Throughout the first few chapters, Kathy consistently returns to thoughts of her time at Hailsham. Even when talking about things closer to her present she finds herself veering back to Hailsham. She even notes on page five that, “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 cam a point where I just stopped resisting.” It’s interesting to think that at one point she wanted to stop thinking about Hailsham. She wanted to move on, but thoughts of Hailsham wore her down and broke her. For her to “stop resisting” shows that Hailsham has a powerful and possibly permanent hold on Kathy at this point.