I believe that the idea of loss serves as a source of haunting in this novel. From the beginning, Kathy, who is beginning to reach the end of her life, is grasping to her memories of the friends she’s had and the life she has lived as it all continues to slip between her fingers. This is supported by the way the narrative is told in a nonlinear manner with a restrospective focus. 

I believe the concept of deferrals was Kathy’s attempt at riding herself of this haunting, but it too supports the idea of loss and ultimately it’s inevitability. A deferral only provides a momentary extension of life, it is not an excuse or an exclusion from completion – or death. Which feeds into itself, because the foundation of the donation program is that people on the outside would be able to extend their lives with the students’ internal organs.

This novel really made me contemplate how haunting doesn’t have to just be from something that has passed, but from the impending passage of one’s time, one’s life or one’s relationships. Honestly, I believe this form of haunting is even more relentless than by that of something that is over. This because there is a sense of power in existing beyond whatever is haunting you from the past, but the idea that the source of your haunting exists after you pushed the fact that you will never be rid of its ominous presence and the fear it may cause. I think the best way to sum up this novel is the fear and endless truth that the phrase Momento Mori provides: Reminder that you will die. 

The students have less time than their counterparts in the outside world; yet their lives contain the hopes, joys, disappointments, and sorrows that defines humanity. Despite their good intentions, both Miss Emily and Madame feel revulsion towards the students whose lives they seek to improve. Kathy, meanwhile, shares the memories of her loved ones with dignity. Her narrative speaks for itself, showing the depths of her humanity in ways that Madame and Miss Emily are not capable of doing.

Theme

One of the most predominant themes in this novel, as we mentioned last class, is the power of memory. Kathy uses her memories to cope with the losses she as had in her life, Ruth, Tommy and Hailsham. The novel depicts the strong sense of holding on that people have when they lose a loved one. This is especially relevant in the title, Never Let Me Go, which seems to be both a demand and a plea from those lost in the novel. Kathy remembers her losses through her somewhat fragmented memory, as she tries to deal with and understand the aftermath of these losses. Never Let Me Go, highlights the good and bad of memories through Kathy’s narration, emphasizing how they help us hold on to those we have lost. This ties in with our overall theme of haunting because Kathy is so affected by her past and memories that it is keeping her from moving forward in her life.

Near the beginning of chapter twelve, Kathy talks about the “possibles” each of the people living in the cottages were copied from. She notes that her and the others would look for evidence of their models because they wanted to see where they came from. They wanted to see a glimpse into their future based on what their model did in life. This struck me as odd that they would think about their futures that way, because early in the novel Miss Lucy told the children at Hailsham that their lives were already mapped out for them, and that they knew their place in life was to be donors and carers. This was when Kathy was much younger than she is when she is at the cottages, so for them to still be fantasizing about their futures based on their models seems strange. 

Kazuo Ishiguro incorporates elements from many different genres in his novel, Never Let Me Go. There are elements of romance between Kathy and Tommy. It is a Bildungsroman in the sense that it follows these children from their early education into adulthood. And, it is a science fiction novel. The fact that Ishiguro borrows from so many different genres can make it hard to determine where his book fits in. But based on the strong science fiction elements, particularly the scene in which Kathy and Tommy believe they see the woman who Ruth was cloned from, it is possible to determine that Never Let Me Go is science fiction above all else. 

As with all other genre elements that can be found in this novel, the science fiction elements are subtle. Unlike most sci-fi stories, we aren’t given a detailed explanation up front about how the laws of science work in this world. Instead, the reality of donors and their possibles (that is, people who exist to donate their vital organs and the people they were cloned from) is slowly revealed to the reader. The author first provides a detailed explanation when Miss Lucy decides to tell the children what their fates will be when she overhears a couple of students discussing the idea of becoming movie stars. The second time in the novel that the reader is given a good idea of this concept of donor/possible is when Tommy and Kathy believe they see Ruth’s possible. 

