NLMG Ending Analysis Flashcards
“The Kingsfield”
- irony - king is something of value - contrasted to the lives of the donors
- Their organs have value though
“The buildings look more like wasteland”
- symbolic of the lives which the donors lead
“Held in wire-mesh fences” ‘The Square”
- imprisoned
- name of the prison
- slaves to their destiny > their whole life is a prison
“Scraping through all the nettles and brambles”
- symbolic of hardships the clones go through
“It was really foggy” - K+T walk
- pathetic fallacy
- fog represents lack of reasoning Kathy has.
- She doesn’t understand Tommy because she is not a donor
“He stopped next to the fence and stared at the blank fog on the other side”
- metaphor for death
- something better on other side? Or nothing?
“And it’s what Ruth wanted too”
- Kathy puts this reason last.
- Suggests Tommy has more respect for Ruth’s desires than her own
- undermines K+T’s relationship
- Kathy is an unreliable narrator
“Ruth wanted that other thing for us”
- their relationship is “that other thing” suggests he doesn’t view it as love.
- Unequal power. Tommy is dependent on Kathy
- Relationship not based on love, uncomfortable
“I’m the one to help you” - after T talks about Ruth
“Ruth wanted the other thing for us”
- Ruth has now died, and I’m the only one left who can help you.
- Not a strong relationship
- Suggests Tommy doesn’t want the relationship
- Wants to leave
“A palm pressed against the wire-mesh fence”
- trapped in relationship
- Kathy making him feel worse
“Listening intently to the sound of the traffic somewhere beyond the fog”
- fog represents death
- looking for an escape like Tommy > wanted to move towards death
“Kath, sometimes you don’t see it. You don’t see it because you’re not a donor”
- are we (believe in free will) different to donors
- they have a destiny they don’t fight, that society sets out for them
- is our free will real?
“The way he’d divided me off yet again… from him and Ruth”
“This never turned into a huge fight though”
- Kathy realises how Tommy prefers Ruth to her
- Suppresses everything. Do we fight for what we believe in? English trait - Partly Japanese Ishiguro criticising that
“As we were sitting in the dull light”
“On the edge of his bed”
- symbolic of relationship created by Kathy
- Tommy wants to escape
“The donors will all donate, just the same, an then they’ll complete.”
- Realistic view of life?
- Utilitarian view
- Our society? > putting older people in homes like the donors who aren’t useful
“You’d be the perfect one for me too if you weren’t you”
- Irony
- You’d be a perfect carer if you were a donor and went through the same things
“Though we kept sitting side by side”
- no affection
“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast”
- river symbolises death
- like the river Styx in Greek mythology.
- to go through the river was to forget the living.
“They’ve got to let go, drift apart”
- symbolic of title
- Circular structure
“Little-Hampton” - madame house
- no significance despite them finding out about deferrals
“Surprisingly tranquil”
“Tommy listening to me read”
- waiting for the end, no passion
- Kathy dominant
“Doodled away for new animal ideas while I read from the bed”
- Tommy has negative view > turned to animal instinct
- Kathy has positive view > like Ishiguro, a writer?
- Books will never let you go like Hailsham
“December afternoon”
“Everything was as Norma”
- tommy given up on life.
- Kathy keeps fighting, is this the best approach?
“Tommy, are you glad Ruth completed before finding out everything we did in the end?”
- K brings up R in final conversation
- Reveals her jealousy and knowledge he values R more than K
