Never Let Me Go Analysis Flashcards
“My donors have always tended to do much better than expected. Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as ‘agitated’, even after the fourth donation.”
Kathy has been a carer for a very long time. Over this time she has acquired a lot of skill and the ability to pick her own donors. With this she is able to provide the best care for her patients. Donors go through four major donations of their vital organs but many complete before the fourth, some not even surviving the first. The experience of donors shows just how cruel and inhumane the donation process is because it is unavoidable for clones and causing their deaths. The donation process is extremely difficult and unthinkable in our world, but knowing how harsh it is we find it slightly unbelievable that Kathy is so good at her job that she is able to make that better for her patients.
“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. But then there came a point when I just stopped resisting.”
Hailsham was a home for the clones because it was all they knew for their entire childhood. Clones were given a sense of identity at Hailsham through their collections and art, and a sense of belonging through the family created - guardians were parental figures to them and the other students felt like family also. During her adulthood, Kathy finds herself looking back at Hailsham a lot and missing it, frequently searching for familiarities of it wherever she is at the time. Hailsham holds importance to its students because, unlike other schools, it provides them with basic human essentials even though they are viewed as inhumane things by the public. When they leave to live at places like the Cottages, they lose these things and so find the memory of Hailsham a comfort.
“What I do remember is that I noticed Tommy was wearing the light blue polo shirt he’d got in the Sales the previous month - the one he was so proud of.”
Kathy is a very observant character and finds herself noticing details and watching social settings instead of involving them. Proof of this is how she remembered and recognised Tommy’s - a boy who she is not friends with - favourite polo shirt which he was ruining during a fit of rage. She does try and help Tommy during his rage to prevent any more mud shattering over his shirt, but in that moment Tommy is not appreciative of it. While this interaction shows Kathy’s attentiveness it also symbolises Tommy and Kathy’s relationship because this is their first interaction which leads to their friendship blooming.
“This was all a long time ago so I might have some of it wrong.”
‘Never Let Me Go’ is a novel which follows the recollection of Kathy’s memories, starting from her time as a child at Hailsham. She admits to us in the early parts of the novel that she could be remembering some of the occurrences wrong, and this comes up other times when she and Ruth or Tommy remember things different. There is a reoccurring theme of dishonesty in the novel, and although she claims it is due to memory and time, we can never be truly sure is Kathy was being truthful about this. At points we find Kathy being sly and so cannot cross off the idea of her changing stories to change the perception of the ‘victim’ in the situation.
“I don’t know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham we had to have some form of medical almost every week-“
At Hailsham, students are treated very different from how they are in schools in our world. Medicals are only really common when you are young and in important growth and development stages but at Hailsham these medicals are for all ages. The importance of health at Hailsham makes us put into perspective the treatment of clones due to their purpose. Due to them being created for organ harvesting, ‘normal’ humans are very strict on keeping them healthy so go to extensive lengths for such an inhumane cause that they have resorted to thinking of clones as anything but human and sometimes even excuse that they are real. In contrast to how important the clones are they are treated horrible, and that makes us feel terrible injustice for our main characters as they are forced into programmes of organ donating that saves peoples lives and are still treated horrendously.
“A lot of the time, how you were regarded at Hailsham, how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good you were at ‘creating’.”
Priorities at Hailsham are far different to the schools we are used to. They see higher importance in creativity than they do education, and that isn’t only within the school system but with the children as well. If you are creative and good at producing things with it, people like you and respect you. We see the opposite with Tommy in the beginning of the novel when he focuses on art yet isn’t great at it and is a bully victim by his peers, being left out from football among other things - this is the cause of many of his anger outbursts. The differences in our schools to clone schools helps us to see the different treatments of them to ‘normal’ people. It is further proven when later in the novel the reason for Hailsham encouraging creativity and collecting what they produced was revealed. They did this to prove that clones had souls. This solidifies the idea that clones are treated differently because the public has decided that they are soulless beings when in fact they are just as human as ‘real’ humans which is proven through their actions and reactions, how they crave love and intimacy, and show raw human emotion.
