Character Analysis: Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro wrote Never Let Me Go to express his thoughts on today’s society search for an identity. Through out the book we see everybody searching for their own identity and they believe finding the person they were cloned after will show them who they are. He uses the book to relate to today’s society progress in identifying themselves, and makes an analogy being human in the 21st century with being a clone. This comparison is an example of us; we are all looking for our own identity, but we are not looking at our inner self but by our peers and idols.
Kathy is the main protagonist, she and her friends are clones. Sadly, there lives were already spun, measured and cut by the fates, for their only job is to donate their vital organs.
After Hailsham, Kathy and her friends stay at the Cottages, where Ruth sees all of the veterans have secret ways of communicating with each other. For example, many of the veteran couples gently slap their partner’s elbow to say goodbye, eventually Ruth spots this and she begins to do the same action with Tommy. In search of her own identity, Ruth latches onto this custom to feel a sense of similarity to all the people around her. Just like today, to fit in society all of us follow the social norms in order to feel accepted. In addition, during Kathy’s Norfolk trip, she and her friends go on a search for Ruth’s “possible” in order to see who Ruth truly is. As they talk about Ruth’s “possible” Kathy states “One big idea behind finding your model was that when you did, you’d glimpse your future” (140). So by finding the person they were cloned after, they felt it would teach them who they were meant to be. In addition, later in the novel she narrates the idea once more. “The person you were copied from, you’d get some insight into who you were deep down, and maybe too, you’d see something of what you life held in store” (140) This idea of finding your “possible” gave them a purpose, and what they found, they hoped it would mold their