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Making meaning : death, dignity, and dasein in kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go.

Angel Katrina Tuohy , Montclair State University

Date of Award

Document type, degree name.

Master of Arts (MA)

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College of Humanities and Social Sciences

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Thesis sponsor/dissertation chair/project chair.

Jonathan Greenberg

Committee Member

Jeffrey Gonzalez

Jeffrey Miller

This thesis explores Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go , with a focus on the way the novel considers large questions concerning the “meaning” of human life and the nature of “human condition” as Ishiguro calls it in interviews discussing his novel, using language and terminology provided by phenomenologist and philosopher Martin Heidegger in his seminal work Being and Time. This thesis builds on these questions to consider the complex ways that the concept of “dignity” as shown through the experiences of clones who have socially predetermined lifespans complicates issues surrounding the inevitability of death, the uncanniness of clones and organ donation, and the reluctance to resist circumstances that cannot be changed. Ultimately, the novel provides a way of approaching a kind of bittersweet hopefulness in moving towards death, despite the crushing weight of its, and our, unalterable circumstances.

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Tuohy, Angel Katrina, "Making Meaning : Death, Dignity, and Dasein in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go" (2020). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects . 332. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/332

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The humanity of inaction: a comparison of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never let me go with Michael Bay's The island

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Identity, humanity and bioethics: philosophical aspects of Never Let Me Go

This paper is intended as a contribution to the ongoing discussion within philosophy of film and literature regarding the extent to which film and literary works can be a medium for raising philosophical concerns. It focuses on Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and it analyzes the story with reference to its dual nature, humanistic and bioethical. The main assumption is that both, novel and film, are philosophically rich in addressing some of the most fundamental concerns about the very nature of who we are as human beings, though the conclusions one reaches on these issues might vary due to the differences between the novel and the film. Given the depiction of artificially created people, the story challenges the boundaries of our biological identity once it is liable to scientific modifications. The paper argues that Ishiguro's story, though not primarily intended to asking these questions, nevertheless confronts us with the need to think about philosophical aspects and implications of science that lies behind the doors of Hailsham community. The need for such an analysis is all the more pressing, given that scientific and technological achievements at our disposal today make it possible for Ishiguro's dystopia to become our reality tomorrow.

Related Papers

Ria Taketomi

Abstract This essay analyzes the children’s imaginative play in Kazuo Ishiguro’s various novels, with a special focus on Never Let Me Go. Children often engage in various types of repetitive imaginative play, acting out stories about things that do not actually exist in order to avoid the pain of confronting their problems. An exploration of children’s play and the roles performed by the guardians and Madam helps us read the novel from a new perspective – the Mujo view of Buddhism. Mujo is the Buddhist philosophy which describes “the impermanence of all phenomena.” In Never Let Me Go, shadows of death weigh heavily on the reader as an unavoidable reminder of the nature of life. This brings Mujo to the Japanese readers’ minds. The Mujo view of Buddhism has imbued Japanese literature since the Kamakura Era (1185), and a reading of Never Let Me Go from the Mujo perspective sheds light on the condition of its protagonists. My analysis aims to introduce the Mujo doctrine to anglophone literary studies by foregrounding the poignancy and resilience found in Never Let Me Go.

Silvia Caporale

In his novels, Kazuo Ishiguro uses the narrators as storytellers, both in a Benjaminian and in an Arendtian sense. He uses this literary strategy in order to connect his characters’ construction of identity to their fragmented memory, a process which allows them to recover from their phantasmal and unresolved past. Th e central aim of this paper is to demonstrate that Ishiguro deploys the use of the literary strategy of the narrators’ storytelling diff erently in his fi rst four novels and that it plays a more active role in When We Were Orphans (2000) and Never Let Me Go (2005). In these later novels the storytelling is closer to a dynamic subject agency and is used to demonstrate the narrator’s rejection of falling into a paralyzing sense of victimization. Selfknowledge is more actively related to a process of critical understanding of the narrators’ life experiences, as in their tales they leave aside the Benjaminian apocalyptic vision of the historical experience as paralysis an...

Proceedings of the ESIDRP International Conference: English Studies at the Interface of Disciplines: Research and Practice (ESIDRP)

Tijana Matović

The overwhelming scale of climate change demands new ways of bridging national, cultural, and taxonomic differences. However, ecocritical frameworks that emphasise non-human agency in an attempt to make human individuals empathise with other people, other species, and the earth are haunted by the tenacious spectre of nineteenth-century classical liberalism’s characterization of personhood through specious, fragile dichotomies that can largely fall under the general rubric of agency versus determinism. The putatively opposed terms of these binaries are malleable, and control of their designation is a key element of control societies. Contemporary scholarship has identified several ways subjects bleed into objects, but, even though the ‘individual’ should theoretically collapse under its own ontological pressure in our current biopolitical age, neoliberalism largely holds onto classical liberalism’s central dogma of a person as an agential individual. I analyse the novel Never Let Me ...