“What she said was that if I didn’t want to be creative, if I really didn’t feel like it, that was perfectly all right. Nothing wrong with it, she said.”
Tommy’s talk with Miss Lucy is a massive turning point for him. She tells him that creating doesn’t have to be a priority for him and that he shouldn’t worry about it. The effect this has on Tommy is extremely positive, initially it does have a slow effect but his perspective seems to change a lot. Tommy has fewer rages and learns to control his temper and that causes students to lose interest in picking on him because they no longer get the reaction they are looking for. From that point on Tommy had a better school life. Even though this is positive, it takes a turn when it nears the end of their school life because Miss Lucy panics and takes back what she told Tommy, urging him to focus on creating. This reminds us just how important creating is for Hailsham and makes us question a there being a deeper meaning it’s importance. It is revealed that they used their art to reveal if clones even had souls at all, and this creates a cruel atmosphere linger over Hailsham that was considered the ‘shining beacon’ of the clone world.
“And I can still see it now, the shudder she seemed to be suppressing, the real dread that one of us would accidentally brush up against her… But she was afraid of us in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders.”
Kathy, Ruth and a few of their friends make a plan to swarm Madame the next time she comes to visit Hailsham. They prepared perfectly and executed their plan just as they wanted to, but when they saw her reaction to them it knocked their confidence. She avoided touching any of them, acting disgusted by their being as she squeezed past them. We get to know our main characters who are clones so cannot imagine being so disgusted by them, but seeing the reaction of the people who created them makes us sick. Their ignorance towards the humanity of the clones due to their shame of the purpose of their existence emphasises the poor treatment of these vital beings in the survival of a sickness ridden world. Clones were created to help those with illnesses, it gave a cure to cancer and they were not willing to undo these inhumane measures because of the humanity of clones so instead chose to act as if they were alien, soulless beings who deserves nothing less than to be shut away from the world they were saving.
“There are people out there, like Madame, who don’t hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you - of how you were brought into this world and why - and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs.”
The public choose to ignore clones and label them as anything but human, drain them of souls and isolate them because they cannot bare the fact they are doing something so dreadful, taking the life of one to save another, giving one no choice but to give up their life. Clones were created with the sole purpose of being raised healthy and never fully away so that their organs could be harvested and used to cure someone’s illness. Even with such importance people are disgusted by their existence and choose to shut them out of their minds because they cannot fathom the thought of what the reality of the situation really is.
“I was never sure if Ruth actually invented the secret guard, but there was no doubt she was the leader.”
Ruth is a very strong character in this novel, and this is made very clear from the start. She is opinionated and outspoken, and tends to lead her friendship group in whatever they do. Ruth is the reason they get the pavilion to their self so often because she clears out the other students for her friend group. The Secret Guard was created sot act students could imagine themselves as ‘guardians’ in which they protected Miss Geraldine. They held a lot of secrets and Ruth liked to have fun, playing it off as if she and Miss Geraldine were very close. This make-believe protection group never had a written leader, but Ruth surely was the person in charge of it. This was a common occurrence at Hailsham and even continued into their lives at the Cottages. Ruth hated it when people went against her and didn’t follow her lead because it backed her into a corner, so she lashed out at whoever had done it. Sometimes Ruth was just bossy, but other times she took steps so that her friends could follow, so in hindsight she wasn’t always a bad leader, only a strong one, although many can argue that Ruth is deeply dislikable because she couldn’t not bare other people being in charge.
“But what you must understand is that for you, all of you, it’s much worse to smoke than it ever was for me.”
The importance of good health of the students at Hailsham is highlighted again with the strictness against smoking. Many people under the smoking age do smoke but this was particularly frowned upon at Hailsham because of how badly it affects your health. This is highlighted by how one of the guardians compares the risk of her smoking to the risk of the clones smoking, how it is much worse for them to smoke than it is for her. Organs from a smoker won’t be as healthy and appealing than completely healthy organs would be, so Hailsham make sure that their students are deterred away from touching cigarettes.
“The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and dare I say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.”
