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.