American, British and Canadian Studies

Ljubica Matek

Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel A Pale View of Hills (1982) represents both trauma and migration as continuous processes rather than finite stages in the life of Etsuko, the novel’s protagonist. This essay focuses on the ways in which trauma is narrated in the novel, arguing that in representing the protagonist’s life, Ishiguro mimics the narrative strategies used by trauma survivors. Written from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, the novel is a discontinuous narrative marked by indeterminacy and ambiguity, which “travels” from Britain to Japan and back, and which evinces biographical gaps and uncertainties that blur the boundary between Etsuko’s past and present, making it impossible for her to fully cross that boundary. The parallels between her life and the life of her friend Sachiko as well as her dubious narration, a consequence of creating a false version of traumatic events as a protective measure against their impact, serve to emphasize the incompleteness of both her migration and her story.

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies

International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies

This article explores personhood and its constitution within the backdrop of the rules of the infrastructures in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. By choosing human clones as the oppressed, Ishiguro challenges humanistic legacies of personhood at deep and complex levels, and thus locates the discrimination not in the marked bodies but rules and language-games that go beyond such discernable differences. Never Let Me Go aims to unmask the fallacious definitions that establish the bedrocks of the modernized forms of life. Drawing upon Wittgenstein's notions of rules, meaning, and language-games and complementing them with Marya Schechtman's mapping of self-constitution in the person-space, this article claims that the features of personhood are not to be found in the contents of the body, but within the forms defined by the rules of the infrastructure of personhood. NLMG exposes the deception of the forms that create the illusion of content in the most foundational norms and practices of humanistic discourse.

Santi Ranjan Sing

In an era when “posthumanism” and “transhumanism” have turned out to be topics of philosophical and scientific enquiry, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) pushes forward the conflict between critical posthumanism and transhumanisms. Transhumanism, as it aims at human enhancement through science and technology, still centers on the idea of anthropocentrism. On the other hand, critical posthumanism, rejecting the idea of human uniqueness, proposes that the human co-evolved with other life forms depending upon each other. Cloning being the prominent aspect of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel in order to constitute a better future society, (unbeknown to them) the cloned ‘individuals’ are designed to be only the organ donors to the humans who need certain organs to survive. And that has become normal in that speculative world of Ishiguro, until one of the three main characters Ruth, after finding her “possible” (on whom Ruth is cloned), reveals that they are modelled from “trash”. This revela...

Modern Fiction Studies (MFS)

Kelly M Rich

Set in late 1990s England, Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go presents a world that remedies previously incurable diseases through the aid of a government cloning program, which harvests organs from human clones. While this scheme doesn't share the same status of public utility as water or gas, it nevertheless supplies goods that, over time, have become less like commodities and more like necessities. As the reader eventually learns, the program is a vast enterprise, large enough to assure the British population that "their own children, their spouses, their parents, their friends, did not die from cancer, motor neurone disease, heart disease" (263). Its development echoes those raised by developments in infrastructure, whereby a previous luxury becomes more widely available (even, perhaps, a necessity) through technological advancement. 1 With these dystopian valences, Never Let Me Go is defamiliarizing for readers of Ishiguro's oeuvre, moving away from the locatable historical settings that characterize novels such as A Pale View of Hills, The Remains of the Day, and When We Were Orphans. However, Never Let Me Go maintains Ishiguro's trademark protagonist: a highly self-conscious character nostalgically, if ambivalently, orbiting a lost past. Narrated by Kathy H., a clone about to begin "donating" her organs, this lost past takes the form of Hailsham, a specialized institution within the larger cloning program that allows its charges to spend their child-f MFS Modern Fiction Studies,

Danijela Mazar

Matthew Eatough

This essay examines Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go in the light of recent studies focusing on organ recipients’ quality of life. These quality of life studies assess the desirability of costly and painful surgeries such as organ transplantation by determining the effect that they will have on patients’ perceived quality of life. This essay shows how quality of life studies’ methodology shares the same formal structures of knowledge as Ishiguro’s Bildungsroman. In particular, the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to calculate patients’ quality of life demonstrates the same assumptions about the body, professionalization, and Bildung that can be found in Ishiguro’s novel. I argue that in both quality of life studies and Never Let Me Go the body functions as a concrete measure of time available to an individual, and that this time is specifically allotted for the pursuit of vocational aspirations. In this context, I propose that affective labor plays a constitutive role in making patients indifferent to their bodies and in encouraging investments in professional achievement.

