Never let me go

Kathy

Kathy H. is the novel’s protagonist and narrator. She is a thirty one-year-old carer at the beginning of
the novel, although she is preparing to soon become a donor. Kathy has worked as a carer for nearly
twelve years, much longer than most of the students with whom she grew up at Hailsham. Although
she is still a relatively young adult, she has outlived most of her childhood friends. Kathy spends her
days looking backwards, recalling her memories of the people that she has lost. Through these
memories, the novel traces her complex relationships with her Hailsham friends Tommy and Ruth.
Kathy’s reflections also preserve the memory of Tommy and Ruth, both of whom have already
“completed.”

However, Kathy is also an unreliable narrator. Her account is subjective, presenting events from only
her point of view. She does not recall events in strict chronological order, frequently interrupting one
memory to share a related memory from another period in her life. She often states that she may be
misremembering certain details. At times, she also admits that Tommy or Ruth recalled a particular
event or conversation differently than she does. These idiosyncrasies reflect the unreliability of
memory itself, which is necessarily incomplete and episodic. At the same time, Kathy is also an
unreliable narrator because she carefully guards her own feelings. Kathy never explicitly states the
depths of her feelings for Tommy, for instance, although her love becomes increasingly clear as the
narrative unfolds.

Her recollections express her nostalgic longing for the past, as well as her fierce desire to hold onto
the memory of her childhood friends Ruth and Tommy. Kathy tends to restrain her emotions, often
expressing her feelings only indirectly. She frequently assumes the role of quiet observer, contrasting
with Ruth’s more fiery personality. Kathy is also an unreliable narrator, and her memories are
marked by omissions as well as subjective opinions.

Kathy’s memories likewise show her reliance on silence and indirection, especially when it comes to
expressing her emotions. For instance, Kathy often expresses her anger with Ruth by walking away
rather than explicitly confronting her. As a student at Hailsham, Kathy exhibits restraint and self-
consciousness. She often worries about being seen or overheard, especially in conversation with
Tommy. Kathy also frames herself as a careful observer. She often stands outside the action in her
memories, carefully watching those around her and noticing subtle details about their behavior. At
the Cottages, for instance, Kathy realizes that many of the veteran couples have copied their gestures
of affection from television.

Ruth

Ruth is Kathy’s close childhood friend. Kathy lives with Ruth at Hailsham and at the Cottages, and
later becomes Ruth’s carer when Ruth is a donor. At Hailsham, Ruth is outspoken and hot-tempered.
She is a natural leader among her friends, although she is often highly controlling as well. Ruth is a
foil to Kathy’s quieter and more guarded personality, and the two argue frequently. But like Kathy,
Ruth generally quarrels using subtle hints and indirection rather than direct confrontation. As a

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teenager, Ruth also begins a longstanding romantic relationship with Tommy. This is an underlying
and unspoken source of tension in her friendship with Kathy, who has romantic feelings for Tommy
as well.

At Hailsham, Ruth often leads her friends in make-believe games. Her most elaborate invention is the
“secret guard,” dedicated to protecting her favorite guardian Miss Geraldine from an imaginary plot.
The fantasy of the secret guard shows Ruth’s controlling personality, but it also reflects her larger
tendency to “pretend” around her peers. Ruth often implies that she has special knowledge and
privileges unavailable to other students. For instance, Ruth hints that she receives special favors from
Miss Geraldine. This habit annoys Kathy, who usually suspects that Ruth is lying and quarrels with her
over it. However, Ruth’s pretending also shows her earnest desire to believe in hopeful possibilities.
At Hailsham, her hints about Miss Geraldine reflect her longing for affection from a caring adult. At
the Cottages, Ruth indulges in the fantasy of her “dream future” and pins her hopes on the vague
story of her “possible,” or a person who resembles her and from whose DNA she may have been
cloned, in Norfolk.

Ruth can be capricious and unkind to both Tommy and Kathy. In her attempts to fit in at the
Cottages, she often ignores and mocks both of them. However, Ruth has the capacity for deep
generosity and thoughtfulness as well. When Kathy loses her Judy Bridgewater tape at Hailsham, for
instance, Ruth marshals their classmates to search for it and then gifts her a different tape as a
substitute. Later, Ruth also offers Kathy and Tommy the gift of Madame’s address, which
demonstrates Ruth’s inherent hopefulness because that she believes Kathy and Tommy still have the
chance to ask Madame for a deferral on their donations. Through the offering of Madame’s address,
Ruth shows her sincere desire to make amends for keeping Kathy and Tommy apart.

Tommy

Tommy is Kathy’s close childhood friend, for whom she also harbors romantic feelings. At Hailsham,
Tommy becomes an outcast among his peers because, unlike them, he lacks artistic ability. He
develops a violent temper, often throwing tantrums in response to teasing from his peers. Tommy
remains anxious and self-conscious about his artistic abilities as a young adult, initially keeping his
artwork a secret at the Cottages. However, he also begins to derive pride and personal satisfaction
from drawing. His compelling imaginary animals resist interpretation, reflecting the deep humanity
and complex individuality of the clones themselves.

Tommy is in many ways more straightforward than Kathy and Ruth, often missing the subtle digs and
sarcasm that they shoot back and forth. While Kathy often knowingly defends Ruth’s pretenses in
front of others, Tommy usually expresses his confusion or doubt aloud. He also lacks the kind of
emotional restraint that Kathy and Ruth exhibit. While Kathy and Ruth tend to express their angers
and frustrations indirectly, Tommy is prone to violent temper tantrums. Yet Tommy also has vey
different relationships with Ruth and Kathy. He maintains a longstanding but difficult romantic
relationship with Ruth, who at times belittles and ignores him. Meanwhile, he bonds with Kathy over
their mutual desire to discover the truth about Hailsham. Tommy tends to trust Kathy with his
biggest secrets, including his odd conversations with Miss Lucy. In his theorizing with Kathy, Tommy
also shows an observant and reflective side to his personality that mirrors her own.

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Miss Lucy

One of the guardians at Hailsham. Miss Lucy has a brisk but sympathetic attitude, and works mostly
with the older students. She is conflicted about her role at Hailsham, where she believes that the
guardians are not explicit enough with the students about their futures. Her frustration often results
in odd behavior, including visible flashes of anger.

Miss Emily

The head guardian at Hailsham. Miss Emily is older than the other guardians, and the students
generally find her intimidating. However, they respect her decisions and her presence at Hailsham
makes them feel safe. Miss Emily has a stern demeanor and a sharp intellect, although she lapses at
times into a dream-like daze. When Tommy and Kathy encounter her again as adults, Miss Emily is
self-satisfied and complacent about her failed charitable work on behalf of the students.

Miss Geraldine

A kind and sympathetic guardian at Hailsham. Miss Geraldine works primarily with the younger
students. The students adore her, and Ruth in particular wants her favor. Miss Geraldine teaches art
classes, and inadvertently encourages the other students to tease Tommy when she praises his
childish watercolor.

Madame (Marie-Claude)

A Hailsham benefactor. Madame occasionally visits Hailsham to take away the best student artwork,
which she is rumored to place in a personal gallery. Her attitude to the students is distant and cold,
leading them to believe that she is afraid of them.

Chrissie

A veteran student who lives at the Cottages, and Rodney’s girlfriend. Chrissie did not attend
Hailsham, and seems to be in awe of the Hailsham students. She is kind and welcoming when they
arrive, but Kathy correctly suspects that that she has a hidden motive. Chrissie hopefully clings to the
possibility of a deferral on donations, rumored to be available to Hailsham couples in love. She forms
a natural alliance with Ruth, who also bases her hopefulness about the future on rumor and
speculation. Chrissie later “completes” on her second donation.

Rodney

Another veteran who lives at the Cottages, and Chrissie’s boyfriend. Friendly and easy-going, Rodney
wears his hair in a long ponytail and likes to talk about reincarnation. Although Kathy finds Rodney
likeable, she also senses that he is generally under Chrissie’s influence. Rodney did not attend
Hailsham. Together with Chrissie, he turns to the Hailsham students for help in pursuing a “deferral”
on their donations.

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Laura

A Hailsham student who later moves to the Cottages with Kathy. Laura is an energetic and
mischievous girl at Hailsham, where she is part of Kathy and Ruth’s friend group. But when she later
reconnects with Kathy as a carer, Laura is exhausted and worn down. Laura encourages Kathy to
become Ruth’s carer.

Hannah, Alice

Another Hailsham students who move to the Cottages with Kathy.

Harry C

A Hailsham student with whom Kathy briefly considers having sex as a teenager.

Keffers

The gruff caretaker at the Cottages.

Ruth’s Possible

An unnamed woman who works at an open-plan office in Norfolk. Kathy and her friends initially
believe that she resembles Ruth, suggesting that the woman might be Ruth’s “possible,” or the
person from whose DNA Ruth was cloned.

Martin

A carer who lives in Norfolk. Martin used to live at the Cottages, and is friends with Rodney and
Chrissie. Although he never appears in the novel, Rodney and Chrissie take Ruth to visit him after
their failed search for Ruth’s possible.

Full book summary

Never Let Me Go takes place in a dystopian version of late 1990s England, where the lives of ordinary
citizens are prolonged through a state-sanctioned program of human cloning. The clones, referred to
as students, grow up in special institutions away from the outside world. As young adults, they begin
to donate their vital organs. All “donors” receive care from designated “carers,” clones who have not
yet begun the donation process. The clones continue to donate organs until they “complete,” which
is a euphemism for death after the donation of three or four organs. However, this premise is not
immediately apparent to the reader. At the start of the novel, narrator Kathy H. merely introduces
herself as a thirty-one-year-old carer. She has been a carer for nearly twelve years, but will leave her
role in a few months. Kathy explains that she wants to revisit her memories of Tommy and Ruth, two
friends who grew up with her at the Hailsham school. Kathy does not explain the donation program,
or mention that Hailsham students are clones.

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Although Kathy’s narration is often nonlinear, the novel’s three parts roughly align with three stages
in her life. In Part One, Kathy remembers her childhood at Hailsham. She describes her friendship
with Ruth, whose temperamental personality contrasts with her own quiet demeanor. ------>

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At Hailsham, Ruth often annoys Kathy by pretending to have special knowledge and privileges. Kathy
also describes Tommy, a student known for throwing violent temper tantrums. Tommy is initially an
outcast among his peers because he lacks artistic ability, which the Hailsham staff (part teacher, part
parent figures known as “guardians”), and its students value highly. Kathy sympathizes with Tommy,
and tries to calm him down during one of his tantrums. Tommy later learns to control his temper
after a guardian named Miss Lucy assures him that it is not necessary for him to be creative.

Although the students learn vaguely about the donation program, their guardians shield them from a
full understanding of their future. Miss Lucy disagrees with this indirect approach, and often exhibits
strange behavior in front of the students as a result, in one instance telling them explicitly about their
futures. After Miss Lucy speaks with Tommy about his artwork, he and Kathy theorize that creativity
may be connected to donations. They speculate about Madame, a woman who visits Hailsham to
collect the best student artwork. Madame is rumored to keep this art in a personal gallery. Kathy
later encounters Madame in the girls’ dormitory, while Kathy dances to the song “Never Let Me Go.”
The song is Kathy’s favorite track on Songs After Dark, a Judy Bridgewater album that is one of her
most prized possessions. When the song ends, Kathy sees Madame crying in the doorway. Shortly
afterwards, Kathy loses her tape. Tommy’s temper returns during their last summer at Hailsham.
Kathy thinks he is upset about his recent breakup with Ruth, whom he has dated for six months. But
Tommy is upset about Miss Lucy, who recently told him that she was wrong to dismiss the
importance of creativity. Miss Lucy departs Hailsham abruptly, and Tommy mends his relationship
with Ruth.

In Part Two, Kathy moves with Ruth and Tommy to a transitional housing facility known as the
Cottages. They adjust to their new lives, becoming acquainted with the “veteran” students living
there already. Ruth often ignores Tommy and Kathy in her efforts to blend in with the veterans, who
are not from Hailsham. Kathy notices that the veterans regard the Hailsham students with awe. One
couple, Chrissie and Rodney, are especially interested in Hailsham. They convince Ruth to go with
them to Norfolk, where Rodney claims to have seen Ruth’s “possible” in an open-plan office (a
“possible” is a human that resembles a specific clone and from whom that clone's DNA may have
been copied). Kathy is skeptical of Rodney’s story, especially since it features Ruth’s “dream future”
of working in an open-plan office. In the end, Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, Rodney, and Chrissie all drive to
Norfolk.

