The Ending

After finishing Never Let Me Go I have a much different opinion about the novel. I felt like throughout the book I was always confused and had at least a hundred questions that were never answered. Then in the last twenty pages almost every question was answered and the whole story became clear to me. I was also very surprised by the ending. I had pictured a happy ending where there would be something good happening to the main characters, but the exact opposite happened. When Tommy and Kathy went to see Madame asking for a deferral because they were in love I had hoped that maybe they would get a deferral, and Kathy would be shown that good things can happen in her life. However, the explanation that Madame and Miss Emily gave saddened me greatly, and finally made me realize the point of the novel. The author is trying to show the stark contrast between the idea that these clones are just science experiments and the fact that they are real people. Even at the end when you know how hard Madame has fought to make the lives of clones' better she doesn't see them as human, even though they really are. We can see this when she says "You poor creatures" to the Tommy and Ruth (272).  When Tommy dies the reader sees the opposite view though. Kathy is crying over Tommy because she loved him and she will never forget the memories they made during their lives. Her tears show the reader how truly human these clones are. 

The Lying Game

Now that things have started to pick up, I'm starting to understand a lot more about the personalities certain characters.  In the last few readings, Ruth has really been developed as a character, and I can see now why she and Kathy have such a complex relationship.  The beginning of the book shows Ruth's tendency to lie, and that has only become more pronounced now at The Cottages.  I don't think however, that her dishonesty is really intended to be malicious.  At Hailsham when Ruth lies about where she got her new pencil case and insists that Miss Lucy gave it to her, I think she's trying to fill some desire for love.  The students at Hailsham are clones and so their existence comes from only one other person, meaning that they have no parents.  Even worse, they have no connection to that original (or "possible").  So I can definitely see why Ruth feels the need to lie.  This theory is further supported I think by the lie Ruth tells Chrissie and Rodney about "deferrals".  I'm a little confused by this concept, but I think it means that before becoming a carer, it is possible for students to be together if they are in love.  Although Kathy and Tommy are annoyed by the fact that Ruth pretends that this is true for Hailsham students, I took it more as a little sad.  I feel like Ruth is trying to delude herself into believing it is true because of an inner longing for the possibility of love.  I think this comes from both the restrictions placed upon couples during adolescence, and also from the absence of any real family.  The students seem to put a lot of importance on who their "possible" is.  When Ruth sees someone who may have been her clone, it's a cause for a lot of excitement.  It also causes some more negative emotions when it turns out that the possible is not her clone.  The fact that Ruth is so upset by the mistake shows a lot about her hidden need for some confirmation of her identity.

What Is So Special About Hailsham Students?

Now that we are finally half way through Never Let Me Go I feel like the plot has really started to pick up. Every night it seems that the author reveals more and more about donors and what they really are. We have found out that the students at Hailsham are special because they are cloned from other people and raised so that they can donate their organs when they are older. However, with all of the things that we learn about the students there seem to be even more questions about them. 

One of the biggest changes in the novel's plot has been the change in setting. At the beginning of the book the main characters were at Hailsham where they lived up until they turned 16. Since then the main characters have moved to a place called the Cottages where they have met other kids like themselves who have come from places other than Hailsham. At the Cottages they are treated much differently than some of the other students and they are rumors going around about Hailsham students being 'special'. There have been some hints about 'deferrals' as something that only Hailsham students can do, but not much else. I am hoping that soon we will find out more about what make Hailsham students so special and different. 

Never Let Me Go Introduction Questions

         The first fifty pages of Never Let Me Go have been pretty confusing since the narrator is writing about things that are happening in a much different world than the one we live in while telling the reader very little about what these things mean or what is going on. I believe part of the reason the narrator doesn't explain what different events and actions mean is because she is directing her story towards someone who lives in this society. The narrator explains things that happen at the school but not things that have to relate to the society as a whole, such as what donating means. At the beginning of chapter two the narrator says, "I don't know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham...", which makes it seem like the people she is speaking to are from her own society (13). While this is a very interesting style for a novel it also leaves the reader with many questions. Even though we are only fifty pages into the book I already have many questions. Some of my questions are: What does donating mean? Why are these children not with their parents? Why are they so isolated from the world? Why is Madame scared of the children? I'm sure that I will have more questions as the book continues, but I'm hoping that some of my questions also get answered.

Introduction Response

I am still a bit confused with the setting of this book. I know that the school is called Hailsham, but I am still not entirely sure why it is called that, or where in the world it is located. I read a plot summary on this book before reading it, so I know that these characters are involved in cloning, but the book hasn't revealed that to us yet. I don't understand how anybody would comprehend what was happening in this book if they didn't also read the summary. The characters "donate" themselves, and if I didn't know they were using cloning, I would be confused.
 I also found it strange that the characters have things called "exchanges", where their artwork is sold among the other people in their school. They are given tokens; the amount depends on how much the guardians think their art is worth, and then they spend this money on other people's art. This whole process doesn't really make sense to me, but I look forward to learning more about this process, and learning about the cloning that takes place.