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Berkeley Undergraduate Journal

Moral Theories and Cloning in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

• Petrillo, Stephanie

Published Web Location

In this paper I will consider the ethics of cloning as it occurs in Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian novel Never Let Me Go from the standpoint of a number of moral theories – consequentialism, natural law theory, Kantian moral theory, rights based theory, and virtue ethics. In light of the moral theories, I will develop an analysis for why cloning-for-biomedical-research as outlined in the 2002 document Human Cloning and Human Dignity by the President’s Council on Bioethics is morally permissible, while the cloning-based donation program in the novel is morally impermissible.

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Never Let Me Go

Kazuo ishiguro, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Although the clones have different biological “beginnings” from other human beings in England—who are glimpsed only fleetingly in the novel, with the exception of the staff at Hailsham —they live lives notable for their fundamentally “human” qualities. That is, Kathy , Ruth , and Tommy must learn to live with one another, cope with romantic failures and excitements, and confront the realities of their own deaths. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy and the other clones are remarkably passive regarding acceptance of their fates—that they must donate their organs and then “complete.”

At first, Ishiguro appears to play with the reader’s expectations about this gruesome form of social donation: he reveals information about the donations slowly, and clearly intends for the impersonality of this system to shock. But, as the novel goes on, Ishiguro makes a more masterful and exciting point—that, in fact, the shock we feel at the definitiveness of the clones’ fate, and their willingness to go along with it, ought to cause us to think about our own lives, the constraints we accept in them, and the inevitability of our own demise. This “second shock,” then, shows us that perhaps our own fates are not so different from the clones’. Although we have a greater variety of choices in our lives, we also must die, and as we approach death, we have about as much choice as do the clones; whether we “accept” our deaths or not, we will eventually die.

What is most shocking, too, is the willingness of “normal” members of English society to hold the clones at arm’s length. Although the reader begins to recognize that Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are just like us, the novel’s “normal humans” insist on dismantling institutions like Hailsham, and the notion of “postponements” and other human facets of clone life are revealed to be baseless rumors. Much of Kathy’s adult life has been a lonely one, driving around the country’s highways and checking in on the donors for whom she cares. The irony here, then, is complex. Kathy’s loneliness is not so dissimilar from the loneliness of any normal human professional. But because UK society has decided the clones are fundamentally different from them, they tightly circumscribe the life-possibilities of the clones. At the same time, however, the reader sees, in the clones’ transition from student to carer to donor, similar emotions to “normal” growing up, normal romantic life, normal professional development.

The reader, in this way, feels fully prepared to acknowledge the humanity of the main characters, even as society of the novel pushes them to the margins. Kathy is nevertheless able to salvage, from this, a life of genuine human connections and experiences. Although she owns little and has no family, she does have her deep and abiding friendships with Tommy and Ruth, which give her great comfort, even as she approaches her time as a donor.

Life, Death, and Humanity ThemeTracker

Life, Death, and Humanity Quotes in Never Let Me Go

If she doesn’t like us, why does she want our work? Why doesn’t she just leave us alone? Who asks her to come here anyway?

It’s not good that I smoked. It wasn’t good for me so I stopped it. But what you must understand is that for you, all of you, it’s much, much worse to smoke than it ever was for me. You’ve been told about it. You’re students. You’re . . . special .

I froze in shock. Then within a second or two, I began to feel a new kind of alarm, because I could see there was something strange about the situation. The door was almost half open . . . but Madame hadn’t nearly come up to the threshold. She was out in the corridor, standing very still . . . . And the odd thing was she was crying. It might even have been one of her sobs that had come through the song to jerk me out of me dream.

The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you’re going to have decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly. . . . Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults . . . and before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do.

You were different. I remember. You were never embarrassed about your collection and you kept it. I wish now I’d done that too.

The point about Chrissie—and this applied to a lot of the veterans—was that for all her slightly patronizing manner towards us when we’d first arrived, she was awestruck about our being from Hailsham. It took me a long time to realize this.

We all know it. We’re modeled from trash . Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren’t psychos. That’s what we come from. We all know it, so why don’t we say it?

It was that exchange, when we finally mentioned the closing of Hailsham, that suddenly brought us close again, and we hugged, quite spontaneously, not so much to comfort one another, but as a way of affirming Hailsham, the fact that it was still there in both of our memories.

I’d like you to forgive me, but I don’t expect you to. Anyway, that’s not the half of it, not even a small bit of it, actually. The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart. That was the worst thing I did. . . . What I want is for you to put it right. Put right what I messed up for you.

Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?

I was thinking about back then, at Hailsham, when you used to go bonkers like that, and we couldn’t understand it. We couldn’t understand how you could ever get like that. . . . I was thinking maybe the reason you used to get like that was because at some level you always knew . . . . That’s a funny idea. Maybe I did know, somewhere deep down. Something the rest of you didn’t.