In Norfolk, Chrissie and Rodney ask about a rumored exception allowing Hailsham couples in love to
defer their donations. Ruth pretends to know something about deferrals, which surprises Kathy and
Tommy. The students eventually find the open-plan office. Rodney points to a woman in the window,
and they all agree that she could be Ruth’s legitimate possible. They follow her to an art gallery,
where they realize that the woman does not actually resemble Ruth. In her disappointment, Ruth
says that the students are modeled only on “trash.” Ruth goes off with Chrissie and Rodney.
Meanwhile, Tommy and Kathy find a copy of Kathy’s lost tape in a secondhand store. Tommy tells
Kathy that he has begun drawing pictures of imaginary animals. He thinks Madame uses the
students’ artwork to determine if couples applying for deferrals are truly in love. After Norfolk, Ruth
stops talking about her dream future. Tommy shows his drawings to Kathy, who finds them puzzling
but captivating. Meanwhile, Kathy’s friendship with Ruth grows increasingly tense. Ruth reveals that
she knows Kathy likes Tommy, but says that Tommy will never return Kathy’s feelings. Shortly
afterwards, Kathy submits her application for carer training and departs.

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Part Three focuses on Kathy’s time as carer. While Kathy is good at her job, the work is both difficult
and lonely. She unexpectedly runs into a Hailsham friend named Laura, who is also a carer. They talk
about Ruth, who had a bad first donation. They also talk about Hailsham, which has closed. Kathy
becomes Ruth’s carer, but their relationship is strained and guarded. One day, Ruth expresses a
desire to visit a beached fishing boat near Tommy’s recovery center. They pick up Tommy on the way
to the boat, which they find bleached and crumbling in a marsh. The marsh reminds both Tommy and
Ruth of Hailsham. They also discuss Chrissie, who completed on her second donation. On the return
trip, Ruth apologizes for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart. She encourages them to pursue a deferral,
revealing that she has discovered Madame’s home address. In the weeks that follow, Kathy and Ruth
reminisce peacefully about Hailsham and the Cottages. Ruth also encourages Kathy to become
Tommy’s carer.

Ruth completes after her second donation. Tommy gives his third donation, and Kathy becomes his
carer. They spend their days reading and talking at his recovery center. Eventually, they also begin to
have sex. Hoping to pursue a deferral, they go to visit Madame at the address Ruth provided.
Madame invites them inside and listens to their request, after which Miss Emily appears from the
next room. Miss Emily says that deferrals do not exist. She explains that Hailsham was part of a
progressive movement committed to raising clones more humanely. Madame used to exhibit the
students’ artwork to show the outside world that clones had souls. Although the movement once
had many supporters, changing public opinion eventually forced Hailsham to close. On the drive back
to his recovery center, Tommy asks Kathy to pull over. He walks into the woods and begins
screaming. Kathy goes to Tommy and holds him. Soon after, Tommy gives his fourth donation and
completes. Kathy drives to a field in Norfolk, where she allows herself to imagine Tommy on the
horizon. Then she drives away.

Part one : 1 – 9 / Part two : 10 – 17 / Part three : 18 - 23

Summary : Chapter 1

Kathy H., the thirty-one-year-old narrator, introduces herself as a “carer.” She explains that she has
held this job for almost twelve years, although she will be leaving it in about eight months. Kathy
takes pride in her work, noting that the “donors” for whom she cares are rarely agitated and tend to
recover quickly after giving donations. As a result, she has gained certain privileges including the
opportunity to choose her donors. Kathy says that other carers may resent her for this, especially
since she tends to choose donors who attended Hailsham. She explains that this is how she
reconnected with her childhood friends Ruth and Tommy. Kathy used to resist the urge to look back
on her school days. Then, one of her donors made a bad first donation. In the days before he
“completed,” he asked her repeatedly for stories of Hailsham and refused to talk about his own
apparently grim childhood. This experience made Kathy realize how lucky she and her friends were to
attend Hailsham.

Kathy sees many reminders of her school days while driving around the country, including sports
pavilions that look like the one at Hailsham. She recalls an afternoon at Hailsham when she was
about twelve years old. In the memory, Kathy is lounging in the Hailsham pavilion with Ruth and a
few other girls. The pavilion is a favorite hideout where they can gossip away from the eyes of their
“guardians.” Through the window, they watch a group of boys refuse to pick Tommy for a football

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(soccer) game in order to provoke him into a temper tantrum. The girls gossip about how Tommy has
never tried to be creative in their art classes. Meanwhile, Kathy worries that Tommy will ruin his
favorite blue polo shirt as he stomps around in the mud. She walks over to Tommy and tries to calm
him down, ----->

but he continues to flail his arms and accidentally hits her in the face. Kathy points out that his shirt is
covered in mud. Tommy brushes off her concern, but then seems to regret it. Kathy returns to her
friends, feeling frustrated and aware that the other students are watching her.

Summary : Chapter 2

Kathy continues to recall her childhood at Hailsham. A few days after his tantrum, Tommy stops her
on the stairs to apologize for his behavior. Kathy feels embarrassed to be addressed in such a public
place, as the stairs are filled with students heading to and from their weekly medical examinations.
However, she accepts his apology. The other boys continue to play pranks on Tommy, who responds
with more tantrums. One night in the girls’ dormitory, Kathy discusses the situation with Ruth and
their other friends. Ruth says that Tommy needs to try harder to be creative if he wants the teasing
to stop. She points out that Tommy does not submit anything to the Exchanges, quarterly art
exhibitions at which the students can trade their works with one another, and purchase works with
school-issued tokens.

Kathy interrupts this memory to explain that students skilled at “creating” generally earned the most
respect from their peers at Hailsham, a phenomenon encouraged by the Exchanges. She adds that
Tommy’s struggle with creativity began years earlier in art class, when he made an intentionally
childish watercolor of an elephant to get the other students to laugh. Unaware that this was
purposeful, the sympathetic guardian Miss Geraldine praised his efforts instead of scolding him. After
that incident, the other students started to mock Tommy’s artistic efforts. Kathy believes that Tommy
tried briefly to improve, but soon began exaggerating the childish quality of his pictures to cover up
his lack of ability. He also started throwing tantrums in response to the teasing from his classmates.
Kathy’s memories return to the aftermath of the football incident. Although the pranks continue,
Tommy suddenly stops losing his temper. The other boys lose interest in teasing him, and start to
include him in their games. Puzzled, Kathy finds Tommy in the lunch line and asks about his new
attitude. Tommy attributes it to the guardian Miss Lucy, who recently told him that he did not have
to be creative if he did not want to be. Kathy thinks this is a joke and walks away angrily. Tommy
promises to explain, and asks her to meet him at the pond after lunch.

Analysis : Chapter 1 + 2

Although Never Let Me Go takes place in the 1990s, Kathy’s opening lines suggest that this is not
straightforwardly historical fiction, but instead a parallel universe. She casually refers to unfamiliar
terms like “carers” and “donors,” which seem to be well known and accepted roles within her world.
Kathy does not explain these roles, indicating an assumption that her audience is already familiar
with them. In contrast, Kathy does not expect her audience to know about life at the Hailsham
school. She often pauses to explain Hailsham rituals and traditions, like the Exchanges. This shows
Kathy’s assumption that her audience has not experienced Hailsham, and evokes the sense that her
idyllic childhood was somewhat exceptional. The story about Kathy’s donor reinforces this sense,

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since he seems to yearn for her childhood memories in place of his own. This donor’s desire to forget
his past reverses Kathy’s desire to remember and record her own. Ironically, Hailsham proves central
to both his process of forgetting and her process of remembering. For the donor, Hailsham is an
imagined escape from his own memories. For Kathy, Hailsham is the way into recalling and making
sense of her memories.

The impulse to look back on the past is characteristic of Kathy, who sees ghostly echoes of Hailsham
wherever she goes. Kathy even uses her role as a carer to reconnect with Hailsham, choosing to care
for donors who are former Hailsham students. Although she is preparing for a major transition in her
own life, she spends her time remembering her childhood instead of looking ahead to the future.
Kathy’s focus on the past also affects her narration, which can be disorienting for the reader. Kathy
does not recall the events of her life in chronological order. She often narrates by association,
jumping back and forth in time as details from one memory trigger her recollection of others. While
Kathy’s memories move primarily between the present and her time at Hailsham in these chapters,
she also refers to other moments from her life in brief asides. Her narrative style reflects the process
of recollection itself. Sifting through a jumble of memories, Kathy offers an account that is
incomplete, episodic, and out of order. Her style also raises questions about her reliability as a
narrator. Only Kathy’s point of view is available to the reader. She presents other characters and
events subjectively, and at times she also admits that she may be misremembering details.

Hailsham itself seems in many ways to be a privileged boarding school, but puzzling details like the
weekly medical exams and the emphasis on artistic achievement suggest that there is more to
Hailsham than meets the eye. Kathy’s memory of the Hailsham sports pavilion establishes her
relationships with both Ruth and Tommy, and conveys information about all three of their
personalities. Tommy’s lack of creativity makes him a social outcast at Hailsham. His lonely tantrum
on the field reflects this outsider status, and highlights his emotional volatility. While Tommy
abandons self-awareness in his blind rage, Kathy exhibits constant restraint and self-consciousness in
her attempt to calm him down. Kathy also contrasts with Ruth in her response to Tommy’s tantrum.
Ruth loudly blames Tommy for his own mistreatment, reflecting her position as a vocal and confident
ringleader in her social group. Meanwhile, Kathy quietly watches Tommy through the window and
worries about his favorite shirt. She positions herself as a careful and sympathetic observer, far less
direct and more private about her opinions. However, Kathy also presents her view of Tommy as the
more nuanced one—only she considers Tommy’s feelings, realizing how upset he will be if he ruins
the shirt.

Kathy’s attempt to comfort Tommy shows her concern for him, as well as her sensitivity to his
feelings. But it also shows her discomfort with public spectacle, since she walks away when she
realizes that other students may be watching. Kathy also becomes embarrassed when speaking to
Tommy in the stairwell, another crowded public place. Her adolescent anxiety about being seen or
overheard seems partly to do with Tommy himself, and the gossip that she might provoke by
speaking with a boy. Yet it also reflects the lack of privacy at Hailsham, where the constant presence
of other students and guardians means that Kathy is often under surveillance. Kathy’s first memory
of her teenage self takes place in the sports pavilion, which emphasizes her value for privacy. The
seclusion of the sports pavilion makes it a unique sanctuary at Hailsham, a private hideaway where
she can observe others without herself being overheard or seen. Tommy demonstrates little
awareness of being observed when he throws his tantrum, showing that he is a less careful guard of

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his emotions than Kathy. But his more cautious attitude about Miss Lucy suggests that he does value
keeping certain information secret. His decision to tell Kathy about the talk with Miss Lucy also
reflects his trust in Kathy.

Summary : Chapter 3

Kathy meets Tommy at the pond, but feels uneasy about being visible from the main house. Tommy
explains that about two months prior, he helped Miss Lucy to carry some materials back to her study.
When they were alone, Miss Lucy told him that he was not to blame for his lack of creativity. She also
told him that it was wrong for the guardians or other students to pressure him about being creative.
Miss Lucy shook with anger while she spoke, but her anger did not seem to be directed at Tommy.
Tommy says the talk helped him to adjust his behavior, but makes Kathy promise not to tell anyone
about it. He adds that Miss Lucy told him she believes the students are not “taught enough” about
donations. Kathy and Tommy speculate that donations and creativity may be connected. Kathy thinks
that such a connection might help explain Madame’s Gallery.

Kathy pauses this memory to describe Madame, a woman who occasionally visited Hailsham to take
away the best student artwork. Students believed that she put the art in a personal gallery, although
they had no proof that “Madame’s Gallery” existed. They also considered it taboo to mention
Madame’s Gallery in front of the guardians, who never addressed the subject. Madame herself was
aloof and distant from the students on her visits. When Ruth and Kathy were around eight years old,
Ruth proposed a theory that Madame was afraid of the students. They tested this theory with their
friends by walking in a group past Madame on one of her visits. Madame froze and seemed to
suppress a shudder, confirming Ruth’s theory. This encounter made Kathy realize that some people
on the “outside” of Hailsham dreaded contact with students like her.

Summary : Chapter 4

As Kathy prepares to stop being a carer, she feels an increasing urge to make sense of her memories.
She believes that her memories of Hailsham will help to clarify what happened between her, Tommy,
and Ruth after they left school. Kathy recalls the “tokens controversy” caused by Madame’s visits.
She explains that students who submitted art to the Exchanges received tokens with which to
“purchase” other students’ work. In this way, the Exchanges allowed students to build up collections
of personal items. When Kathy was about ten years old, she and her classmates protested not
receiving similar “compensation” when Madame took their artwork. During the tokens controversy,
one of the students asked Miss Lucy why Madame wanted their art in the first place. Miss Lucy
refused to explain, saying only that the students would not understand.

