Never Let Me Go

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-13

Part 2, Chapters 14-17

Part 3, Chapters 18-20

Part 3, Chapters 21-23

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Quiz

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Meaning of Life

Never Let Me Go is a reflection on the lives of three people that searches for meaning and purpose by examining their memories within extraordinary situations. Kathy looks back on her life and the lives of her friends Ruth and Tommy in an attempt to understand more about their lives as clones whose only purpose seems to be to donate their organs and then die. The novel asks whether the love, the friendship, and the experiences of these clones provided them with purpose and meaning throughout their lives.

The clones’ search for a meaningful life takes place on very narrow terms. They are taught about donations and completion from a young age but always in vague, difficult-to-understand terms. The result is that the cloned children grow up with an internalized view of society working exactly as it does. The clones lack the critical capacity to view society in any other way, so any searching for meaning is based on the acceptance of donations and completion. No clone ever fights back against the system itself. They accept the purpose that is imposed on them, and the most they seek is a deferral. They cannot conceive of a society or a life that does not end with organ donation and an untimely death. Every question about purpose and meaning tacitly accepts the purpose that is imposed on the life of a clone by an uncaring society.

The society tries to question whether clones might be considered human but cannot conceive of a life that is not a commodity. Miss Emily and Madame gather the children’s art to show evidence of humanity, but they sell the art to the highest bidder. Value comes from the price paid for the artwork without any questioning of the person who produced the art. This sales process commodifies the clones’ souls and turns the search for purpose in life into a search for funding. The question of whether clones have a meaning in life is not open to the clones themselves. All they can do is provide novelty artwork to be sold. The guardians try to find purpose in their own lives by exploring the meaning of the clones’ lives. Miss Emily, Madame, and Miss Lucy make in their life’s work to raise the children in such a way that their lives might have purpose. The nurturing of the clone children gives their life direction and meaning, but it comes at the expense of the system. Just like the clones donate organs in later life, the children donate purpose and meaning to the guardians.

Fate and Love

Kathy and Tommy seem destined to be together but spend most of their lives apart. The novel explores the concepts of fate and love in an effort to understand what motivates the characters and what keeps them so distant from one another. The bond between them forms when a young Kathy is the only person at Hailsham to show any sign of affection to Tommy. They share their feelings with one another and seem to understand one another on a deep, spiritual level. Kathy is fascinated by Tommy, and he is affectionate toward her, but both of them are reserved, introverted people who struggle to express themselves. They are kept apart by their inability to express their feelings for one another. Kathy loves Tommy, and her love is a positive influence on his life, but their love does not come to fruition because of circumstances and the characters’ personalities. Fate conspires against love and keep the two characters apart.

Ruth enters into the dynamic. Ruth is manipulative, affectionate, scheming, and chaotic. She seizes the opportunity that Kathy does not and makes explicit her feelings for Tommy. Ruth and Tommy have a tumultuous romantic relationship that is more defined by their ability to hurt one another than by their ability to make one another happy. They settle into a comfortable rhythm in both Hailsham and the Cottages that is seemingly doomed to fail. Ruth never has the sense that she and Tommy are perfectly matched. Theirs is a relationship of convenience, and she begins to destroy the relationship when she realizes that Tommy might have ruined his chances at a deferral. By this point, all Tommy has to offer Ruth is the capacity to hurt Kathy. Ruth wields his affection as well as her bond with Kathy in order to hurt both of them. By the time they leave the Cottages, Ruth has destroyed their relationship and ruined their opportunity for love. This destruction has seemed predestined ever since Ruth became involved. Ruth is fated to attack love because she does not understand it.

At the novel’s resolution, Ruth apologizes and encourages Tommy and Kathy to be together. Her apology stems from her realization that she will die soon. Her inevitable fate has forced her to reflect on her life and her understanding of love. Ultimately, Kathy comes to a similar conclusion. She realizes that the three of them, rather than any particular pairing, are meant to be together. She believes that fate entwines all three and, though love complicates matters, she wishes they could be together forever. Fate eventually brings Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy to a better understanding of love, though at a time when it is too late to act.

The Cost of Progress

The fate of the clones is a product of the cost of progress. Miss Emily explains that the cloning and organ harvesting program was established in the aftermath of war at a time when technology was rapidly improving. The rapid rate of progress meant that there was no time to discuss the cost of the progress. The cures for terrible diseases were revealed to the public before discussions were had about the cost, and by the time anyone started to have any doubts about the morality of the cloning program, society had already accepted the death of the clones as a reasonable cost. The cost of scientific progress is that clones are denied a full and complete life. The love denied to Tommy and Kathy is a cost that society is willing to pay in exchange for the cures to various medical issues.

Places such as Hailsham are an attempt to illustrate the cost of progress. The school seeks to prove that cloned children are just as capable and important as their non-cloned counterparts. The art they produce is intended to show that the children have a depth of emotion that might be termed a soul. Hailsham is a tragic failure, however, and society is still willing to pay the cost despite the best efforts of people like Miss Emily. The cost is dismissed because the benefits of progress are so resounding.

The clones’ own attempts to come to terms with the cost of progress consist of trying to bargain with an uncaring society. Theories such as the existence of deferrals demonstrate that the clones entirely accept the benefits of their suffering for the greater good of society and so they only ask for a few extra years to experience love. Even this small request is too high a cost. Society does not want to think about clones’ capacity for love as doing so might be a tacit acknowledgement that the clones are human rather than resources to be plundered.

Eventually, everything is subsumed into the wider fight for progress, and the characters exist at the mercy of these advancements. Kathy knows that she will have to become a donor eventually as this is the course of her life as dictated by society. The tragic consequence of her progress as a carer is that she gets the opportunity to watch her loved ones die. Kathy ultimately pays the heavy cost for progress while society turns a blind eye. Even in terms of losing loved ones, the clones pay more of a cost for the progress of society than society ever will.