Never Let Me Go Quotes Flashcards
‘There have been times over the years when I’ve tried to leave Hailsham behind […] but then there came a point when I just stopped resisting’
This quote is when Kathy is introducing herself at the beginning of Chapter 1. It shows how she is obsessed with the past which is also the key area for the novel. Her memory of Hailsham acts as a basis for all her other memories and recollections in her life. In this quote, Kathy also affirms that she has tried to stop looking back, and that point when she stops resisting is when one of her donors asks her to share her memories of Hailsham. Kathy also recognises how lucky she was to grow up at Hailsham
‘If we’d left it at seeing the woman through the glass of her office […] more we heard and looked at her, the less she seemed like Ruth.’
This quote is when they visit Norfolk in chapter 14 to try and find Ruth’s possible. This quote shows the paper-thin nature of the rumors and speculation that sustain the students’ hopes.( like the deferrals). These rumors hold up from afar, but crumble when scrutinized from up close. The disappointing truth about Ruth’s possible foreshadows the disappointment that Kathy and Tommy will face in their pursuit of a deferral.
‘As far back as I can remember. But I kept you apart. I’m not asking you to forgive me for that’
This quote is in chapter 19 when Ruth admits that it was meant to be Kathy and Tommy who were in a relationship. Her speech is candid and straightforward, which is somewhat exceptional for Ruth. She also directly takes responsibility for manipulating Kathy and Tommy, which she has not done in the past.
‘I can see now, too, how the Exchanges had a more subtle effect on us all’
Friendship quote. At Hailsham, friendships crop up around the art the students create. There’s a really important phrase Kathy uses here—”being dependent on each other.” To Kathy, this dependency is a good thing and helps build camaraderie
‘But at other times, I think that’s wrong—that it was just to do with me and Ruth, and the sort of loyalty she inspired in me in those days’
Friendship quote - This shows Kathy’s loyalties towards Ruth even though she kicked her out of the secret guards
‘We were quarrelling over all kinds of little things, but at the same time we were confiding in each other more than ever’
Friendship quote - Shows true friendship as sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad which reflects a true friendship and one that a reader would be able to associate with.
‘A part of me keeps wishing we’d somehow been able to share everything we discovered with Ruth’
Friendship quote - The image Kathy gives us here of Ruth on one side of a line with Tommy and herself on the other is a pretty powerful one. It makes Kathy sad that when this trio is divided up into duos, someone inevitably gets left out
‘you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand’
Lies quote - This shows the way in which the clones are constantly lied to or “told and not told” in many situations.
‘Tommy thought it possible the guardians had, throughout all our years at Hailsham, timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us’
Lies quotes - Shows that the guardians like to put infomation into the clones heads without them realising. Some readers may see this as a way of protecting them or they may see it as being unjust and creul. As well as being manipulative.
‘You know, Ruth, we might be coming here in a few years’ time to visit you. Working in a nice office. I don’t see how anyone could stop us visiting you then.’
Lies quotes - Another example of how the clones are lied to. They are made to believe that they will find their double at some point in their life and Ruth seems to believe this even though it is not true.
‘we kept things from you, lied to you. Yes, in many ways we fooled you. I suppose you could even call it that. But we sheltered you during those years, and we gave you your childhoods’
Lies quotes - Shows that the teachers were hiding things from them but their justification was because they wanted to give them a childhood. This also shows how artifical their lives were that they had to be given a childhood rather than just living one.
‘My name is Kathy H. I’m thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years’
Identity quotes: Shows that Kathy doesn’t really have her own individual identity she is just another clone like everyone else. The author starts the book with the protagonist’s identity and one may argue that this is because identity to humans in general is important emotionally and evolutionarily. Kathy’s identity is proven by her name, age and career, the only ways to direct prove identity as a clone
‘Our models were an irrelevance’
Identity quotes: even though the clones have some form of free will and independance. Without their possibles they couldnt be alive. It also shows how they aren’t their own person as they are copies of someone else. They may think independently but they physically look like someone else
‘It’s just that sometimes, every now and again, I get these really strong feelings when I want to have sex. […] That’s why I started thinking, well, it has to come from somewhere’
Identity quotes: The clones find it hard to understand that they are not their own person and that their personality traits actually stem from their possible. It also means that they are never actually able to understand themselves and don’t treat themselves as their own individual they just assume that however they feel or however they act this is because of the possible.
