Last updated on October 6, 2020
Never Let Me Go was published in 2005. In this book, we follow 3 characters through the stages of their life.
Three Main Characters …
The three main characters are Tommy, Ruth and Hannah. Tommy screams and shouts at the world. He wants everything to be different than it is but he has no notion of how to make any changes. Ruth confidently controls anything that she can, and gives the illusion of greater control than she has. Hannah occasionally defies Ruth, but mostly she is stuck in indecision. She is not sure whether she wants to change the course of her life. Or perhaps she does want that but accepts it’s a futile endeavor and instead accepts whatever happens, especially the machinations of Ruth.
… in Three Parts
We first meet Ruth, Tommy and Hannah at boarding school, Hailsham, somewhere in England. It is an insulated existence, where they live within the confined of the campus where the teachers are guardians. They have few interactions with anyone outside. We learn about each of the characters and about their life at Hailsham. We begin to realize that there is something special about Hailsham and the students who attend school there. This lays the groundwork for us to understand Tommy, Ruth and Hannah and the path that their life will take.
In part two, the friends move outside the bounds of the school where they live in homes created especially for them. This is where we explore what makes them different or special. We see their interest in discovering their origin story, to find out who they are, why they have been brought up as they were, and what is the purpose of their life. The other characters that we meet are from other schools as well, so Hailsham is part of a larger system.
In part 3, we learn more about the carers and donors. Two key characters, Ruth and Tommy, get a chance to speak to some of the leaders of the system, including an old guardian. They gain some insights into their upbringing for example why the guardians encouraged them to be creative. They also learn that they have no opportunity to change their fate. Tommy vents at the world but Ruth accepts her fate. Tommy encourages Ruth to fulfil her destiny and become a carer more quickly, so she requests to do this.
Final Thoughts on Never Let Me Go
There is no big reveal in Never Let Me Go. The concept of donors and carers is clear. Who is human with a soul and are the special people human? This is one of the main themes of the book. We never find out who controls the special people and who decides the fate of each of them. While we find out what happens from childhood to death, we do not know where the special children came from. Were they cloned from healthy people or are they the offspring of sex workers and criminals. Ishiguro does not explore the ethical dimensions of the system. One interesting question raised by this book is whether art reveals the nature of a person’s soul.
Perhaps I’m judging Never Let Me Go by what I’d like it to be rather than what it can be. It was interesting in the way of a case study. It could be interesting for a book club discussion.
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