as a way of affirming Hailsham’
POSSIBLES AND THEIR IDENTITY
1) Kathy: ‘I hardly saw their contorted bodies because I was focusing on their faces’
2) Ruth: ‘We’re modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps’
SOCIETY STEALING THEIR IDENTITY
1) ‘A women who was told she couldn’t have babies…holding an imaginary baby to her breast’
2) ‘Shadowy objects in test tubes’
Tommy quotes:
THESIS STATEMENT / INTRODUCTION
CAUTIOUS OF THE FUTURE
1) Careful to ‘rush back’ into a relationship with Ruth as ‘We’ve got to think of the next move really carefully’
2) ‘know something the rest didn’t’
POSSESS AN UNCONTROLLABLE ANGER
1) ‘raving, flinging his limbs about’
2) ‘ raving, shouting, flinging his fist and kicking out’
COMPASSIONATE
1) ‘I was trying to find something. Something for you’
2) Not wanting ‘to be that way in front of’ Kathy
Theme of lies and deceit:
HAILSHAM AND ITS LIES
1) ‘hills behind Hailsham House. All we could see was dark fringe of trees’
2) Kathy’s narration
CLONES DECEIVING THEMSELVES
1) ‘Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old…And I’m a Hailsham student’
2) ‘Sort of office she’d ideally work in’
GUARDIANS AND THEIR LIES
1) ‘we sheltered you. We gave you your childhoods’
2) ‘ It’s something to think about, a little fantasy. What harm is there?’
Kathy Quotes:
THESIS STATEMENT / INTRODUCTION
- TYPE OF NARRATOR
1) “I don’t know what it was like from where you are from”
2) “Or maybe I’m remembering it wrong” - COMPASSIONATE
3) “upset my dearest friend” - CONFUSED
4) “Might just be me…sometimes i just really, really need to do it” - ACCEPTANCE TO FATE
5) “the fantasy never got beyond that - I didn’t let it”
6) “though the tears rolled down my face, i wasn’t sobbing or out of control”
Theme of Love:
LOVE FOR HAILSHAM
1)’ My name is Kathy H. I’m thirty one years old…And i’m a Hailsham student
2)’We hugged, quite spontaneously…as a way of affirming Hailsham’
GROWING LOVE FOR TOMMY
3)’I was trying to find something. Something for you’
4)’drifting apart then finding ourselves side by side again’
TUMULTUOUS LOVE FOR RUTH
5) ‘we were quarreling over all kinds of things but at the same time we were confiding in each other more than ever’
6) ‘It’s not just me sweet, Kathy here finds your animals a complete hoot’
7) ‘Upset my dearest friend’
Theme of Friendship:
In NLMG Ishiguro presents the power of friendships (unconditional ones like Tommy and Kathy and even tumultuous ones like Kathy and Ruth)which can even withstand this deeply disturbing dystopian world.
GROWING LOVE FOR TOMMY
1)’I was trying to find something. Something for you’
2)’drifting apart then finding ourselves side by side again’
TUMULTUOUS LOVE FOR RUTH
1) ‘we were quarreling over all kinds of things but at the same time we were confiding in each other more than ever’
2) ‘It’s not just me sweet, Kathy here finds your animals a complete hoot’
3) ‘Upset my dearest friend’
A SOCIETY WHICH DESTROYS RELATIONSHIPS
1) ‘A women who was told she couldn’t have babies…holding an imaginary baby to her breast’
2) ‘there were powerful tides tugging us apart’
Theme of memories:
MEMORIES ARE UNRELIABLE
1) Kathy’s narration
2) ‘Exaggerated it in [her] mind and she had to ‘order all these old memories’
(Idea kathy subconsciously selectively chooses to suppress the darker memories and hold onto her positive memories)
IN SOME CHARACTERS LIKE RUTH: MEMORIES ARE A SOURCE OF TURMOIL
1) ‘Felt more pressure to grow up, move on and leave hailsham behind’
2) ‘Soft of office she’d ideally work in’ - Desperation to grow up
IN KATHY: MEMORIES ARE COMFORTING AND LONG-LASTING
1) ‘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.’
2) ‘My name is Kathy H. Im thirty One years old…And I’m a Hailsham student’