The theme of dishonesty is very prominent all throughout the novel, along with secrecy. At Hailsham they seemed to perfectly plan how they distributed information to their students about their purpose and carved out futures. They would tell them what they needed to know slightly too early so they took in the information but never truly understood it, so that when they came to the age wearer they could understand it was easier for them to accept and left them less likely to question it. Many people are happy with this because it gives them comfort in knowing there won’t be any clones rebellion because they don’t truly have an understanding of anything to want to rebel against the system. The cruel treatment of clones through being kept in the dark about almost everything about their lives makes us feel a strong sense of sympathy for our characters and strikes anger in us, the reader, because we want good long lives for characters we have grown to love instead of this injustice.
“Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults, then before you’re old, before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you were created to do… You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided.”
During a rainy day after overhearing some students fantasising about their future carers and life after Hailsham, Miss Lucy snaps and blurts out a lot to the students about her feelings about the clone situation and tries to explain to them the truth but they have been trained into not questioning it or even talking or thinking about it much either. There were a few unspoken topic at Hailsham such as their purpose and sex. Clones have their lives set up for them from before they are even created, each clone follows the same life pattern, one after the other, creation to completion, growing up and feeling just as humans, forming relationships and learning love, and then donating their vital organs until they die. It is the fact there is no escape to this life for clones that makes us feel so much anger for them because they do not get to live a full life, are regarded as soulless beings when they feel things some ‘real’ humans do not and yet clones are the ones that are shunned away and killed before they even reach middle age.
“Just talk to him. You’ve always had this way with him. He’ll listen to you. And he’ll know you’re not bullshitting about me… Tommy and I were made for each other and he’ll listen to you. You’ll do it for us, won’t you, Kathy?”
Ruth and Tommy become a couple during their later years at Hailsham which feels like a massive injustice to Kathy as the reader because we watch her develop a connection with the boy and before she can truly realise she likes him more than just a friend, Ruth swoops in and takes him. After the two break-up, rumour starts going about that Kathy is the next person for Tommy and Ruth doesn’t seem to like this, scrambling to get back with Tommy. She turns to Kathy for help which we find an even bigger injustice. Ruth convinces her to speak to him by using her connection with Tommy against her. Ruth is manipulative, and has always done what she needed to to have her way and make sure everything stayed within her control. Throughout the novel the reader gains a stronger disliking for Ruth due to her treatment of other characters, specifically our other two main characters Kathy and Tommy. Ruth seems to find many things a threat to herself, and one of these things was the potential of Tommy and Kathy, she admits later in the novel that she saw it was meant to be those two but purposely stepped in between it. Her horrible behaviour towards people she considers to be her friends makes her a very unlikeable character.
“And Tommy. I knew it wouldn’t last with Ruth. Well, I suppose you’re the natural successor.”
After Tommy and Ruth’s break-up people begin to stir up a rumour that Kathy is Ruth’s ‘natural successor’ and is the next person for Tommy. The reference to Kathy being a ‘successor’ makes us think of a throne and makes the reader consider how differently relationships are treated in Hailsham. Relationships aren’t shunned and sex isn’t an untaught subject - Hailsham teaches it’s students about safe sex and avoiding diseases because they cannot risk them becoming unhealthy or ruining their organs - and both do happen, but sex isn’t spoken about at all, the students have made it out as a forbidden topic. The Guardians can’t stop the students from having sex but try and keep it an unfelt with issue whilst they are on school grounds. They bore information about keeping perfect health and having sex right so that they don’t contract a disease because all clones have to have perfect health so that they can be used in their organ recycling programme.
“Come to think of it, I suppose you haven’t been that slow making friends with at least some of the veterans.”
During their time at the Cottages, Ruth and Kathy became distant as Ruth was chasing to fit in with the new surroundings and people whilst Kathy was keeping herself separate from the veterans. Whilst arguing Ruth makes a snark comments about how even thought Kathy doesn’t go out of her way to talk to the veterans, she has gotten to know some of them. Her comments was suggestive of the few sexual relationships Kathy had formed with some boys there, none of them lasting very long. Here we get to see how Ruth lashes out when backed into the corner, because before this Kathy was confronting her on how she had been changing whilst they were at the Cottages. After feeling as if she had no way to defend herself Ruth lashes out instead and verbally attacks Kathy instead of trying to talk about it maturely.
