The novel I have studied is ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is a science- fiction novel. This novel certainly held my attention from beginning to end. It has a gripping plot, likeable characters, an effective style of writing and a series of themes.
The novel is set in England in the 1990’s at a school called Hailsham. It is an idyllic establishment deep in the English countryside. Here the children are sheltered from he outside world and brought up to think they are special. As the novel progresses we begin to see all is not as it seems.
The novel is told from the perspective of Kathy through flashback, who is now in her thirties. By using flashback I found that the author adds suspense and drama to the text. Kathy looks back at her life and memories of growing up with the other children at Hailsham School. The first part of the novel was hard to adapt to because it is very detailed and Kathy tells the story at her own pace. In my opinion the language used by Kathy is simple yet full of meaning.
'A little prefab building with a row of windows unnaturally high up, tucked almost under the eaves'
In my opinion Kathy portrays to the reader that something unsettling is going on under the surface and that some of the children are fearful of the outside world. I think it is possible to guess pretty early on what is going on, yet it is not till the end of the novel that you really see the whole picture. In a way I feel the novel creeps up on the reader.
Three central characters in the novel are Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. These three characters all have a unique relationship that I found interesting. From a young age Kathy in my opinion has resigned herself to being a rather passive observer of other people and the choices they make, instead of making her own. Tommy is an isolated young boy who through the course of the novel struggles to be creative. Tommy is the only character I felt empathy for throughout, perhaps because Kathy felt connected to him. He tends to be the main target for bullies. Ruth is a very opinionated person and she appears to be the centre of social activity in her year group, although I feel she is not as confident as she appears to be.
Although Kathy, Tommy and Ruth are portrayed to be the main characters of the novel, in my opinion they are only the visible ones. I feel the real main characters are invisible. The scientists who have facilitated the use of cloning and who have created an environment where their victims accept their fate without question, are the real main characters in the novel.
The cultural context in this text is rather scary and emotional. The children in Hailsham are assured death around twenty-five years of age without even knowing what lies ahead. I would not like to live in this idyllic world in England around the late 1990’s, as the children are born and bred to be killed for their vital organs. In other words to assure the longer life of another. My personal response to the novel is that no one be it male or female should be used as donors without their consent.
Kathy :'I dont think she meant that. What she was talking about was, you know, about us. What's going to happen to us one day. Donations and all that.'
We never see the scientists who use cloning as a form of organ farming in this novel, but I feel they are represented in the form of Miss Emily, the headmistress and the art-collecting Madame Marie-Claude.
Madame Marie-Claude : ' Oh thats lovely Kathy, I bet that'll get in the Gallery'
In a metaphorical way the students at Hailsham are like sheep as they are limited with whom they can interact with and they are born and bred for their organs. As the novel progresses I began to see that the children at Hailsham were being compared to the children outside the border we can see this through Madame Marie- Claude: ' There art work appears to be very similar to those outside'
I feel that Kazuo Ishiguro is an exceptional writer; his novel has affected me profoundly because of its literary genre. He uses a powerful work of literature:
'To get to the pond you went out the back entrance, and down the narrow twisting path, pushing by the overgrown bracken that in Autumn would still be in your way.'
I found that the pace of the novel is slow yet it adds to a powerful and moving plot. Ishiguro’s literary style examines the small moments rather than the main key moments. In my opinion this novel focuses on characterization and theme, therefore you are immediately swept into a world where the past is also the future. Ishiguro as you can see above pays particular attention to the stillness of nature. Nature in my opinion proves to be a major theme in the novel as it progresses.
There are some truly heart-breaking moments in the book and they really are fascinatingly told by Kathy's voice. There is something quite detached and haunting about Kathy's way of telling her story. Her voice is very clear and we read her as if she is telling her true life story herself. There is mature reasoning in how she recounts her life and her relationships with both Ruth and Tommy and from how she presents things, you realise things Kathy herself has no idea about yet. This in my opinion made the novel more enjoyable and appealing to me. I really enjoyed the way the reader in certain circumstances tends to be ahead of Kathy.
Before I read this novel there was word going round that the main body of the novel was based on cloning and being a clone. Through reading the novel I have developed my own interpretation of the text. I feel cloning is only used to create unique, symbolic situations and characters. In my opinion Kazuo Ishiguro is a clever writer because in this text he has created a world where the characters all want the reality beneath the words to be different from what it appears to be.
Tommy: ' I suppose your right Kath, you really are a good carer you really make a difference to what a donors life is actually like.'
Kathy tells us her memories of growing up in a strange boarding school called Hailsham, then of becoming a ‘carer’ for ‘donors’ until she eventually becomes a donor herself.
Two major themes explored in this novel are fate and love. Ishiguro presents us with a world where people are born to die, like sheep; there is no secret meaning to their fate. The realisation that they could have broken the rules easily and to their advantage only comes later in the novel, once it is too late. I found that even when the characters have grown up, they still don’t challenge the rules of society and don’t question their role in Hailsham society and the terrible fate that they will have to endure. I was shocked to have discovered that when they are in the moment, they are programmed not to question it. Unfortunately, I discovered that all students at Hailsham will never reach the point when they can look back and wonder why they did not resist their ultimate fate. They are programmed not to question their fate.
Another major theme in this novel is the theme of love. I think Kathy,Ruth and Tommy believe their friendship and love can save them from the horrible future that lies in their path.
But unfortunately it can not. Love can't save them anymore than it can save us today. They wonder, later, whether it would have been better for Ruth to die knowing the truth about Hailsham, about why they were raised the way they were, and about how little the world outside themselves cares about them.
Tommy says to Kathy: 'You and me, right from the start, even when we were little, we were always trying to find things out. Remember, Kath, all those secret talks we used to have? But Ruth wasn't like that. She always wanted to believe in things.'
'Never Let Me Go' is one of those books you shouldn't know anything about when you start reading. No one should tell you the spoiler or much about the plot: when talking to other people about this book, I realised that we had reacted very differently to the various characters and situations and I wonder if knowing someone's opinion of the book could have ruined the experience for me.
It's like asking whether, if the universe is truly as cold and meaningless as it seems to be. I feel the answer for each person is different. The theme of love has a durastic impact on the plot of this novel. I feel without the theme of love being a key theme in this novel the plot would not have been as gripping and appealing to the reader.