Kathy also describes the monthly Sales, where students used their tokens to purchase toys, clothes,
and other objects brought in from the “outside.” The stern head guardian, Miss Emily, often lectured
the students about their rowdiness on Sale days. Kathy recalls Miss Emily’s odd speeches, and
remembers how her sharp intellect at times seemed to give way to a dreamy daze. Kathy also shares
her earliest memories of Ruth. When Kathy was five or six, she saw Ruth angrily confront two girls

10
playing in a sandpit. A couple of years later, Ruth invited Kathy to join her in riding imaginary horses.
Kathy enjoyed the game until Ruth became inexplicably cross with her. Suddenly, Ruth asked Kathy if
Miss Geraldine was her favorite guardian. When Kathy said yes, Ruth invited her to be one of Miss
Geraldine’s “secret guards.”

Analysis : Chapter 3 + 4

Tommy’s conversation with Miss Lucy shows that secrecy is fundamental to life at Hailsham. In one
sense, the adults at Hailsham are “guardians” because they safeguard the wellbeing of the students.
In another sense, they also act as “guardians” of knowledge. Although they are the teachers at
Hailsham, the guardians ironically refuse to educate the students fully about topics like donations.
The students themselves help to maintain this secrecy, shying away from taboo subjects like
Madame’s Gallery in front of the guardians. However, the students also generate their own forms of
“knowledge” through rumor and speculation. They develop theories to help explain what the
guardians will not discuss, although they can only test these theories indirectly. Kathy and her friends
infer Madame’s fear by silently reading her facial expressions, not by asking questions or speaking
with her directly. Yet even this indirect test shocks and distresses the girls. Madame’s fear interrupts
the tranquility of their childhood at Hailsham. It also shows how much this sense of this tranquility
depends on the guardians, who shield the students from a full understanding of their role in the
outside world.

Miss Lucy’s conversation with Tommy shows that she is ambivalent about her role as a guardian of
information, Unlike the other adults at Hailsham, she believes that the guardians should teach the
students more fully about donations. Ironically, her ambiguous talk with Tommy raises more
questions than it answers. While she reassures Tommy about his lack of creativity, she also
inadvertently encourages Tommy and Kathy to speculate about creativity’s connection to donations.
In their conversation by the pond, Tommy and Kathy bond over their shared curiosity about
Madame’s Gallery. They show a mutual desire to understand the mysterious role of creativity at
Hailsham. When Tommy asks Kathy not to tell anyone about their conversation, he also replicates
the secrecy that characterizes life at Hailsham more broadly.

Meanwhile, Kathy’s memories of the Exchanges and the Sales are tinged with nostalgia. Her detailed
explanations are also part of her ongoing effort to provide context to readers unfamiliar with
Hailsham. But while these school traditions are traditions unique to Hailsham, they also highlight the
presence of a world beyond its walls. Although students remain on school grounds, objects regularly
pass between Hailsham and the outside world. Madame takes away the best artwork before each
Exchange, while items from the outside arrive on trucks before each Sale. Both traditions also show
the students’ limited opportunities for collecting personal possessions at Hailsham.

Kathy’s earliest memories of Ruth highlight Ruth’s unpredictable anger, suggesting that this is an
inherent and enduring part of Ruth’s personality. Ruth’s imaginary horses, meanwhile, show her
interest in make-believe. Kathy and Ruth solidify their friendship while playing a game of make-
believe, contrasting with the way that Kathy and Tommy later bond over their search for truths about
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Hailsham. Ruth’s imaginary game also highlights her difficult disposition, as she bosses Kathy around
and grows inexplicably cross with her. However, these memories also show that Kathy’s knowledge
of Ruth is both partial and subjective. While she remembers Ruth’s anger in the sandpit, for instance,
she does not know why Ruth was angry and recalls few other details about Ruth from that period.
Kathy’s early recollections of Ruth may say as much about how Kathy remembers her as they do
about Ruth herself.

Summary : Chapter 5

Kathy recalls her involvement with the secret guard, a small group of students dedicated to
protecting Miss Geraldine from a supposed kidnapping plot. Led by Ruth, the guard collects
“evidence” linking various guardians and students to the plot. Although the details of the plot are
always vague, the guard believes that it will involve the woods behind Hailsham. Students generally
fear the woods, passing down frightening stories about former students who died there. One rumor
involves a boy found with his hands and feet cut off, while another is about a little girl who starved to
death. Kathy and her friends once “punished” their classmate Marge K. for embarrassing them by
forcing her to look at the woods at night through a window.

Kathy remembers that everyone in the secret guard helped to maintain the “fantasy” of the plot,
even after outgrowing it. By way of explanation, she describes an incident she has with Ruth over
chess. One day, Kathy buys a chess set at a Sale because she thinks Ruth can teach her to play. Ruth
has often implied that she knows the game, but her attempt to teach Kathy shows that she does not.
Kathy walks away from their game in anger. The next day, Ruth expels Kathy from the secret guard.
Nonetheless, Kathy still defends the guard when another student calls it childish. Kathy’s memories
jump ahead about three years. Ruth comes to class with a new polka-dotted pencil case, insinuating
that it is a gift from Miss Geraldine. Ruth often implies that she is a special favorite of Miss Geraldine,
although Kathy can never tell if she is telling the truth. Kathy is particularly annoyed about the pencil
case, which she suspects Ruth purchased at a recent Sale. As a test, she tells Ruth that she has seen
the register where Sale purchases are recorded. Kathy is bluffing, but when Ruth becomes visibly
upset, this confirms Kathy’s theory. Kathy immediately regrets trying to catch her in a lie. She assures
Ruth that she did not see much in the register, but Ruth walks away.

Summary : Chapter 6

After the pencil case incident, Kathy tries to make up for her behavior by implying that Miss
Geraldine does favor Ruth. One day, another student asks where Ruth got her pencil case. Ruth
hesitates, but Kathy covers for her by calling it a mystery. Ruth seems pleased, and eager to do
something for Kathy in return. The opportunity arises when Kathy loses her favorite cassette tape, a
Judy Bridgewater album called Songs After Dark. This tape triggers several other memories. Kathy
briefly recalls a later visit to Norfolk, where she found a copy of the tape with Tommy. Norfolk
reminds her of Miss Emily, who used calendar photos to teach the students about the English
counties. Miss Emily did not have any pictures of Norfolk, which she called “a lost corner” of England.
Because the Hailsham lost-and-found was also called the “Lost Corner,” the students began to think
12
that all lost property found in England ended up in Norfolk. Kathy recalls believing this as a child,
although it later became a joke. When she and Ruth later spoke about Norfolk at Ruth’s recovery
center, Ruth recalled the comfort of believing in Norfolk. Kathy says that finding a copy of her tape in
Norfolk brought back the wish to believe in its power.

Kathy returns to the story of losing her tape, which she notes has Judy Bridgewater holding a
cigarette on the cover. She keeps the tape hidden at Hailsham because the students are told they
must stay perfectly healthy and as such are explicitly forbidden from smoking. Kathy often plays her
favorite track, “Never Let Me Go,” when she is alone in the dormitory. The refrain, “Baby, baby,
never let me go,” makes her think the song is about a woman who miraculously has a baby after
being told that she cannot have children. Kathy imagines the woman singing and holding her baby.
The song conveys the woman’s happiness, but also her fear that the baby will be taken away. One
day, Kathy is singing along to the song and swaying her pillow like a baby. When the song ends, she
sees Madame watching her from the hallway. Madame is crying, and leaves abruptly. Kathy does not
discuss the incident at first. She only tells Tommy a couple of years later, after they begin theorizing
about Miss Lucy. Tommy theorizes that Madame cried because she knew the students could not
have babies. Two months after the encounter with Madame, Kathy’s tape disappears. Ruth helps her
search for it, and later gives Kathy another tape called Twenty Classic Dance Tunes. Kathy still has this
tape as an adult, and considers it one of her most precious possessions.

Analysis : Chapter 5 + 6

Like Hailsham itself, Ruth’s secret guard operates on the principles of secrecy and investigation. Its
members endlessly collect “evidence” of a secret but ambiguous plot, shielding their theories from
other students and guardians. In the same way, Hailsham students must piece together the
guardians’ veiled hints and references in order to understand the ambiguous “plot” that governs
their lives. However, the “secret guard” allows Ruth to play out an elaborate fantasy of control. As its
name suggests, the guard lets the students imagine themselves as “guardians” who protect Miss
Geraldine and hold secret information. Ruth herself invents the rules, and runs the game with total
authority. The secret guard also gives the students a privileged, if make-believe, connection to Miss
Geraldine, a guardian beloved for her kindness. Ruth’s sly hints about her pencil case are another
form of this make-believe, reflecting her desire for reciprocal affection from Miss Geraldine.

Ruth’s devotion to Miss Geraldine contrasts with Tommy’s curiosity about Miss Lucy. While Ruth
makes up evidence for her bond with Miss Geraldine, Tommy uses the evidence from his
conversation with Miss Lucy to theorize about the mysterious link between donations and creativity.
Kathy supports both of them, first defending Ruth’s secret guard and later theorizing with Tommy.
This reflects her competing desires to believe in fantasy and to know the truth. The secret guard and
Miss Geraldine belong to the realm of childhood make-believe, while Miss Lucy’s veiled comments
about donations bring Kathy and Tommy closer to the ominous reality about their adulthood. Their
detective work is a real-life counterpart to the make-believe investigations of the secret guard.
Kathy's narration also forces the reader to engage in the same kind of detective work, piecing
together the clues that she drops. Just as the details available to Hailsham students are often partial
and ambiguous, so too are the details that Kathy shares with her readers.

13
The students’ fears about the woods convey a more general sense of foreboding about what lies
beyond the familiar walls of Hailsham. Like much of their knowledge, what the students know of the
woods comes largely from rumor and speculation. Yet the terrible stories about children who leave
Hailsham also foreshadow the students’ own futures. The child with his arms and legs cut off is a
grim fairy tale version of the donation process, in which students will lose parts of their own bodies
until they die. The secret guard allows the students to displace this danger onto Miss Geraldine,
while the “punishment” of Marge K. reflects the true terror that comes with looking directly at what
lies beyond Hailsham.

Meanwhile, the incidents involving Ruth's pencil case and Kathy's chess set highlight tensions in their
friendship. These episodes show Ruth’s tendency to insinuate that she knows more than she does,

a habit that Kathy finds particularly annoying. Yet in each case, Kathy retaliates with her own forms
of insinuation. She avoids direct confrontation, like when she walks away to show her anger about
the chess game. She also adapts Ruth’s strategy of subtle hinting when she implies that she has seen
the Sale register. This “test” furthermore echoes the girls’ test of Madame’s fear. Just as the girls
deduced fear in Madame’s expression, Kathy deduces Ruth’s lie by observing her reaction. Her
indirectness is characteristic of Hailsham more broadly, where guardians and students alike
communicate evasively about sensitive topics. Meanwhile, Tommy and Kathy continue to bond by
interpreting the strange behavior of the adults at Hailsham. Noticeably, Kathy displays more
openness in her conversations with Tommy than she does in her conversations with Ruth. She shares
yet another secret with him when she speaks about seeing Madame in the dormitory, although she
also displays her typical caution by waiting years to tell him.

Summary : Chapter 7

Kathy’s memories shift to her last years at Hailsham, from roughly age thirteen to age sixteen. She
recalls these years being darker and more serious than the ones before, and sees Tommy’s
confession at the pond as a marker between the two periods. Miss Lucy continues to behave
strangely around the students. One day, Miss Lucy and a group of students take shelter from a
rainstorm in the sports pavilion. Miss Lucy hears two boys discussing what it would be like to become
actors. Miss Lucy, visibly upset, announces that such talk is inappropriate because their futures are
already determined: when Hailsham students reach adulthood, they will fulfill their purpose in life by
donating their vital organs. Miss Lucy expresses frustration with the other guardians who refuse to
speak directly to the students about their futures.

Kathy explains that the guardians tended to lecture on donations and sex at the same time, and she
wonders if they did so to keep the students from focusing on or questioning donations. She also
recalls that Miss Emily urged the students to be cautious about having sex in the outside world,
where non-students attach more significance to sex because they are capable of having children.
Although the younger students avoid discussing donations, Kathy and her classmates begin to joke
about them as teenagers. In one running joke, students pretend to “unzip” themselves and hand
over their organs. This joke emerges after several boys pull a prank on Tommy, convincing him that a
cut on his elbow will “unzip” unless he keeps his arm straight. After Miss Lucy’s speech in the
pavilion, the students avoid talking about donations again.

14
Summary : Chapter 8

During her last summer at Hailsham, Kathy is daydreaming in a quiet hallway when she hears a
strange hissing noise. Following the noise to a nearby classroom, she finds Miss Lucy angrily
scribbling out a stack of handwritten papers. Kathy apologizes and leaves the room, feeling ashamed
and confused. The adult Kathy pauses to note that Tommy also had a strange interaction with Miss
Lucy that summer, although he did not tell her about it until years later. Kathy does not describe the
interaction, but says that Tommy’s old temper returned around the same time. She recalls showing
Tommy a hand-painted Hailsham calendar, which she had just purchased at one of the Exchanges.
Instead of praising it, Tommy walked away. At the time, Kathy assumed that his strange moods
related to his recent breakup with Ruth, whom he had been dating for six months.

