Never Let Me Go - Character Essay Flashcards
The experience of Kathy’s donors
“My donors have always tended to do much better than expected. Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as ‘agitated’, even after the fourth donation.”
“My donors have always tended to do much better than expected. Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as ‘agitated’, even after the fourth donation.”
Kathy has been a carer for a very long time. Over this time she has acquired a lot of skill and the ability to pick her own donors. With this she is able to provide the best care for her patients. Donors go through four major donations of their vital organs but many complete before the fourth, some not even surviving the first. The experience of donors shows just how cruel and inhumane the donation process is because it is unavoidable for clones and causing their deaths. The donation process is extremely difficult and unthinkable in our world, but knowing how harsh it is we find it slightly unbelievable that Kathy is so good at her job that she is able to make that better for her patients.
Tommy’s polo-shirt
“What I do remember is that I noticed Tommy was wearing the light blue polo shirt he’d got in the Sales the previous month - the one he was so proud of.”
“What I do remember is that I noticed Tommy was wearing the light blue polo shirt he’d got in the Sales the previous month - the one he was so proud of.”
Kathy is a very observant character and finds herself noticing details and watching social settings instead of involving them. Proof of this is how she remembered and recognised Tommy’s - a boy who she is not friends with - favourite polo shirt which he was ruining during a fit of rage. She does try and help Tommy during his rage to prevent any more mud shattering over his shirt, but in that moment Tommy is not appreciative of it. While this interaction shows Kathy’s attentiveness it also symbolises Tommy and Kathy’s relationship because this is their first interaction which leads to their friendship blooming.
Narrator memory
“This was all a long time ago so I might have some of it wrong.”
“This was all a long time ago so I might have some of it wrong.”
‘Never Let Me Go’ is a novel which follows the recollection of Kathy’s memories, starting from her time as a child at Hailsham. She admits to us in the early parts of the novel that she could be remembering some of the occurrences wrong, and this comes up other times when she and Ruth or Tommy remember things different. There is a reoccurring theme of dishonesty in the novel, and although she claims it is due to memory and time, we can never be truly sure is Kathy was being truthful about this. At points we find Kathy being sly and so cannot cross off the idea of her changing stories to change the perception of the ‘victim’ in the situation.
Tommy doesn’t need to be creative
“What she said was that if I didn’t want to be creative, if I really didn’t feel like it, that was perfectly all right. Nothing wrong with it, she said.”
“What she said was that if I didn’t want to be creative, if I really didn’t feel like it, that was perfectly all right. Nothing wrong with it, she said.”
Tommy’s talk with Miss Lucy is a massive turning point for him. She tells him that creating doesn’t have to be a priority for him and that he shouldn’t worry about it. The effect this has on Tommy is extremely positive, initially it does have a slow effect but his perspective seems to change a lot. Tommy has fewer rages and learns to control his temper and that causes students to lose interest in picking on him because they no longer get the reaction they are looking for. From that point on Tommy had a better school life. Even though this is positive, it takes a turn when it nears the end of their school life because Miss Lucy panics and takes back what she told Tommy, urging him to focus on creating. This reminds us just how important creating is for Hailsham and makes us question a there being a deeper meaning it’s importance. It is revealed that they used their art to reveal if clones even had souls at all, and this creates a cruel atmosphere linger over Hailsham that was considered the ‘shining beacon’ of the clone world.
The Secret Guard’s leader
“I was never sure if Ruth actually invented the secret guard, but there was no doubt she was the leader.”
“I was never sure if Ruth actually invented the secret guard, but there was no doubt she was the leader.”