Following this scene, we learn that possibles are (possibly) the people from whom donors like Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth were cloned. This makes two major “scientific” revelations that occur over the course of the novel. While there are elements of romance, Bildungsroman, and other genres, the only genre element that is consistent throughout the book is science fiction. The Bildungsroman ends once the children grow up and enter adulthood and the romance subplot between Kathy and Tommy ends once Tommy has accepted his fate and calls off their relationship, dying from a donation shortly after. 

However, we have the introduction of the first science fiction element in part one of the book when Miss Lucy telling the kids the truth about their futures. In the second part, we have another science fiction element with Ruth’s possible. As science fiction is the one thread that consistently runs through the different parts of this book, it is possible to categorize Never Let Me Go as science fiction. 

“Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that? If we’re just going to give donations anyway, then die, why all those lessons? Why all those books and discussions?” (Ishiguro, 259)

Kathy is asking these questions about the importance of her actions at Hailsham but this priniciple also can be applied to the real world. It opens the door to discuss whether living your life well is worth it considering the inevitability of death. Should impending death diminish or augment ones will to live a great life. Madame and Miss Emily would advocate that although one is predestined for an early death, the need to acquire knowledge is not in vain.

 Culture/Society

    In the end of Never Let Me Go, Kathy and Tommy learn from Madame and Miss Emily that there is no way for them escape their duties as clones, they have no choice but to accept the roles that were placed onto them by society. Their bleak lives in adulthood makes them yearn for their past lives in Hailsham, when things were simpler and innocent. Ishiguro showed us a world that is not much different from our own. I think that this is a reflection on our society and how as we grow older we learn that we must do certain things, not because we want to but because it is expected of us as adults. We have rules and standards implemented on us as adults, which makes us look back when things were easier and when society didn’t expect much from us. Hailsham was the only place of comfort they ever had before facing the harsh reality of their futures as being donors and carers and it disappeared, but still stays in their memories. Kathy realizes the importance of holding onto those memories of her childhood because those memories are the only things that connects her to Hailsham and everyone she lost. 

While Reading Never Let Me Go, I couldn’t help but compare Kathy to both Mrs. Dalloway and Saleem, as both Kathy and Mrs. Dalloway are haunted by their memories which are closely tied to their friends, but, like Saleem, Kathy’s memories are admittedly fragmented. Telling and recounting her memories function as a way to preserve aspects of the past after it has gone, whether that be her friends, Hailsham, or a broken gift from a friend. The song “Never Let Me Go”, the novel’s namesake, is reflective of this. It is a song about coping with the human fear of losing the ones you love.

“It was never true. Even before the Morningdale scandal. even back when Hailsham was considered a shining beacon, an example of how we might move to a more humane and better way of doing things, even then, it wasn’t true”(258).

It’s laughable that the guardians actually believed that their cause was humane. It’s also terrifying how realistic this book feels, how it’s not that unlikely that this could happen in our world as technology and medicine continues to improve. It’s disturbing that the guardians are able to rationalize their cause, that the world they live in accepts children being bred for organ donation, as if that makes perfect sense. The people accept it without any hesitation because they view these children as less than human, even though these children have feelings, hopes, and dreams.

The guardians actually believe that they provided a decent life for these children, but these children never really had a life at all. Sure they had a nice place to live and were able to act as normal children, their destines were predetermined. The guardians gave them false hope, letting the children believe that they actually had a choice. The most horrifying part of this novel is how easily the guardians and the rest of the world rationalized breeding children for organ donation.

More on memory, there is a continuous motif occurring throughout the novel. One of pretending/fantasy and one of loss. Ultimately, after all the loss that she has suffered, Kathy’s only remaining fantasy is of seeing Tommy again. Her fantasy is to recover what she has lost but this leads back to the theme of memory. Only in her memory can she recover what’s been lost. As they grow older and lose the innocence of childhood, the fantasies wane, and the memories are all that remain. Kathy is both haunted by her past, her memories, and her future, as are the other organ donors who had wild imaginings of their future careers though their fates were inevitably decided.