Symbols and Imagery in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Cassette
Meanings
When Kathy is a child at Hailsham, she comes across a cassette by Judy Bridgewater, the song the speaks to her the most is "Never Let Me Go"
- Ups and downs of life
- Lack of freedom
- Impossibility of changing fate
- Refuge
- Shared past
- Abandonment
There are 3 meanings to the song:
- Kathy's
- The novel's
- Madame's
Norfolk the "lost corner"
The Boat
When Kathy was younger, there was an inside joke that Norfolk was "something of a lost corner" (65). Everything that anyone lost or left behind in England would end up there.
While Kathy is caring for Ruth, they take a trip to Tommy's recovery centre and visit an abandoned boat in the middle of a marsh
Synopsis
Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy get to spend time in Norfolk while living at the Cottages
- Some other clone residents at the Cottages think they find Ruth's "possible" in Norfolk
- Kathy and Tommy find a copy of the Judy Bridgewater cassette in Norfolk
Never Let Me Go is set in a dystopian world in which human clones are created so that they can donate their organs as young adults. Kathy is now thirty one and about to start her first donations; spending her remaining time looking back at her experience growing up at Hailsham, the Cottages and her time with best friends Ruth and Tommy.
Water Imagery
Meaning
Water can be found all throughout this novel, especially towards the end
- abandoned by society
- reflects human tendencies
- appropriate place to search for Ruth's possible
- Tommy feels he is being ripped away from Kathy by a strong current (282)
- Miss Emily refers to changing "tides" of public opinion (262, 264)
- Kathy takes Tommy and Ruth to visit an abandoned boat
- Ruth has a dream that Hailsham has flooded
"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