Kathy reflects on the guardians’ contradictory messages about sex. Although the guardians
encouraged the students not to be ashamed of sex, they also discouraged students from having sex
at school. The students developed many theories about whether or not the guardians actually
wanted them to have sex, but Kathy thinks that Ruth’s theory was the most probable. Ruth thought
that the guardians wanted to prepare students for sex in the outside world, but did not want to deal
with them having sex at school. Kathy recalls feeling left out at Hailsham because many of her friends
claimed to be having sex. While she doubts many of these claims were true, she does know that Ruth
had sex with Tommy. Kathy says that she also wanted to have sex, as a way of practicing for the
future. She spent several weeks preparing to ask her classmate Harry C., but Ruth and Tommy’s
breakup changed her mind.

Summary : Chapter 9

Kathy explains why she postponed her plan to have sex with Harry C. Soon after Tommy and Ruth’s
breakup, Kathy's friends began to hint that she was Ruth’s “natural successor” to be Tommy’s
girlfriend. Kathy adds that she saw Harry at a recovery center a few years ago. He had just given a
donation, and she isn’t sure that he recognized her. She returns her focus to Hailsham, where Ruth
soon asks her for help in getting back together with Tommy. Ruth says that Tommy respects Kathy
and will listen to her advice. Kathy worries that Ruth will hurt Tommy again, but Ruth claims to be
done playing games. Ruth points out that they are adults now, and will soon leave Hailsham. Kathy
agrees to meet with Tommy.

Tommy tells Kathy that he is not upset about the breakup, but about a recent conversation with Miss
Lucy. Earlier in the summer, Miss Lucy admitted she had made a mistake in telling him that it was
okay to be uncreative. She said that Madame’s Gallery was more important than she had first
realized, and alluded to the students' artwork as “evidence.” Miss Lucy urged Tommy to begin
making art again. Kathy is intrigued, but focuses on encouraging Tommy to get back together with
Ruth. Tommy says that he cannot rush back into the relationship, especially since they will be leaving
Hailsham soon. The next day, the students hear that Miss Lucy has left Hailsham for good. Tommy
and Ruth get back together that evening.

Analysis : Chapter 8 + 9

Kathy’s last years at Hailsham are filled with foreboding signs, and Miss Lucy’s odd behavior
contributes heavily to the ominous atmosphere. Miss Lucy’s speech in the sports pavilion reflects her
15
ongoing struggle with her role as a guardian. Her speech also provides the students with an unusually
straightforward account of the donation program, something that Kathy as a narrator has not
provided her reader until now. In this way, Kathy makes the reader’s experience mirror her own: the
novel’s first explicit description of the future occurs when young Kathy hears it from Miss Lucy. Miss
Lucy delivers her ominous message of adulthood in the sports pavilion, which was once a private
hideaway for Kathy and her friends. No longer a sanctuary associated with girlhood, the pavilion is
now the place where Kathy must directly confront the future. Miss Lucy cuts off all chatter about
dream careers, as the rainstorm outside mirrors the bleak message that she delivers. Just as quickly,
however, the students manage to push this knowledge away, focusing on Miss Lucy’s oddity instead.

As the students prepare to leave Hailsham, donations and sexual relationships become parallel
markers of their transition to adulthood. Like donations, sex also differentiates the students, who
cannot bear children, from people in the outside world. Miss Emily reinforces the association
between donations and sex in her lectures, which often combine the two subjects. But her frankness
about sex contrasts with the guardians’ continued delicateness on the subject of donations. The
students mirror this, openly discussing sex and relationships while generally avoiding talk of the
donations that will shape their adult lives. Kathy’s memories of Harry C. continue to highlight this
tension. While Harry the student is Kathy’s intended choice for a first sexual partner, Harry the donor
is almost a stranger. Her memory of seeing Harry at a recovery center highlights the divide between
their Hailsham childhood and their adult lives. Harry’s apparent failure to recognize her also
emphasizes Kathy’s lonely position as a guardian of Hailsham memories.

As a narrator, Kathy replicates the guardians’ narrative strategy of “telling and not telling.” She is
highly indirect about her own feelings, especially when it comes to her interest in Tommy. The first
time that she mentions Tommy’s relationship with Ruth is in the context of their breakup. Her brief
reference to the breakup itself is almost an afterthought, introduced as a potential reason for
Tommy’s moodiness. While it is possible that Kathy does not recall any anecdotes from Tommy and
Ruth’s six-month relationship, the complete omission suggests that she has likely chosen to skip over
it. Kathy describes her response to the breakup in equally indirect terms, never directly stating that
she is interested in a relationship with Tommy. Instead, she signals this interest implicitly via her
actions. When her friends suggest that she will take Ruth's place, Kathy stops pursuing Harry C.
Kathy's account of her memories shows that she is still hesitant to share her feelings about Tommy,
even as an adult. It also reflects her ongoing unreliability as a narrator.

The end of Kathy’s last summer at Hailsham is also an end to her childhood. Her quiet reverie by the
window captures the calm before the tumult of her transition away from Hailsham. Just as Miss Lucy
interrupted the boys who spoke about becoming actors in the sports pavilion, she also interrupts
Kathy’s daydream with the ominous “hissing” of her pencil. Kathy’s investigation of the hissing noise
leads only to shame and confusion. The scene reflects Miss Lucy’s ongoing struggle with her role, and
her angry scribbling is a destructive counterpart to the students’ artistic creations. Noticeably, she
does not speak to Kathy. Miss Lucy remains confusingly unreadable, much like the scribbled-out
papers before her. Foreboding and ambiguous, the papers echo Kathy’s own sense of the future.
Tommy’s parallel encounter with Miss Lucy also leaves him confused and disturbed. But while Kathy
internalizes her sense of unease, Tommy expresses his anxiety by releasing his temper once again.
Like the rainstorm and Miss Lucy’s scribbling, the return of Tommy’s temper is an ominous sign for
the future.

16
Miss Lucy’s abrupt departure heightens the students' sense of uncertainty and foreboding about the
future. It also removes Tommy and Kathy’s best chance at solving the mysteries surrounding
creativity at Hailsham. Her ominous reference to artwork as “evidence” parallels Tommy and Kathy’s
own interest in evidence to support their theories, but does not bring them any closer to answers.
For the students, Miss Lucy’s departure is also an abrupt and disorienting experience of loss.
Tommy’s decision to reunite with Ruth that evening recalls the refrain of the song “Never Let Me
Go.” He responds to the loss of Miss Lucy and to the imminent loss of Hailsham by holding onto his
relationship with Ruth. In the face of an uncertain future away from the school and their guardians,
the students must turn to one another for stability.

Summary : Chapter 10

Kathy arrives at the Cottages with Ruth, Tommy, and five of their Hailsham classmates. They meet
the gruff caretaker Keffers and the “veterans,” a group of older students already living at the
Cottages. None of the veterans attended Hailsham. Kathy and her friends slowly adjust to life at the
Cottages, which are a group of run-down farm buildings converted into living space. They spend their
days discussing literature, philosophy, and art with the veterans. They also work on their final essay
assignments from Hailsham, although the essays begin to feel less urgent as time goes on. Several of
the veterans are in established relationships, and Kathy notices that these couples unintentionally
mimic the gestures of television show characters. Ruth begins to copy the veteran couples, adopting
a gesture of lightly tapping Tommy on the arm to say goodbye.

One day, Ruth annoys Kathy by summarizing the plot of Daniel Deronda aloud while Kathy is reading
it. Kathy asks Ruth why she hits Tommy on the arm to say goodbye. When Ruth claims not to know
what she means, Kathy says that the gesture isn’t worth copying because it comes from television.
Ruth brushes off the comment, but Kathy senses that she is angry. Ruth says that Kathy is jealous of
her new veteran friends, and accuses her of associating only with the Hailsham students. Kathy
accuses Ruth of not looking out for Tommy. In response, Ruth ambiguously acknowledges that Kathy
has made friends with “some of the veterans.” Kathy walks away angrily.

Summary : Chapter 11

Kathy explains why Ruth’s comment about the veterans bothered her. Kathy and Ruth quarrel often
at the Cottages, but also confide in one another more than ever. They spend long evenings in Kathy’s
room, talking privately about their new lives. Kathy believes they have an unspoken agreement not
to use anything they discuss against one another. Ruth’s comment refers to the fact that Kathy has
had sex with a few of the veteran boys, something that Kathy admitted in one of their private
conversations. Kathy pauses to explain that attitudes about relationships and sex were more
straightforward at the Cottages than at Hailsham. The veterans did not gossip about sex, and treated
one-night-stands casually. When Kathy told Ruth about her “one-nighters,” or one-night-stands, she
also admitted to having strong sexual urges. Ruth was sympathetic, but agreed that Kathy’s urges
seemed unusual and denied having such urges herself. Kathy admits that her own comment about
arm slapping may have provoked Ruth to make the comment about her one-nighters. Ruth tried hard
to impress the veterans at the Cottages, often ignoring Kathy and Tommy. Kathy says that the arm
slapping comment violated her unspoken agreement to support Ruth’s attempts to fit in.

17
Kathy remembers a conversation at Ruth’s recovery center, where Ruth expressed regret about
throwing away her “collection” of Hailsham items at the Cottages. While Kathy kept her collection,
Ruth asked Keffers to donate hers to charity because the veterans did not have collections. Kathy
returns to recalling life at the Cottages. Although some of the veterans are training to be carers, they
never discuss their training courses. The veterans also avoid talking about students who have left for
good, only mentioning them in connection with objects they have left behind. One day, Kathy picks
up a stack of pornographic magazines left behind by a veteran named Steve. She takes the magazines
to the boiler room, where she flips through the pages and looks closely at the faces of the models.
Tommy walks in, and is surprised to see her with the magazines. She tells him that she is looking at
them just for fun, but Tommy suspects that she is not telling him everything.

Analysis : Chapter 10 + 11

While Hailsham is associated with childhood, the Cottages represent a transitional phase between
childhood and adulthood. Accordingly, life at the Cottages is less supervised than life at Hailsham. For
instance, sporadic and indifferent visits from the caretaker Keffers replace the constant surveillance
of the guardians. The students’ connections to Hailsham also begin to erode at the Cottages, where
their final essays represent a last tangible link to their guardians. Yet the students begin to lose focus
on these essays as time goes on, which shows their weakening sense of connection with Hailsham. It
also shows their identities as students are becoming less formal, as they realize that the guardians
will not hold them accountable for completing the essays. In other ways, however, life at the
Cottages actually echoes life at Hailsham. Although they are not responsible for assignments, the
students do continue their academic pursuits in a more leisurely and casual way. Like Hailsham, the
Cottages are also relatively isolated from the outside world. In addition, the veterans show a familiar
reluctance to talk about donations and refuse to mention those who leave to become carers.

At the Cottages, Ruth seems more prepared than Kathy to leave the memory of Hailsham behind.
This difference is reflected in the way that each one treats her personal collection of Hailsham items.
Kathy holds onto her collection, in the same way that she holds onto her memories of Hailsham.
Meanwhile, Ruth gives hers away because the veterans do not have collections. This shows that
while Kathy prioritizes reminders of their childhood, Ruth prioritizes fitting in at the Cottages.
Because none of the veterans attended Hailsham, Ruth’s efforts to fit in necessarily involve giving up
her Hailsham habits. In imitating the veteran couples, for instance, she rejects the showy displays of
affection common between Hailsham couples. Meanwhile, Kathy takes up her familiar role as an
outside observer. Instead of copying the veterans like Ruth does, Kathy quietly notices that the
veterans themselves are actually copying their gestures from what they see on television. Her
observation suggests that life at the Cottages is an imitation of life in the outside world, and
reinforces her resistance to adopt the habits of the veterans.

Kathy’s friendship with Ruth also becomes more strained at the Cottages, and their arguments reflect
their opposing attitudes towards Hailsham. Ruth accuses Kathy of ignoring the veterans in favor of
their Hailsham friends, reflecting her frustration with Kathy’s attachment to Hailsham. Kathy accuses
Ruth of neglecting Tommy in favor of the veterans, reflecting her frustration with Ruth’s dismissal of
their shared ties to Hailsham. At the same time, Ruth does show reluctance to entirely renounce her
connections with Hailsham. Ruth’s new attitudes disappear when she and Kathy are alone, and she
becomes more like her old self in the privacy of Kathy’s room. Ruth also shows an emotional

18
attachment to her collection, asking Keffers to donate it to charity instead of throwing it in the trash.
While her donation of her collection foreshadows the coming of adulthood and the start of her organ
donations, Ruth’s refusal to throw the items out also reflects a wish to preserve something of her
childhood. When she later regrets giving away the collection at her recovery center, Ruth more
openly expresses a desire for memories of Hailsham that mirrors Kathy’s own nostalgia. This episode
also highlights the irony in that all of the Hailsham students’ collection items were donated by people
in the outside world who may at one point receive and benefit from the students’ donated internal
organs.

