1. Never Let Me Go quotation discussion slides
Wednesday, 14 November 2018

2. What is the effect of the voice Kathy uses here?
“I don’t know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham we had to have some form of medical almost every week.”
Kathy, Page 13
Would Kathy be surprised that we question the lack of rebellion in the novel?

3. Why does no one intervene?
“Then there were rumours almost every day of pranks that had been played on him. ... I thought sooner or later someone would start saying it had gone too far, but it just kept on, and no one said anything.”
Kathy, Page 15
Does this link with the lack of rebellion?

4. Rules prohibiting affection
“Didn’t we all dream from time to time about one guardian or other bending the rules and doing something special for us? A spontaneous hug, a secret letter, a gift?”
Kathy, Page 60
Might this allow for the sex act to be seen as a form of unconscious rebellion?

5. To acknowledge or to ignore?
“If you’re to live decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you.”
Miss Lucy, Page 81
Kathy does know – nevertheless, how does she respond to impending death?

6. Too much knowledge?
“We all know it. We’re modelled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren’t psychos. That’s what we come from. We all know it, so why don’t we say it?”
Ruth, Page 166
Does Ruth have evidence for this or is it suggestive of something else in the clones’ attitude?

7. Nature or nurture?
“Something in me just gave up. A voice went: ‘All right, let him think the absolute worst. Let him think it, let him think it.’ And I suppose I looked at him with resignation, with a face that said, ‘Yes, it’s true, what else did you expect?’”
Kathy, Page 195
Kathy disassociates herself from her surrender – is this because of the inevitable fate, or does it make it inevitable?

8. Avoiding the issue?
“The fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task. If we’d understood that back then––who knows?––maybe we’d have kept a tighter hold of one another.”
Kathy, Page 197
Was it fate, or was it Kathy’s own actions…?

9. Biased viewpoints
"Why would he know? ... How could he possibly know what Chrissie would have felt? What she would have wanted? It wasn't him on that table, trying to cling onto life. How would he know?"
Ruth, Page 226
How might we be misjudging Ruth?

10. Why do we write 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?”
Kathy, Page 259
What is the “purpose” of education?

11. Miss Emily explains…
“I can see ... that it might look as though you are simply pawns in a game. It can certainly be looked at like that. But think of it. You were lucky pawns. There was a certain climate and now it’s gone. You have to accept that sometimes that’s how things happen in this world.”
Miss Emily, Page 266
Does this satisfy – does the quotation have a bearing on Ishiguro’s view of human life and attitudes?