Ruth is a very strong character in this novel, and this is made very clear from the start. She is opinionated and outspoken, and tends to lead her friendship group in whatever they do. Ruth is the reason they get the pavilion to their self so often because she clears out the other students for her friend group. The Secret Guard was created sot act students could imagine themselves as ‘guardians’ in which they protected Miss Geraldine. They held a lot of secrets and Ruth liked to have fun, playing it off as if she and Miss Geraldine were very close. This make-believe protection group never had a written leader, but Ruth surely was the person in charge of it. This was a common occurrence at Hailsham and even continued into their lives at the Cottages. Ruth hated it when people went against her and didn’t follow her lead because it backed her into a corner, so she lashed out at whoever had done it. Sometimes Ruth was just bossy, but other times she took steps so that her friends could follow, so in hindsight she wasn’t always a bad leader, only a strong one, although many can argue that Ruth is deeply dislikable because she couldn’t not bare other people being in charge.
Ruth asking Kathy to help her get back with Tommy
“Just talk to him. You’ve always had this way with him. He’ll listen to you. And he’ll know you’re not bullshitting about me… Tommy and I were made for each other and he’ll listen to you. You’ll do it for us, won’t you, Kathy?”
“Just talk to him. You’ve always had this way with him. He’ll listen to you. And he’ll know you’re not bullshitting about me… Tommy and I were made for each other and he’ll listen to you. You’ll do it for us, won’t you, Kathy?”
Ruth and Tommy become a couple during their later years at Hailsham which feels like a massive injustice to Kathy as the reader because we watch her develop a connection with the boy and before she can truly realise she likes him more than just a friend, Ruth swoops in and takes him. After the two break-up, rumour starts going about that Kathy is the next person for Tommy and Ruth doesn’t seem to like this, scrambling to get back with Tommy. She turns to Kathy for help which we find an even bigger injustice. Ruth convinces her to speak to him by using her connection with Tommy against her. Ruth is manipulative, and has always done what she needed to to have her way and make sure everything stayed within her control. Throughout the novel the reader gains a stronger disliking for Ruth due to her treatment of other characters, specifically our other two main characters Kathy and Tommy. Ruth seems to find many things a threat to herself, and one of these things was the potential of Tommy and Kathy, she admits later in the novel that she saw it was meant to be those two but purposely stepped in between it. Her horrible behaviour towards people she considers to be her friends makes her a very unlikeable character.
Baby sister Kathy
“So that’s it, that’s what’s upsetting poor little Kathy. Ruth isn’t paying enough attention to her. Ruth’s got big new friends and baby sister isn’t getting played with so often.”
“So that’s it, that’s what’s upsetting poor little Kathy. Ruth isn’t paying enough attention to her. Ruth’s got big new friends and baby sister isn’t getting played with so often.”
At Hailsham Ruth and Kathy had been best friends and spent most of they time together, you could have said they would have taken on the world together because they looked out for each other at the end of the day even when they had their fights. When they got older and moved to the Cottages that seemed to change because Ruth seemed to be more interested in pleasing the veterans and fitting in with them then paying attention to her best friend and her boyfriend. Eventually Kathy gets sick of this and confronts Ruth on this which results in an argument where Ruth snaps back at Kathy, insulting her for not fitting in. We get to see the cruel side of Ruth even deeper now that she is older, it isn’t just petting but a knife in the back intended to cut deep. She insults Kathy, acting as if she is a child because she hasn’t made an effort to integrate within the Cottages. Ruth’s treatment of Kathy makes us feel anger and sympathy because we have grown to understand Kathy and like her character and so when Ruth crosses her due to being backed into a corner the reader tends to grow a disliking for her.
Ruth moving on at the Cottages
“You’re upset because I’ve managed to move on, make new friends. Some of the veterans. hardly remember your name, and who can blame them? You never talk to anyone unless they’re Hailsham. But you expect me to hold your hand the whole time. We’ve been here nearly two months now.”
“You’re upset because I’ve managed to move on, make new friends. Some of the veterans hardly remember your name, and who can blame them? You never talk to anyone unless they’re Hailsham. But you expect me to hold your hand the whole time. We’ve been here nearly two months now.”