Kathy continues express her frustration with Ruth’s pretenses, lashing out when Ruth pretends to
have read Daniel Deronda. However, Kathy again expresses her frustration through subtle hints
rather than direct confrontation. She changes the topic to Ruth’s imitation of the veterans’
affectionate arm-slapping gesture, labeling it as another form of pretense. In dismissing the gesture
that Ruth uses to express affection towards Tommy, Kathy also hints that her own interest in Tommy
is another underlying source of tension with Ruth. While Kathy begins to have sex at the Cottages,
she never becomes part of a couple. Her intermittent sexual encounters with the veterans are purely
physical in nature. Ruth’s indirect comment about Kathy’s one-nighters reinforces this tension,
highlighting her own status as part of a couple while drawing on Kathy’s insecurities about her sexual
urges. Kathy’s reflections on this conversation also show how much her friendship with Ruth relied
on unspoken expectations about their behavior. Although Kathy believes that these expectations
were mutual, the degree to which Ruth actually shared her unspoken assumptions is unclear.

Summary : Chapter 12

Chrissie and Rodney, a veteran couple, visit Norfolk at the end of winter. They return claiming that
Rodney saw Ruth’s “possible” in the window of an open-plan office. Kathy pauses the story to explain
the “possibles theory” that circulated among students. Since they are clones, the students assume
that each of them has a model living in the outside world. A “possible” is someone who looks like a
possible model for one of the students. Some students think their models must be older than them,
around the age of normal parents, while others think the models can be any age. Many believe that
seeing their models will tell them something about who they are or offer a glimpse into their future.
Kathy notes that possible sightings tend to come in waves, and are not usually substantive.

Although Chrissie is kind and welcoming, her many questions about Hailsham make Kathy suspect
that she has a hidden motive. Rodney is also friendly, but generally follows Chrissie’s lead. Kathy
doubts his story about seeing the possible in Norfolk, especially since the possible is living Ruth’s
“dream future.” Earlier in the winter, Kathy and Ruth saw a magazine on the ground while walking to
a nearby village. The magazine lay open to an advertisement featuring an open-plan office. A few
days later, Ruth began to talk about her dream future of working in an open-plan office. The veterans
listened eagerly, but Kathy realized that Ruth was describing the office from the magazine. For days,
Chrissie kept encouraging Ruth to talk about the office. Kathy explains that the veterans thought
Hailsham students had access to special opportunities, and believed it possible that Ruth might work
in an office one day. Chrissie and Rodney invite Ruth on a trip to Norfolk to search for her possible.
Kathy and Tommy decide to come too, which does not seem to please Ruth.

Summary : Chapter 13

19
Rodney arranges to borrow a car for the Norfolk trip, but his plans fall through just before they are
supposed to leave. Ruth becomes visibly upset, although she has, up until now, treated the trip like a
joke. Rodney secures another car and the trip proceeds as planned. On the way to Norfolk, Ruth sits
between Kathy and Tommy in the back seat. She spends most of the drive leaning forward to speak
with Rodney and Chrissie, which prevents Kathy and Tommy from talking to one another. Kathy
suggests that she and Ruth switch seats, but Ruth angrily accuses her of trying to make trouble. Ruth
sulks in silence for the rest of the drive. The mood lightens when they arrive in Norfolk and go to a
local café for lunch.

Kathy expects to discuss Ruth’s “possible” over lunch. Instead, Rodney and Chrissy suggest visiting
their friend Martin, a carer who lives in Norfolk. Kathy points out that they are not supposed to visit
carers, provoking a sarcastic comment from Ruth. Tommy asks about Ruth’s possible, but Rodney
seems reluctant to discuss the subject. Chrissie says that one day Ruth herself may work in a Norfolk
office, then shares a rumor about a former Hailsham student who supposedly got a job in a clothes
shop. She adds that that Ruth told her about another Hailsham student working as a park ranger.
Tommy expresses confusion and denies ever hearing these rumors, but Kathy pretends to know
about the student. Chrissie brings up a rumor that Hailsham couples in love can apply to defer their
donations for a few years, and asks how to apply. Ruth claims to know about deferrals but not to
know about the application process. Tommy tells them that he does not know what they are talking
about. Ruth tries to explain Tommy’s cluelessness by saying that he was left out at Hailsham, and
then says that she wants to go see her possible.

Analysis : Chapter 12 + 13

When Ruth describes her “dream future” of working in an open-plan office, she provokes
characteristic reactions from both Kathy and the veterans. Kathy is once again a careful observer,
recognizing that Ruth is describing the office in the magazine ad. For Kathy, Ruth’s dream future is
yet another sign that the students are living in imitation of the outside world. Just as the veterans
copy their gestures from television shows, Ruth copies her dream future from an advertisement—
which is itself only a staged copy of real life. These acts of copying also reinforce the students’ own
status as copies, cloned from human models in the outside world. Contrasting with Kathy, the
veterans indulge in the fantasy of Ruth’s dream future. The veterans’ reaction reflects their belief
that Hailsham is exceptional, and their sense of possibility about the futures available to Hailsham
students. It also plays into Ruth’s ongoing desire for special status among her peers, which she first
showed at Hailsham with her hints that Miss Geraldine favored her. The sense of possibility at the
Cottages does not correspond with Kathy’s own memory of Hailsham, where Miss Lucy refused to let
the students fantasize about alternate careers.

The trip to Norfolk relies on this sense of hopeful possibility, as Ruth’s aptly named “possible”
indicates. Norfolk itself has long represented possibility for the Hailsham students, who once
believed in the possibility of recovering their lost possessions there. Rodney’s story about the woman
in the office revives this childhood association, holding out the chance that Ruth will recover a lost,
parent-like figure in Norfolk. The students themselves suggest this comparison between models and
normal parents, in their debate about the ages of their models. Ruth’s possible also reflects the hope
of an alternate future for Ruth. Although she feigns indifference about the trip, her anxiety about its
near-cancellation suggests that she does believe she will learn something about her future. In a more

20
limited way, the trip also represents possibility for Chrissie and Rodney. Instead of dreaming about
alternate careers, Chrissie and Rodney hope only to postpone their future as donors. The rumor of a
deferral process for Hailsham students holds out this possibility. Kathy strongly implies that their
desire to confirm this rumor is the real inspiration for the trip, casting doubt on Rodney’s story about
the possible. Rodney’s reluctance to discuss the subject of Ruth’s possible at lunch seems to support
Kathy’s doubts. But like much of the evidence that Kathy collects, the signs that Rodney may be lying
about Ruth’s possible are largely circumstantial.

Chrissie, Rodney, and Ruth are all willing to hope on the basis of rumor and speculation. Just as
Rodney and Chrissie feed Ruth’s hopes with their story of the “possible,” Ruth feeds their hopes with
vague allusions to the deferral process. This mutual hopefulness draws the three of them together.
Meanwhile, Kathy’s skepticism and Tommy’s confusion make them outliers in the group. Kathy
suspects the veterans of lying about Ruth’s possible, and later sees through Ruth’s bluffing about
deferrals. But she generally keeps her observations to herself, demonstrating her subtlety as well as
her allegiance to Ruth. Although Tommy is also an outsider on the trip, his blunt responses contrast
with Kathy’s restraint and awareness. Where Kathy supports Ruth’s claims, Tommy straightforwardly
denies knowing anything about deferrals. These comments threaten the sense of possibility that
drives Ruth and the veterans, provoking Ruth to label his cluelessness as a sign of his outsider status
at Hailsham. Ruth’s attitude in the car reflects the growing divisions in the group, as she ignores
Kathy and Tommy to speak only with the veterans. Ruth also remains a symbolic wedge between
Kathy and Tommy. Although Ruth ignores Tommy on the drive, she also refuses to let Kathy take her
place next to him.

Summary : Chapter 14

Rodney leads the way to the office, but Chrissie makes them stop at Woolworth’s first to buy
birthday cards. In the store, Kathy overhears Ruth and Chrissie discussing deferrals again. Ruth
continues to imply that Hailsham students have special access to deferrals, and gets angry when she
notices Kathy listening in. The students eventually find the open-plan office, and Rodney points out
an older woman visible through its floor-to-ceiling windows. They all agree that she resembles Ruth
enough to be a legitimate possible. When a few of the people in the office look over, the students
quickly move away. Ruth wants to wait a few minutes and then return for another look, but then
they see Ruth’s possible leaving the office. At Ruth’s insistence, they follow the possible to an art
gallery called The Portway Studio. Inside the studio, they observe the possible talking with the gallery
manager. When viewed up close, the woman begins to seem much less like Ruth than they had
originally thought.

The students do not follow the woman when she leaves. The gallery manager asks if they are art
students, prompting Kathy to explain that they are merely interested. The gallery manager talks to
them about the artwork on display, reminding Kathy of the guardians at Hailsham. When they leave
the studio, the students all agree that the woman from the office is not Ruth’s model. Noticing that
Ruth seems upset, Kathy resents Chrissie and Rodney on her behalf. Although Chrissie and Rodney
try to cheer Ruth up, Kathy senses that they are relieved not to have more evidence of Hailsham’s
exceptionality. Kathy and Tommy also try to comfort Ruth by making light of the situation. Although
Kathy expects Ruth to respond to their support more positively than she did to Chrissie and Rodney,
Ruth does not acknowledge them. Ruth claims to have known it was a stupid idea all along, snapping

21
at Tommy when he attempts agree with her. She says the students are copied from “trash,” declaring
that their models are convicts, junkies, and prostitutes. Rodney and Chrissie again suggest a visit to
Martin, their friend who is now a carer, but Kathy refuses to go. Ruth angrily leaves with the
veterans, while Tommy stays back with Kathy.

Summary : Chapter 15

Tommy tells Kathy that he was looking for her lost tape in Woolworth’s, but could not remember the
title of the album. He recalls searching for the tape at Hailsham too, noting how Ruth had urged the
other students to look for it. Tommy suggests that he and Kathy continue the search in Norfolk, and
they visit several secondhand stores together. Kathy finds a copy of the tape at one of them, and
Tommy buys it for her. On their walk back to the car, Tommy says that he thinks deferrals are
connected to Madame’s Gallery. Tommy recalls Miss Emily once telling another student that artwork
reveals the soul. He theorizes that Madame’s Gallery is used to determine if couples who apply for
deferrals are really in love, reasoning that Madame uses the artwork to see if a couple’s souls go
together.

Tommy confirms that none of his artwork made it into Madame’s Gallery, but reveals that he has
started drawing again just in case. He says that he draws tiny imaginary animals, inspired by a
children’s book he found at the Cottages. Tommy says that Ruth does not know about his animals or
about his deferral theory. When they arrive back at the car, Tommy tells Kathy that Ruth’s comments
about their models inspired another one of his theories. He thinks that Kathy looks at pornographic
magazines because she is searching for her possibles. Kathy admits that she has strong sexual urges,
which made her think that her model might be in those magazines. She has tears in her eyes, but
manages to avoid crying. Tommy assures Kathy that her desire for sex is not unusual, and admits to
having the same urges. Soon, the rest of the group returns. Ruth is in a much better mood, pointedly
including Kathy and Tommy in conversation on the drive home. Kathy decides not to tell Ruth about
finding a copy of her lost tape.

Analysis : Chapter 14 + 15

Although the woman in the open-plan office initially seems to resemble Ruth, she is only a plausible
“possible” when observed from afar. At a distance, the students have just enough evidence to see
what they wish to see. When viewed more closely, the same evidence crushes their hopes. Ironically,
the search for Ruth’s possible results in an end to her sense of possibility. This disappointment also
reflects a larger truth about the students’ lives, that while they sustain their hopes with stories and
rumors, this strategy only works if they do not investigate those stories and rumors too closely. The
office’s floor-to-ceiling windows come to symbolize the students’ actual relationship with the outside
world. Acting as an invisible barrier, the windows allow the students to observe Ruth’s “dream
future” only from the outside. Where the office from the magazine advertisement suggested the
hope of an alternate future for Ruth, the actual office in Norfolk reinforces reality.

In her reaction to the disappointment, Kathy seeks to reestablish a line of difference between the
Hailsham students and the veterans. She resents Chrissie and Rodney on behalf of Ruth, and her
sympathy towards Ruth is competitive with theirs. But the frustrated search for the possible only
further solidifies Ruth’s division from Kathy and Tommy. Ruth’s speech about their models is a

22
rejection of Kathy and Tommy’s sympathy, as well as a way of coping with her disappointment. Her
speech is also the first time that the word “clone” appears in the novel. In referring to the students
aloud as clones, Ruth exposes her lost sense of possibility. The trip to Norfolk ends in situational
irony for Ruth, Chrissie, and Rodney, who all began the day hoping to alter their futures. The
veterans suggest visiting a carer, who represents the actual future that awaits all five students. Ruth’s
decision to join them reflects her resignation to becoming a carer and then a donor. It also reinforces
the ongoing division in the group, as Ruth continues to align herself with the veterans, while Tommy
decides to stay with Kathy.