“If we were honest, though, particularly near the beginning, most of us would have admitted missing the guardians. 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.”
Hailsham created a good start of life for the clones that attended it, giving them a sense of identity and belonging through the things they gave them and encouraged; collections, creativity and a family. The Guardians were parental role models for the clones at this school, never being overly comfortable with them but they were all the clones had to consider as parents. When the clones left Hailsham they missed the comfortability and safety of the place and started to look for hints of it elsewhere. Keffers was the man who ran the Cottages but wasn’t fond of being looked at like that by the clones so that was a short lasting hope. On the other hand Hailsham had given it’s students one last assignment to complete for after they left and that was an essay which many of the students worked on at first but their attention slowly faded from it the longer they had been from Hailsham. No student finished it, not even Kathy who was desperate to keep connected to the only place she knew to be as home.
“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.”
At Hailsham Ruth and Kathy had been best friends and spent most of they time together, you could have said they would have taken on the world together because they looked out for each other at the end of the day even when they had their fights. When they got older and moved to the Cottages that seemed to change because Ruth seemed to be more interested in pleasing the veterans and fitting in with them then paying attention to her best friend and her boyfriend. Eventually Kathy gets sick of this and confronts Ruth on this which results in an argument where Ruth snaps back at Kathy, insulting her for not fitting in. We get to see the cruel side of Ruth even deeper now that she is older, it isn’t just petting but a knife in the back intended to cut deep. She insults Kathy, acting as if she is a child because she hasn’t made an effort to integrate within the Cottages. Ruth’s treatment of Kathy makes us feel anger and sympathy because we have grown to understand Kathy and like her character and so when Ruth crosses her due to being backed into a corner the reader tends to grow a disliking for her.
“You’re upset because I’ve managed to move on, make new friends. Some of the veterans hardly remember your name, and who can blame them? You never talk to anyone unless they’re Hailsham. But you expect me to hold your hand the whole time. We’ve been here nearly two months now.”
Kathy had an attachment to Hailsham. All she knew whilst growing up was that boarding school for clones, so Hailsham symbolises a home for her. It gave her a sense of belonging and gave her a family. So, when she moves to the Cottages she finds it hard to adapt to the new surroundings because of the comfort of her past living facilities. Ruth on the other hand has found herself changing so that she fits into the Cottages and with the new people there and Kathy isn’t happy about this because Ruth is beginning to lie and pretend to do this. We begin to see Kathy and Ruth’s friendship fall apart as Ruth becomes more accepted by the veterans whilst Kathy shrivels away from veterans and only holds conversations with anyone she had previously known from Hailsham. We see two opposing characters here; one who is confident and outspoken, whilst the other is observant and keeps to themselves. At times we come to be frustrated with these characters due to how strongly opposite they are and how difficult they are to understand yet we all act in similar ways.
“Okay, she often bluffed and implied all sorts of hints 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.”
Ruth has been the unspoken leader of her friendship group since they were young and this continued on into their life at the Cottages when they were adults. Due to this she feels the responsibility of helping her group take their next steps into whatever is next in their lives. With this, Ruth began adapting to the Cottages to help her friends. This did include pretending to know things and acting completely untruthful towards the veterans to please them. Sometimes she did things that went against her friends, making them embarrassed just so that she could fit in. This was unfair on her friends and could be seen as contradicting to her aim to help her friends adapt too. Kathy is strictly opposed to how Ruth is acting and decides to separate Ruth into two separate people so that she can enjoy whatever time alone she gets with Ruth. Ruth acts immaturely and pettily throughout the novel but here we get to see Ruth on a deeper level and sympathise with her for the pressure she puts onto herself. Knowing that Ruth has forced herself to mature quicker and make hard decision for the benefit of her friends makes us reconsider the cruelty of her character and reassess the motives behind all of her cruel acts against others.
