Essay
People believe that we can control our lives, but the fate of our lives cannot be completely controlled by us. In Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Tommy and Kathy think they can control their lives, until they realize that there is no deferral.
Never Let Me Go is set in the late 1900’s, in the epigraph states of Britain, where humans are cloned in order to provide donor transplants. The main character, Kathy H and all of her schoolmates have been designed in order to donate their organs. Kazuo Ishiguro uses unreal medical terminology throughout the book, such as “carer” and “donor.” These words take away any sense of independence that these characters may have. These words label them and imply that these things are their only uses in life, to be donors or caregivers. At first, Kathy H works as a “carer,” someone who comforts “donors” as organs are removed from their bodies. Eventually, after several extractions, the “donor” is lead into “completion.” The story is divided into three parts. The first section takes place at Hailisham, an unconventional boarding school, where poetry and art are more important than life skills. Kathy H meets Tommy and Ruth, and the three quickly form a close bond, which eventually turns into a love triangle later in their adult life. In the second section, the trio, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth, become young adults and move from Hailisham to “cottages” and are allowed to roam the free world and learn on their own.
Towards the end of Never Let Me Go, there is a scene when Tommy’s animal drawings are brought into the picture. After Tommy asks what Kathy, his caregiver, thinks of one of his drawings, she thinks to herself, “I realized immediately this was Tommy’s way of putting behind us everything that had happened around his drawings back at the Cottages, and I felt relief, gratitude, sheer delight was telling me he wasn’t complacent, and that he was busy getting on with his part of the preparation.” “So that