Never Let Me Go key quotes

Question 1

“I accepted the invisible rein she was holding out, and then we were off, riding up and down the fence”

Answer 1

Kathy talking about Ruth
Chapter 4
Shows Ruth’s dominance, power dynamics

Question 2

“The earlier years-the ones I’ve been telling you about-they tend to blur into each other as a kind of golden time (…) I can’t help feeling a sort of glow”

Answer 2

Chapter 7
Ishiguro explores ideas about memories -> how relationships evolve

Question 3

“I checked each models face before moving on”

Answer 3

Kathy trying to find her possible (page 132)

Frightened of her sexuality, convinced she must be modelled from a pornographic model. Hints to the reader that Kathy too feels the need to search for her identity

Question 4

“Tommy seemed to become aware for the first time just how frail she was”

Answer 4

Tommy and Kathy on the way to visit Ruth (p.218) become aware of her physical deterioration
Foreshadows the terrible future that awaits them all and adds a note of urgency to what follows

Links to Ishiguros ideas about love and mortality

Question 5

“Poor creatures. I wish I could help you. But now you’re by yourselves”

Page 267

Answer 5

Madame struggles to express her helpless anguish
Themes of loss/death as she knows they have no future

Question 6

“You’ve been told and not told”

Page 79

Answer 6

Miss Lucy’s summary of the Hailsham policy that gives the students short term fulfilled lives without ever properly spelling out the future honestly. Themes of education