. . . and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until I’d see it was Tommy, and he’d wave, maybe even call. . . . and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn’t sobbing . . . I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.

Never Let Me Go – FAQs

Q: What is the main setting of Never Let Me Go ? A: The novel is primarily set in England, moving from the fictional Hailsham boarding school to the Cottages, and eventually, to various donation centers. The settings reflect the stages of life and growing awareness of the characters.

Q: Who is the narrator of Never Let Me Go ? A: Kathy H. is the narrator of the novel . She is a 31-year-old “carer” who reflects back on her life and the lives of her friends, Tommy and Ruth, from their time at Hailsham to their adult lives.

Q: What genre does Never Let Me Go belong to? A: The novel blends elements of science fiction , specifically dystopian fiction , with literary fiction , creating a narrative that explores deep ethical and existential themes through the lives of its characters.

Q: What is the significance of the title Never Let Me Go ? A: The title resonates on multiple levels, evoking themes of love, loss, and the desire for connection and significance in a world that seeks to use and discard the characters. It reflects the emotional bonds between the characters and their struggle against their inevitable fate.

Q: Are the characters aware of their fate from the beginning? A: No, the students at Hailsham gradually become aware of their true purpose—to be organ donors—over time. The novel explores their journey of discovery and coming to terms with their destinies.

Q: What is the role of art and creativity in the novel ? A: Art and creativity are central motifs that represent the characters’ desire for individuality and meaning beyond their designated roles in society. The art they create is a form of expression and resistance against their fate.

Q: How does Never Let Me Go explore the theme of humanity? A: The novel questions what it means to be human through the experiences of its clone characters, who, despite being bred for organ donation, exhibit deep emotional complexity, desires, and the capacity for love, challenging the notion of humanity as purely biological.

Q: What is the ethical dilemma at the heart of Never Let Me Go ? A: The ethical dilemma revolves around the morality of cloning and using human clones for organ donations. It prompts readers to consider the value of life, the rights of the individual versus the needs of society, and the ethical boundaries of scientific advancement.

Identify the Literary Devices Used in the Following Paragraph:

“After a long, content silence, Ruth said something strange. ‘I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end, it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart.’ That’s how it felt anyway, like there was truth in what she was saying, even though it scared me.”

• Metaphor : Ruth’s description of the river and two people struggling to hold onto each other serves as a metaphor for her relationship with Kathy and possibly Tommy, symbolizing the forces that eventually pull them apart despite their efforts to stay connected.
• Imagery : The vivid description of the river with fast-moving water creates a strong visual image that enhances the emotional impact of Ruth’s revelation.
• Foreshadowing : This passage foreshadows the eventual separation and loss the characters will face, hinting at the inevitability of their fates within the broader current of their lives.
• Symbolism : The river itself can be seen as a symbol of life’s uncontrollable forces and the nature of existence that carries individuals on paths they cannot always control or resist.

Never Let Me Go

By kazuo ishiguro.

This is a science fiction, dystopian novel that was published in 2005. It depicts a world in which individuals are cloned for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs. 

About the Book

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro is a science fiction, dystopian novel that was published in 2005. It depicts a world in which individuals are cloned for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs. 

Kazuo Ishiguro is a British writer who was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1954. He’s also regarded for his screenwriting, music, and short stories. He’s one of the most important fiction writers in contemporary literature, having been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature for his novels.

Never Let Me Go and Kazuo Ishiguro

‘Never Let Me Go’ is one of his better-known novels. It was nominated for the Booker Prize (one of four times the author has been nominated for this prize). It is also regarded as one of the best novels of 2005 and one of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.

The novel is set in a dystopian version of late 20th-century English and is narrated by a woman named Kathy, who is a clone created for the sole purpose of harvesting her organs. She spends much of the novel recalling her time at Hailsham. This real area of English is transformed in the novel into a seemingly idyllic but mysterious boarding school in the English countryside. There, the novel examines her complex relationships with two key characters, Ruth and Tommy.

The novel gradually unveils the truth about the characters’ lives and how they adapted to the knowledge when it was revealed to them.

The author’s writing is perfectly depicted in this novel. It is often characterized by its emotional depth, use of subtle prose, and often unreliable narrators, like Kathy herself. Kathy spends much of the novel trying to make sense of her life and the world she inhabits.

Books Related to Never Let Me Go

If you’re interested in exploring books related to Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go,’ you should explore dystopian fiction more broadly. Books like ‘Oryx and Crake’ and ‘ The Handmaid’s Tale ’ by Margaret Atwood are fantastic choices. Both novels depict a realistic future in which the world is very different from reality. ