Never Let Me Go - Chapter 1
Important Quotations
“My name is Kathy H”
Short sentence. Suggests a lack of identity
“I’m thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years.”
First person narrator. Reveals that the narrator faces mortality.
“But then I do know for a fact that they’ve been pleased with my work”
Suggests some sort of unknown presence, could be a controlling government/state.
“Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as ‘agitated’ even before fourth donation.”
Straight forward language with an absence of similes and metaphors.
“And I’m a Hailsham student - which is enough by itself sometimes to get people’s backs up”
A slow reveal of information - there is a slight identity reveal.
“I’ve heard it said enough, so I’m sure you’ve heard it plenty more, and maybe there’s something in it.”
Reveals that the narrator is a reflective narrator
The narrator also addresses an unspecified reader who is expected to already know things.
“I might see the corner of a misty field, or see part of a large house in the distance”
Pathetic fallacy - connotes mystery and secrecy. Suggests the unknown.
“…and I’ll think: ‘Maybe that’s it! I’ve found it! This actually is Hailsham!’ The I see it’s impossible”
Short exclamativ
A sense of yearning, she craves to go back to Hailsham, however, she realises that its hidden away. Makes it seem mystical, like a dream.
“…little white prefab buildings with a row of windows unnaturally high up, tucked almost under the eaves”
Foreboding
A slightly unsettling feeling.
However because Kathy is an unreliable narrator she presents other schools in a negative light in order to uplift Hailsham.
“We loved our sports pavilion”
Repeated use of the shared pronoun ‘ours’. Sense of possessiveness.
“But the next second Ruth gave a little laugh and said: ‘The idiot!’”
Alliteration - they treat Tommy like a spectacle, like he is a form of entertainment. They enjoy themselves at his expense. They have no sympathy for him.
Exclamative - emphasises the insulting language used to refer to him. Emphasises the fact that Ruth does not see the other boys as being cruel, but rather Tommy as benign stupid.
“We were gathered around the windows at that moment not because we relished the prospect of seeing Tommy get humiliated yet again, but just because we’d heard about this latest plot and were vaguely curious to watch it unfold.”
Semantic field of ridicule - reveals that they do not care about how Tommy is affected, they just want to witness his tantrum.
“…mimicking one after the other the expressions that appeared on Tommy’s face as he ran, waved, called, tackled.”
Dynamic movement.
They mock Tommy, reinforcing the fact that they use him for their own entertainment.
“This time Ruth heard me, but she must have thought I’d meant it as some sort of joke, because she laughed half-heartedly, then made some quip of her own.”
Suggests that it seems ridiculous if someone genuinely cares about Tommy, and that it sounds like a joke.
“There was something comical about Tommy at that moment, something that made you think, well, yes, if he’s going to be that daft, he deserves what’s coming.”
They degrade everything that he does, or enjoys, and make him into a sort of caricature. To them, he seems stupid for wanting to participate and do something.
“…the boys, now laughing openly,…”
Reveals that they provoke him for their own entertainment.
“…at first we just rolled our eyes and tried to ignore it, in the end…we were back up at the windows again.”
They see his tantrums as nonsensical but amusing.
“He was just raving, slinging his limbs about, at the sky, at the wind, at the nearest fence post. Laura said he was maybe ‘rehearsing his Shakespeare’.“
Dynamic movements.
Violent mannerisms - suggests a lack of control.
They don’t care that he is upset, they simply want to mock him.
“Someone else pointed out how each time he screamed something he’d raise one foot off the ground, pointing it outwards, ‘like a dog doing a pee’.”
Simile - inhumane physicality, dehumanises him, presents him as a rabid animal.
“‘I suppose it is a bit cruel’, Ruth said, ‘the way they always work him up like that. But it’s his own fault. If he learnt how to keep his cool, they’d leave him alone.’”
Short sentence.
Acknowledge the fact that it's unkind, but justify seeking entertainment from it by blaming him.
“‘…The reason they go for Tommy’s because he’s a layabout’”
Suggesting that it’s his fault, rather than the boys that are bullying him
“Then everyone was talking at once, about how Tommy never even tried to be creative, about how he hasn’t even put anything in for the Spring Exchange.”
Slow reveal of information. Suggests that creativity is everything to the clones, and because Tommy isn’t creative, he is isolated and othered.
“Mad animal.”
Short sentence.
Animal imagery - dehumanises Tommy, makes him seem like a rabid animal with no self control; portrays him as borderline uncivilised.
Relevant Notes
- This scene garners the reader’s sympathy for Tommy.
- He is presented as the Other’s other.
- It also shows how the clones mirror human life, and that they also create a hierarchy in their ‘civilisation’.
Context
- The genre of Never Let Me Go is bildungsroman and a dystopian text.
- Features of a dystopian text:
- The created dystopian world is usually a reflection of real life, as it mirrors real issues and events.
- The stories are typically set in the near future, near past or in an alternative present.
- The Settings of the dystopian world usually are close to real life, but with subtle changes that makes them unnerving.
- Society is strictly stratified and rigidly controlled.
- Freedom, information and independent thought are restricted.
- There is some sort of controlling government present, but is not fully known.
- The citizens of the dystopian world are under constant surveillance.
- There is usually some sort of disaster or significant p[problem that has occurred. For example, a population boom, a population crash, or some sort of environmental disaster.
- The citizens of the dystopian world are expected to conform to uniformity, and the prospects of individuality and dissent are seen as bad and are frowned upon.
- The dystopian society is an illusion of a perfect Utopian world.