While Ruth and the veterans turn towards their future as carers, Tommy and Kathy revisit their
Hailsham past. Their search for Kathy’s lost tape mirrors the search for Ruth’s possible, although
Kathy finds a copy of the tape while Ruth fails to find the “copy” that is her model. Kathy and
Tommy’s search is in many ways an effort to recover the past. The tape carries memories of their
childhood at Hailsham, which they revisit as they wander through Norfolk. Moreover, they also
revisit their childhood theories about Madame’s Gallery. After the art gallery in Norfolk becomes a
disappointing dead-end in the search for Ruth’s possible, Madame’s Gallery offers a new source of
hope. Tommy’s theory about deferrals also extends the students’ belief in the power of looking. The
students believe that insight will come from looking at their models, and scrutinize Ruth’s possible
like a work of art in the Norfolk gallery. Echoing this process, Tommy suggests that Madame
scrutinizes the students’ artwork to see into their souls.

Tommy’s confessions about his deferral theory and his imaginary animals both reflect the unique
confidence that he places in Kathy. As they did at Hailsham, Tommy and Kathy keep their theories
about Madame’s Gallery and creativity from Ruth. Tommy also displays keen insight into Kathy,
correctly interpreting her interest in the pornographic magazines as a search for possibles. Kathy’s
search for possibles is characteristically private, contrasting with Ruth’s more ostentatious search in
Norfolk. It is also far less hopeful. The pornographic magazines darkly echo the magazine where Ruth
sees her glossy dream office. Kathy’s conversation with Tommy about her sexual urges echoes a
similar talk that she had with Ruth at the Cottages. But while Ruth encouraged Kathy to see her urges
as strange, Tommy comforts her by admitting that he often feels the same way. As Kathy narrates
these confessions, she continues to omit any direct reference to her romantic feelings for Tommy.
Just as she controls her tears in front of Tommy, Kathy obscures and controls the emotion in her
narration. Her decision not to tell Ruth about the tape also reflects this secrecy, offsetting Ruth’s
attempts at inclusiveness on the car ride home.

Summary : Chapter 16

Back at the Cottages, Ruth refuses to talk about the Norfolk trip. The others follow her lead, while
Kathy also continues to avoid telling Ruth about her tape. In the spring, several veterans depart for
carer training. The remaining veterans begin to talk about deferrals again, but Rodney and Chrissie
do not participate. The “Norfolk effect,” as it is referred to, extends to Tommy and Kathy, who do not
discuss Madame’s Gallery further. One day, Kathy finds Tommy drawing his imaginary animals in a
nearby barn. He shows her the pictures, which all are tiny and highly detailed. He says that Ruth is
the only other person who has seen them. Kathy does not know how to judge the “fantastical”
creatures, and wonders aloud what Madame would think of them. However, she feels more and

23
more drawn to them the longer she looks. She compliments Tommy, and encourages him not to keep
his artwork a secret.

A new group of students arrives at the end of the summer, but none are from Hailsham. Kathy senses
that Hailsham is slipping into the past, and that her Hailsham friends at the Cottages are drifting
apart. She is also annoyed at Ruth, who regularly pretends to forget details about their school days.
Kathy flashes back to a night earlier in the same summer, when she is gossiping in her room with
Ruth. They are laughing about Kathy’s sexual experiences with a veteran named Lenny, when Ruth
sees Kathy’s Judy Bridgewater tape. Kathy tells her about finding the tape in Norfolk, and Ruth does
not seem bothered. Reflecting back on their talk, Kathy wonders whether Ruth saw the tape before
and was just waiting for the right moment to bring it up. They begin to talk about Tommy’s animals,
and Ruth encourages Kathy to admit that they are funny. Several days later, Kathy finds Ruth and
Tommy talking in a churchyard near the Cottages. Ruth says that Tommy has shared his theory about
Madame’s Gallery with her. Tommy says that he might submit his animals to the Gallery, but Ruth
tells him not to embarrass himself. Ruth adds that she and Kathy both find his animals funny. Kathy
does not deny this claim and walks away, though she almost immediately regrets this and her
decision not to explain herself to Tommy.

Summary : Chapter 17

Kathy tries to act normally around Ruth and Tommy, who are still officially together, but the three of
them still grow increasingly distant. Eventually, Kathy decides to confront Ruth. They walk to an old
bus shelter near the Cottages, where Kathy points out that Ruth’s words and actions often upset
Tommy. Ruth admits that Kathy is right, but also points out that Kathy may be interested in dating
Tommy if he and Ruth were to break up. Ruth says that while Tommy respects Kathy, he will never be
interested in her romantically because he does not like dating girls who have slept with other men.
Kathy and Ruth change the subject to their days at Hailsham, but Ruth annoys Kathy by again
pretending not to remember details from their childhood. Shortly afterwards, Kathy files paperwork
to start her training as a carer. She keeps her distance from Ruth and Tommy until she departs.

Analysis : Chapter 16 + 17

Deferrals and possibles become taboo subjects for Ruth, Chrissie, and Rodney after Norfolk,
reflecting their more despondent outlook. Norfolk checks their willingness to hope on the basis of
rumors, as well as their willingness to engage in fantasy about the future. Meanwhile, Tommy
secretly continues preparing for the possibility of a deferral by throwing himself into his artwork.
Tommy’s imaginary creatures are a form of planning for the future, as he hopes to submit them to
Madame’s Gallery. However, they also give him deep personal satisfaction in the present. For the
first time, artistic expression gives Tommy joy rather than anxiety. While his creatures confuse Kathy
because they look nothing like the artwork at Hailsham, they also tap into the kind of fantastic
imagination that she associates with Hailsham and childhood make-believe. Tommy’s fantasies are
especially notable in the aftermath of the Norfolk trip, which dissolved the fantasy of Ruth’s dream
future. The complexity of Tommy’s animals echoes the depths of complexity in the clones
themselves. Kathy’s inability to interpret the drawings shows their humanness. Like human beings,
the drawings are deeply personal and sympathetic but hard to understand. They evoke an emotional
response, but do not offer up a clear body of knowledge.

24
The Cottages remain a limbo between childhood and adulthood, where Kathy waits out the time
between leaving Hailsham and becoming a carer. Marked by the arrivals and departures of other
students, the changing seasons bring the Hailsham students closer and closer to adulthood.
Characteristically, Kathy copes with these changes by recalling her childhood at Hailsham.
Meanwhile, Ruth’s forgetfulness implies that she deals with the loss of Hailsham by pushing it from
her memory. Although Kathy believes that Ruth is pretending not to remember, it is unclear whether
her forgetfulness is real or faked. Ruth’s words and actions are all filtered through Kathy’s memory,
leaving open the possibility that Kathy has misinterpreted her. Ruth’s reaction to finding the tape in
Kathy’s room is similarly ambiguous. However, the way she later uses their private conversation to
estrange Kathy and Tommy strongly implies her resentment.

The friction between Kathy and Ruth is only partly about Ruth’s forgetfulness. While the “Norfolk
effect” results in many subjects in the Cottages remaining taboo, this period is also the one in which
Ruth exposes Kathy’s feelings for Tommy as an underlying source of tension. At the bus shelter, Ruth
clearly reveals that she knows about Kathy’s feelings. Ruth also continues to use Kathy’s sexual
history against her, naming it as the reason for Tommy’s disinterest. Kathy characteristically channels
her anger in another direction. Controlling her reaction to Ruth’s comments about Tommy, she snaps
angrily at Ruth for forgetting about Hailsham instead. Kathy also continues to walk away from her
confrontations, abruptly leaving this conversation in the same way that she left her talk with Ruth
and Tommy in the churchyard. Her final departure from the Cottages carries on this pattern, leaving
her issues with both Ruth and Tommy unresolved. She leaves at a moment when her relationships
with both are fragile and tense. Her departure also abruptly ends the transitional phase in her life,
ushering her from the Cottages into her adult life as a carer.

Summary : Chapter 18

Although caring is difficult and lonely work, Kathy copes with the strain more effectively than many
other carers. Kathy spends hours driving to see her donors at hospitals and recovery centers. One
day, she runs into her Hailsham classmate Laura at a car service station. Laura is also a carer, and
seems completely worn down. Laura brings up a rumor that Ruth had a bad first donation, and asks
why Kathy has not asked to be her carer. Kathy says that she and Ruth did not part on good terms.
Kathy and Laura also discuss Hailsham, which has recently closed. Kathy’s memories skip back a year
or so to the day she heard that Hailsham was definitely closing. She wondered what would happen to
the carers and donors who had attended Hailsham, which linked them together. That night, she
thought about a clown she had recently seen while walking down a gloomy road. The clown was
walking ahead of her and carrying balloons. She imagined the closure of Hailsham would be like
cutting the strings and letting the balloons drift away.

After speaking with Laura, Kathy decides to become Ruth’s carer. It is about two months after Ruth’s
first donation, and she is still weak. Although their first visit is pleasant, Kathy and Ruth do not
discuss their parting at the Cottages. Kathy soon realizes that Ruth does not entirely trust her. Their
visits become increasingly guarded and silent, until Kathy is ready to give up. The situation changes
when they hear rumors of an old fishing boat stranded in the marshes by the Kingsfield recovery
center. Ruth wants to see the boat, and Kathy agrees to drive her. Kathy also suggests visiting
Tommy, who is at the Kingsfield recovery center. Ruth admits that she wants to see Tommy, whom

25
she has not seen since the Cottages. Kathy sends a message to Tommy’s carer, explaining that they
will visit the following week.

Summary : Chapter 19

Kathy drives Ruth to the Kingsfield recovery center. Ruth panics as Tommy approaches the car, but
Kathy gets out and hugs him. Tommy sits in the back seat with Ruth, where they greet each other
politely. On the drive, Ruth tells a rambling story about another donor at her center. Kathy somewhat
light-heartedly cuts her off, causing Tommy to laugh. Ruth is quiet for the rest of the drive. After
parking, they walk through the woods to find the boat. The walk tires Ruth, who panics again when
they have to cross a barbed wire fence. Kathy and Tommy help her through the fence. Looking back
on it, Kathy thinks they both felt badly for ganging up on Ruth in the car. As they walk to the boat,
Kathy realizes that Ruth would have snapped back at them for it in the old days. They find the boat,
but the marsh prevents them from getting too close. Kathy sits on a dead tree trunk, and Tommy sits
on a nearby trunk with Ruth. The boat is bleached and crumbling, but Ruth says it is beautiful.

Tommy says that he imagines Hailsham now looks like the marsh. Ruth shares that she recently
dreamed she was at Hailsham, looking out the window at a giant flood with rubbish floating in it. The
scene in her dream was tranquil, much like the marsh. Ruth also brings up Chrissie, who completed
on her second donation. Kathy saw Rodney not long afterwards, and she says that he seemed to be
doing okay. Ruth angrily tells Kathy that she could not understand what Rodney felt because she is
still a carer. Tommy says he thinks he was a lousy carer, while Ruth says that she felt ready to
become a donor after five years of caring. On the drive back, Kathy feels disappointed that she and
Tommy have not had much to do with one another during the day. Kathy pulls the car over to point
out a billboard featuring an open-plan office. She reminds Ruth of the magazine ad they saw near the
Cottages, and Tommy recalls their trip to Norfolk. Kathy says that Ruth should have looked into
working at an office. Tommy agrees, and points out that Ruth always talked as if she might qualify for
special treatment. Ruth protests that there was no way to look into it.

Suddenly, Ruth apologizes to Kathy for holding Kathy’s sexual urges against her. Ruth admits to
having the same urges, and to having sex with veterans at the Cottages. She also apologizes for
keeping Kathy and Tommy apart, when she knew they belonged together. She urges them to pursue
a deferral. Kathy begins to cry, protesting that it is too late. Ruth says that she has uncovered
Madame’s address for them, handing it on a piece of paper to Tommy for safekeeping. They drop
Tommy off at his recovery center and do not discuss what had just happened on their way back to
Ruth’s center. After the trip, Kathy and Ruth spend peaceful days reminiscing together at Ruth’s
recovery center. They still never directly reference their roadside conversation, but Ruth periodically
encourages Kathy to become Tommy’s carer. Ruth later completes after giving her second donation.
As Ruth is dying, Kathy promises to become Tommy’s carer. Their eyes lock briefly, and although she
is not certain, Kathy thinks that Ruth heard and understood her.