Kathy had an attachment to Hailsham. All she knew whilst growing up was that boarding school for clones, so Hailsham symbolises a home for her. It gave her a sense of belonging and gave her a family. So, when she moves to the Cottages she finds it hard to adapt to the new surroundings because of the comfort of her past living facilities. Ruth on the other hand has found herself changing so that she fits into the Cottages and with the new people there and Kathy isn’t happy about this because Ruth is beginning to lie and pretend to do this. We begin to see Kathy and Ruth’s friendship fall apart as Ruth becomes more accepted by the veterans whilst Kathy shrivels away from veterans and only holds conversations with anyone she had previously known from Hailsham. We see two opposing characters here; one who is confident and outspoken, whilst the other is observant and keeps to themselves. At times we come to be frustrated with these characters due to how strongly opposite they are and how difficult they are to understand yet we all act in similar ways.
Kathy’s sexual relationships
“Come to think of it, I suppose you haven’t been that slow making friends with at least some of the veterans.”
“Come to think of it, I suppose you haven’t been that slow making friends with at least some of the veterans.”
During their time at the Cottages, Ruth and Kathy became distant as Ruth was chasing to fit in with the new surroundings and people whilst Kathy was keeping herself separate from the veterans. Whilst arguing Ruth makes a snark comments about how even thought Kathy doesn’t go out of her way to talk to the veterans, she has gotten to know some of them. Her comments was suggestive of the few sexual relationships Kathy had formed with some boys there, none of them lasting very long. Here we get to see how Ruth lashes out when backed into the corner, because before this Kathy was confronting her on how she had been changing whilst they were at the Cottages. After feeling as if she had no way to defend herself Ruth lashes out instead and verbally attacks Kathy instead of trying to talk about it maturely.
Ruth’s reaction Kathy’s sexual urges
“What you’re saying does sound a bit weird, Kathy. But maybe it’ll calm down after a while… it does sound a bit weird. But it’ll probably go away. It’s probably just to do with the different food we’re eating here.”
“What you’re saying does sound a bit weird, Kathy. But maybe it’ll calm down after a while… it does sound a bit weird. But it’ll probably go away. It’s probably just to do with the different food we’re eating here.”
We get a real sense of how bad a friend Ruth is by how much she lied to Kathy, someone who was supposed to be like a sister to her. Kathy is going through a difficult time with understanding her strong sexual urges, and instead of being honest with Kathy, Ruth decides to lie to her and make it out as if this isn’t normal making her best friend far more paranoid than was ever necessary. There is a key theme of secrecy in this novel and one main example is the secrets kept between Ruth and Kathy. They are both responsible for keeping things from one another and causing this tension between them. Nearing the end of the novel Ruth comes to terms with how horrible she was as a person and apologises to Kathy, explaining that she isn’t expecting forgiveness. We see massive character development in Ruth but is that really enough to excuse horrible actions built up over years?
Ruth pretending at the Cottages
“Okay, she often bluffed and implied all sorts of hints I knew weren’t true. Sometimes, as I said, she did things to impress the veterans at our expense. But it seems to me Ruth believed, at some level, she was doing all this on behalf of us all.”
“Okay, she often bluffed and implied all sorts of hints I knew weren’t true. Sometimes, as I said, she did things to impress the veterans at our expense. But it seems to me Ruth believed, at some level, she was doing all this on behalf of us all.”
Ruth has been the unspoken leader of her friendship group since they were young and this continued on into their life at the Cottages when they were adults. Due to this she feels the responsibility of helping her group take their next steps into whatever is next in their lives. With this, Ruth began adapting to the Cottages to help her friends. This did include pretending to know things and acting completely untruthful towards the veterans to please them. Sometimes she did things that went against her friends, making them embarrassed just so that she could fit in. This was unfair on her friends and could be seen as contradicting to her aim to help her friends adapt too. Kathy is strictly opposed to how Ruth is acting and decides to separate Ruth into two separate people so that she can enjoy whatever time alone she gets with Ruth. Ruth acts immaturely and pettily throughout the novel but here we get to see Ruth on a deeper level and sympathise with her for the pressure she puts onto herself. Knowing that Ruth has forced herself to mature quicker and make hard decision for the benefit of her friends makes us reconsider the cruelty of her character and reassess the motives behind all of her cruel acts against others.