Analysis : Chapter 18 + 19

Kathy’s encounter with Laura recalls their shared childhood, bringing back memories of both
Hailsham and the Cottages. It also highlights the fragility of such connections, showing Laura to be an
exhausted shadow of the girl whom Kathy remembers. Their conversation again highlights Kathy’s

26
unreliability as a narrator. Although Hailsham has been closed for several years, Kathy has neglected
to share this information with the reader until now. Kathy’s reaction to the closure shows how
deeply her sense of identity is tied to the school. She worries not about the current students, but
about the former students scattered across the country. Kathy’s memory of the clown emphasizes
her sense of loss. The clown is a symbol of childhood, associated with birthday parties and circuses.
Kathy reinforces this symbolism in comparing the clown’s balloons to Hailsham students. Yet the
clown is eerily out of place on the road where she sees him, just as Kathy’s memories of Hailsham are
out of place in her adult life as a carer. Kathy sees Hailsham as a last anchor holding the former
students together. The school’s closing only exacerbates her sense of loss and loneliness, as
expressed in her image of the drifting balloons.

Kathy combats her increasing sense of disconnectedness by seeking out Ruth. However, silence and
suspicion continue to define their relationship as carer and donor. Like Laura, the adult Ruth has
become a faded and weary version of her former self. The walk to the marsh highlights Ruth’s
physical frailty, as she relies heavily on Tommy and Kathy for guidance. The marsh itself offers
additional reminders of mortality, including the dead tree trunks on which they sit. The boat is a
crumbling skeleton, stripped of its former vitality. Both Ruth and Tommy associate the marsh with
Hailsham, which emphasizes the fact that Hailsham itself is no more than a ghostly memory. Yet the
marsh is also a beautiful and tranquil place, suggesting that Hailsham still continues to offer a quiet
comfort. Although Ruth dreams about Hailsham as a flooded ruin, she feels a sense of peace and
safety in her imagined return to the school.

The visit to the boat is also a somber echo of the trip to Norfolk years earlier. Kathy drives while Ruth
and Tommy sit in back, highlighting the absence of Chrissie and Rodney. Their talk by the boat also
emphasizes this absence, revealing that Chrissie has completed. Chrissie’s death is a dark reminder of
the future that awaits Ruth, Tommy, and Kathy. Chrissie’s death also recalls the failed hopes that she
once had for a deferral. Instead of gaining time, Chrissie prematurely completes on her second
donation. In addition, the conversation by the boat highlights divisions between Kathy, Ruth, and
Tommy. While Kathy is still a carer, Ruth and Tommy are donors. Ruth herself marks Kathy as an
outsider for this reason, claiming that Kathy cannot understand how Rodney felt when Chrissie
completed because she is a carer. Reflecting this divide, Ruth and Tommy sit together on one tree
trunk while Kathy sits by herself on another.

In addition to their status as donors, Ruth and Tommy share a past as a couple. This also separates
them from Kathy, whose behavior hints at her own desire for closeness with Tommy. On the way to
the boat, Kathy alternates between upsetting Ruth and supporting her. After she cuts off Ruth’s story
in the car, she feels both a momentary closeness with Tommy and a sense of guilt towards Ruth. She
quite literally holds Ruth up on the walk, offering physical support her as if to balance her
insensitivity in the car. This oscillation reflects the ongoing tensions in Kathy’s friendship with Ruth,
which remains complicated by Kathy’s unspoken feelings for Tommy. Kathy’s decision to point out
the billboard is another characteristically indirect attempt to upset Ruth, linked again to Kathy’s own
sense of disappointment about Tommy. The open-plan office on the billboard further reinforces the
parallels between this trip and the visit to Norfolk. It ironically recalls Ruth’s former dreams, at a
moment when her future looks most bleak.

27
But while the office on the billboard reflects the disappointment of Ruth’s adolescent dreams, it also
continues to symbolize her hopefulness. Instead of dreaming about her own future, Ruth now hopes
to change the future for Tommy and Kathy. Ruth extends this hope in the form of Madame’s address,
which represents the chance for a deferral. Appropriately, her last gift to them is one of possibility. It
is also a sort of blessing, in which Ruth acknowledges the shared feelings between Kathy and Tommy.
Ruth’s apology and her gift show that despite her flaws, she is still essentially guided by a deep sense
of decency and goodness. They also mark a final turning point in her friendship with Kathy, which
becomes more open and nostalgic in the days that follow. Instead of speaking about the future, Ruth
and Kathy look back on their shared memories of the past. Ruth turns to memories of Hailsham in
the face of her coming donation, while her only allusions to the future concern Kathy and Tommy.

Summary : Chapter 20

Almost a year after their visit to the boat, Kathy becomes Tommy’s carer. Tommy has just given his
third donation and is recovering at the Kingsfield center, where he and Kathy spend relaxing
afternoons reading and talking. Eventually, they also begin to have sex. They are happy together, but
cannot avoid feeling that they waited until it was too late. After becoming Tommy’s carer, Kathy also
sees him drawing more imaginary animals. Tommy does not hide his drawings from Kathy, and even
asks for her opinion on them. Kathy feels relieved and happy, recognizing that Tommy has moved
past the tension that arose about his drawings at the Cottages. Kathy sees the animals as a sign that
Tommy is still preparing to apply for a deferral. But she also thinks that his drawings look more
labored, almost as if he copied them. She senses again that they are doing everything too late. As
summer ends, they expect to receive notice for Tommy’s fourth donation. Kathy tells Tommy that
she has visited the address Ruth provided, and watched Madame enter the house there. Tommy and
Kathy decide to visit Madame the following week. Tommy wonders where they might go, if granted a
deferral. He says that they will have to select carefully from among his animal drawings.

Summary : Chapter 21

Kathy and Tommy visit Madame’s house. They arrive in the evening, after a long day of medical tests
that leave Tommy feeling carsick. Kathy parks the car in town, where they spot Madame walking
down the street. Kathy and Tommy follow Madame, walking slightly behind her. This reminds Kathy
of following Ruth’s possible in Norfolk. When Madame reaches her front door, Kathy calls to her
from the gate. Madame’s demeanor is cold and severe, but she gives a small smile when Kathy says
that they are from Hailsham. Tommy says that they have brought some things for her gallery, and
wish to speak with her. Madame invites them inside, and asks them to wait in a front room while she
goes upstairs. As they wait, Tommy points out a framed picture of what he thinks is Hailsham
hanging in the corner of the room. They hear Madame speaking with a man upstairs.

When Madame returns, Kathy says that they have come to ask about deferrals. Kathy explains that
she and Tommy are in love, and Tommy says they think they know the purpose of Madame’s gallery.
Madame wants to know what he thinks, but looks at Kathy and asks, oddly, if she is “going too far.”
Tommy begins to explain his theory, and Madame realizes that they believe she looks at their
artwork to see their souls. She then turns to Kathy, asking again whether she goes too far. Tommy

28
admits that he did not get any art into Madame’s gallery at Hailsham, and offers to show his
drawings to her. Madame calls them “poor creatures,” and Kathy thinks there are tears in her eyes.
Madame again turns to Kathy and asks if she wishes to continue. This time, Kathy realizes that
Madame is actually talking to someone in the next room. Suddenly, Miss Emily enters in a
wheelchair. Madame tells Miss Emily to speak to them.

Analysis : Chapter 20 + 21

The Kingsfield recovery center is a large communal living space, echoing both Hailsham and the
Cottages in its lack of privacy. However, Tommy’s room is a small private refuge. Kathy and Tommy
find happiness together in this room, where they become physically intimate for the first time.
Tommy’s room is also a place of hopefulness, as it is here that they quietly make plans to apply for a
deferral. However, their happiness is mitigated by a sense of lost time. Like the Cottages, the
recovery center is essentially a temporary place of waiting. Tommy and Kathy begin their relationship
in the limited period of time between donations. The deferral again represents the possibility of
more time, but with far more urgency than it did at the Cottages. With his fourth donation on the
horizon, Tommy has almost run out of time. Kathy shows her doubtful sense of the future in the way
that she reacts to Tommy’s drawings, which she does not find as compelling or original as she once
did.

The visit to Madame is yet another echo of Norfolk. Kathy herself recognizes the parallel when she
and Tommy follow Madame down the street, recalling the way they followed Ruth’s possible in
Norfolk. This shows that Kathy and Tommy are still engaged in a version of that initial hopeful search.
Just as Ruth, Chrissie, and Rodney did in Norfolk, Tommy and Kathy seek the possibility of more time
as well as the possibility of learning about who they are. The visit to Madame also recalls their visit to
the boat, when Ruth presented them with Madame’s address. In the way that Chrissie and Rodney
were noticeably missing on that trip, Ruth is noticeably absent from the visit to Madame. Each echo
of the Norfolk trip highlights another loss, as well as the shrinking hopes of those who remain. Of the
five students who visited Norfolk, only Kathy and Tommy are left to pursue hopes of a deferral. Their
opportunity depends entirely on Ruth, whose gift of Madame’s address makes the visit possible at
all.

Echoing the way that Ruth’s possible led the students to an art gallery, Kathy and Tommy hope that
Madame will lead them to her legendary gallery. Significantly, the artwork that they notice in her
house is a picture of Hailsham. This suggests that Hailsham remains important to Madame’s own
memory. It also emphasizes the ghostliness of Hailsham, which now exists only in memories and
images. Ironically, this copy of Hailsham is now one of the only ways to revisit the school. Madame’s
house also replicates the mysterious aspects of Hailsham. Madame herself does not provide answers.
Allowing Tommy and Kathy to do the explaining, she spends much of the conversation asking her
own questions. Her cryptic speech hides more than it reveals, much as the house itself hides other
occupants. Miss Emily’s surveillance, meanwhile, echoes the kind of surveillance practiced at
Hailsham. Just as the Hailsham guardians watched the students closely while hiding information from
them, Miss Emily observes Tommy and Kathy while hidden behind closed doors. Her entrance
suggests that at last the answers to Tommy and Kathy’s questions may also come into the open.

Summary : Chapter 22

29
Miss Emily greets Tommy and Kathy, whom she remembers from Hailsham. She says that she only
has a short time to talk because she is expecting movers to come for a bedside cabinet that she is
selling. Miss Emily is unwell, but hopes that she will not need her wheelchair for long. She says that
Madame, who she refers to as Marie-Claude, feels disillusioned about the way their Hailsham project
ended. However, Miss Emily feels proud of what they accomplished. She is familiar with the rumor
about deferrals, but confirms that deferrals have never existed. Miss Emily explains that Hailsham
was part of a small progressive movement dedicated to making the donation program more humane.
Many people preferred to see the students as less than human, because this made it easier to justify
using their organs. While most clones grew up in terrible conditions, Hailsham offered a benevolent
alternative. Miss Emily and Madame showed the students’ artwork at special exhibitions to prove to
the public that clones had souls.

Miss Emily explains that although Hailsham had many supporters in the seventies, public opinion
eventually turned against them. One contributing factor was the Morningdale scandal, named for a
controversial scientist who wanted to produce genetically enhanced children. Hailsham closed after
losing all its sponsors, and large government “homes” became the only option for raising students.
Miss Emily and Madame still have a pile of student artwork upstairs, along with their memories of
Hailsham. Miss Emily encourages Kathy and Tommy to consider themselves lucky, given the benefits
they received growing up at Hailsham. Tommy asks about Miss Lucy’s departure from Hailsham. Miss
Emily explains that while most guardians wished to shelter the students, Miss Lucy wanted to make
the students more aware of their futures.

Kathy tells Miss Emily that Madame has always been afraid of the students. Miss Emily admits that
she also felt revulsion towards them, but fought successfully against those feelings. Miss Emily
excuses herself to speak with the movers. Kathy and Tommy prepare to leave, but Kathy pauses on
the way out to ask Madame about their encounter years ago in the Hailsham dormitory. Kathy
wonders aloud if Madame understood the story that she imagined for the song “Never Let Me Go.”
Madame says actually cried because she was thinking about the approach of a harsh new world. In
Kathy, she saw a little girl holding onto the old world and pleading for it never to let her go. On the
drive home, Tommy says that he thinks Miss Lucy was right in wanting to be honest with the
students. He asks Kathy to pull over, and walks off into the woods. Kathy suddenly hears him
screaming. She finds him raging in a muddy field, and holds him until he calms down and holds her
back. They return to the car, where Kathy wonders aloud if Tommy threw tantrums as a child
because on some level he always knew something the rest of them did not.

Summary : Chapter 23

After the visit to Madame, Tommy stops drawing his animals in front of Kathy. He often shifts their
topic of conversation from Hailsham to his donor friends. He also says that Kathy will not understand
certain things because she is not a donor, which Kathy resents. When the notice for his fourth
donation comes, Tommy tells Kathy that he wants a different carer. He points out that Ruth wanted
“the other thing” for them, and would not have wanted Kathy to be his carer at the end. Kathy is
angry at first, but acquiesces. Kathy and Tommy spend a last few weeks together. On Kathy’s last day
as his carer, they talk about Ruth. Tommy says that while he and Kathy always wished “to find things
out,” Ruth always wished “to believe in things.”

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Tommy also says that his relationship with Kathy reminds him of two people trying to hold onto one
another in a river, who eventually have to let go. He says that although they have loved each other
their whole lives, they cannot stay together forever. Tommy and Kathy share a goodbye kiss, and
then Kathy drives away. Looking back, Kathy insists that she will not lose her memories although she
has lost everyone she loves. She says that she drove back to Norfolk shortly after Tommy completed.
Standing before a barbed wire fence, she looked out at a field and imagined Tommy appearing on
the horizon. However, she stopped the fantasy just as Tommy waved at her from the horizon. Kathy
says that although she cried, her crying was not out of control. She got back in the car and drove
away.

Analysis : Chapter 22 + 23

In Madame’s house, Tommy and Kathy find the answers that they have been seeking since
childhood. But like the search for Ruth’s possible, this search also ends in disappointment as Miss
Emily once and for all dismisses the possibility of a deferral. In answering their questions, Miss Emily
also displays a somewhat patronizing and self-satisfied attitude. She absolves herself of responsibility
for the students, justifying her present complacency by citing the unfavorable state of public opinion.
She also exposes the hypocritical nature of her own charity. While they dedicated Hailsham to
improving the lives of the students, Miss Emily and Madame could not help feeling revulsion towards
them. Although Miss Emily and Madame attempted to show the clones’ humanity to the outside
world, they themselves struggled to believe what they preached. Meanwhile, Kathy’s own narrative
is a far more compelling testament to her humanity. When Miss Emily is explicit about her feelings of
revulsion, she reveals another facet of the ‘pretending’ that was fundamental to life at Hailsham. Not
only did the guardians cover up details about the donations program, they also sought to hide their
own aversion to the students. Hailsham thus lives up to its name, exposed as a sham maintained
through elaborate acts of deception.

Yet Miss Emily also confirms that acts of deception were a central source of tension among the
guardians at Hailsham. Her disagreement with Miss Lucy reflects more universal questions about
whether and how long to protect the innocence of childhood. Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth echo this
divide in their own attitudes towards discovering the truth. While Ruth’s desire “to believe in things”
made the nurturing Miss Geraldine her natural favorite at Hailsham, Tommy and Kathy’s desire “to
find things out” drew them to Miss Lucy. Accordingly, Ruth dies still believing in the possibility of a
deferral while Tommy and Kathy discover the truth. Although Madame does have a “gallery” of
student artwork stored upstairs, this gallery turns out only to be a shrine to the memory of Hailsham.
Much like Kathy herself, Madame and Miss Emily have held onto Hailsham only through objects and
the memories that they associate with it. Madame herself exhibits a more emotional and conflicted
response to Kathy and Tommy than Miss Emily does. Her tearfulness echoes the way she cried in
Kathy’s doorway at Hailsham, and her explanation of that episode shows that she too is experiencing
a deep sense of loss. Madame mourns for the loss of a kinder and gentler past that was let go in the
name of a harsh new future.

Tommy’s wild raging echoes his temper tantrum on the muddy Hailsham football field at the start of
the novel. Likewise, Kathy’s attempt to calm and comfort him echoes her response to his childhood
tantrum. Her characteristic restraint again contrasts with Tommy’s outpouring of emotion. Where
Kathy keeps her emotions in check, his screams reflect the emotional devastation of them both. This

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time, however, Kathy and Tommy embrace. Their response to the inevitability of losing one another
is to hold on tightly, expressing the plea embedded in the song title “Never Let Me Go.” Yet in the
days after their visit to Madame, Tommy begins a process of letting go. Kathy no longer sees him
drawing, which shows that he has let go of the hopefulness and possibility that his animals
represented. He seems to let go of Hailsham, speaking more of his donor friends than of his
childhood memories. And he at last lets go of Kathy, asking her to find him another carer before he
gives his last donation. In comparing himself and Kathy to two people who must let go of one
another in a river, he affirms that the pain of letting go is an inevitable consequence of loving and
being loved.

Kathy displays characteristic restraint in reference to Tommy’s death, mentioning it only after the
fact when she describes her last trip to Norfolk. She holds her emotions in check, suppressing her
grief with understated description. Kathy’s visit to the Norfolk field is a final echo of her first trip to
Norfolk with Ruth, Tommy, Chrissie, and Rodney. Her solitary return to the “lost corner” of England is
a symbolic gesture, expressing Kathy’s desire to recover all that she has lost. Kathy allows herself to
engage in one last fantasy, as she imagines Tommy coming over the horizon. However, this last
fantasy is also a limited one, as she does not let herself imagine a reunion with Tommy, imagining
him only from a distance. In calling it an indulgence, Kathy also shows that her fantasy is without any
sense of hopeful possibility. After losing everyone she loves, Kathy is resigned to becoming a donor
herself. Kathy’s memories are the only thing she has left to hold onto, and she continues to refuse to
let them go. Her last action in the novel is both characteristic and tragic—she drives away, leaving
behind Norfolk and the fantasy of recovering those she has lost.

Themes

The Relentless Passage of Time and the Inevitability of Loss

Although she is only thirty-one at the start of the novel, Kathy has almost reached the end of her life.
She has lost almost everyone she knew from Hailsham, holding onto them only in her memories.
While Kathy’s retrospective narration shows the inevitability of loss, many of her memories reflect a
desire slow the relentless march of time towards these losses. The deferral rumor clearly reflects this
desire: in hoping for deferrals from donating organs, the students embody the deeply human wish
for more time in the face of death. But even the idea of a deferral reinforces the inevitability of death
and loss: a deferral is only a brief extension on life, a temporary hold that puts off the future instead
of changing it. This same desire for more time ironically motivates the donation program, which
depends on the students’ internal organs to extend the lives of people in the outside world.

The Power of Memory

Kathy copes with the losses in her life by turning to memories of the past. She preserves the memory
of Hailsham long after it has closed, just as she preserves her memories of Tommy and Ruth long
after their deaths. The novel’s title epitomizes this desire to hold on. The phrase “never let me go” is
somewhere between a plea and a demand, reflecting a deeply human need to hold onto, and be held
by, loved ones. Kathy’s memories are her way of holding onto everyone and everything she has lost.
However, Kathy’s memory is also fragmented and somewhat incomplete. Her narrative is a process
of recovery and an attempt to make sense of her memories. She admits to forgetting and
misremembering details, showing that memory is just as fragile as it is powerful. Her first-person
narration also highlights the absence of other characters’ memories. Ruth and Tommy only appear as

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reflected through Kathy’s memory, which means that their own thoughts and motivations remain
somewhat ambiguous.

The Dignity of Human Life

Kathy’s narrative is ultimately a testament to the dignity and humanity of the students whom she
remembers. The students have less time than their counterparts in the outside world, but their lives
are as rich with the hopes, joys, disappointments, and sorrows that define human experience.
Kathy’s memories also ironize the efforts of Miss Emily and Madame to demonstrate the students’
humanity through their childhood artwork. Despite their good intentions, both Miss Emily and
Madame feel revulsion towards the students whose lives they seek to improve. Kathy, meanwhile,
shares the memories of her loved ones with quiet dignity and tenderness. Her narrative speaks for
itself, showing the depths of her humanity in ways that Madame and Miss Emily are not capable of
doing.

Motifs

Copies
The motif of copies and copying begins with the students themselves, who are clones copied from
models in the outside world. Kathy later notices that the students at the Cottages copy their gestures
and mannerisms from what they watch on television, and sees Ruth copy her idea of a perfect future
from a magazine ad. These observations confirm for Kathy that the students are living in imitation of
the real world. Copies reappear in Norfolk, where Kathy finds a copy of her lost tape after a
disappointing search for Ruth’s “possible.” Yet although the students are copies, the novel ultimately
speaks to their originality and individuality. For instance, Tommy’s imaginary animals are a
counterpoint to the gestures of copying that Kathy observes at the Cottages. His drawings are
intricate and surprising creations, difficult to interpret and highly compelling. In this way, Tommy’s
drawings parallel the novel itself: Kathy’s narrative is not a copy, but a complex and compelling
account that is deeply personal to her experience.

Pretending and Fantasy

This motif recurs throughout the novel, where most of the characters participate in some form of
pretending or fantasy. Hailsham itself is an elaborate act of pretending, signaled by the “sham”
embedded in its name. In order to shield students from their future, for instance, the Hailsham
guardians refuse to speak directly about donations. Ruth’s childhood make-believe games at
Hailsham are another form of pretending, a fantasy in which she has control of secret information
that others do not. However, even fantasies at Hailsham reflect a shadow of reality: the imagined
plot against Miss Geraldine reflects the students’ real fears about what lies beyond the walls of
Hailsham, as well as their fears of losing the guardians who protect them. As they grow older, the
students engage in various fantasies about the future, such as Ruth’s dream of working in an office
and the rumored deferrals on donations. These fantasies become increasingly limited as time goes
on, until Kathy is left alone with just the fantasy of Tommy on the horizon.

Lost and Found

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This recurring motif begins with Miss Emily’s description of Norfolk as a “lost corner,” which causes
the students to imagine that all lost property found in England winds up in Norfolk. The idea of
finding lost objects in Norfolk is a childhood comfort to the students at Hailsham. It reassuringly
suggests that if loss is inevitable, what is lost can always be found again. However, this fantasy
becomes less compelling to the students as they grow older and begin to experience human loss.
Although Kathy finds a copy of her lost cassette tape in Norfolk, it only awakens a wish to believe in
Norfolk’s power. When Kathy returns to Norfolk after Tommy’s death at the end of the novel, she
does so only to indulge one last time in the fantasy of recovering what she has lost. Ultimately, Kathy
can recover her losses only in her memory and in her imagination.

Symbols

The Open-Plan Office

The open-plan office appears three times in the novel, and symbolizes the students’ gradually
diminishing sense of possibility for the future. Ruth and Kathy first see the office in a magazine,
where it inspires what Ruth refers to as her “dream future.” At this point, none of the students have
begun donating organs. They are in a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, and still
able to hold onto the dream of an alternate future. The open-plan office reappears in Norfolk, where
the students search for Ruth’s “possible.” Here, the office signals the closing off of possibility. The
woman in the office turns out to not be Ruth’s possible, solidifying the impossibility of Ruth’s dream
future. The office itself has floor-to-ceiling glass windows, which emphasize the students’ relation to
the “dream future” that it represents: they can observe it from the outside, but cannot actually
participating in it.

The open-plan office reappears on a billboard when Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy are returning from their
visit to the boat in Norfolk. At this point, the office has a far more sobering effect. It is a reminder of
past dreams at a moment when the future for all three has already been set in motion. Yet the open-
plan office also remains a symbol of hope, as Ruth hands Madame’s address to Kathy and Tommy
underneath the billboard. Ruth knows that her life is almost over, but Madame’s address introduces
the possibility that at least Tommy and Kathy might extend their time together.

The Song “Never Let Me Go”

As a child at Hailsham, Kathy acquires a cassette tape of the Judy Bridgewater album Songs after Dark
at one of the Sales. Her favorite track on the album, “Never Let Me Go,” gives the novel its title. The
song symbolizes both the depths of human love and the fear of losing those whom one loves. This
becomes clear in the story that Kathy invents to explain the song’s lyrics. Kathy imagines that the
song is about a woman afraid of losing her baby. Holding tightly to the child, she sings a song that
expresses her happiness as well as her fear of loss. This image of holding on recurs several times in
the novel, most notably when Kathy and Tommy hold one another in the field after learning that
deferrals do not exist. When the tape itself disappears, Kathy has her first experience of loss that
presages the losses she will later experience on a much larger and more human scale.

The crumbling boat is a symbol of mortality, highlighting the passage of time and the inevitability of
loss that comes with it. Kathy’s visit to the boat with Ruth and Tommy echoes their first trip to
Norfolk, but with noticeable differences. Both Chrissie and Rodney are absent, and their conversation
reveals that Chrissie has already completed. Ruth and Tommy are both donors at this point, and Ruth

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exhibits signs of physical weakness. The boat itself recalls a bleached skeleton, and is noticeably
surrounded by dead tree trunks. The scene before them reminds both Tommy and Ruth of Hailsham,
but a Hailsham transformed with the passage of time. Tommy speculates that Hailsham looks like the
marsh now that it has closed, while Ruth shares her dream of a Hailsham surrounded by floodwaters.
Although their visit is tinged with sadness and a sense of loss, the students also find the boat
beautiful. In this way, the boat echoes their memories of Hailsham. They cannot revisit Hailsham or
their childhood there together. The ghostly boat in the marsh is as close to recovering this past as
they can come.

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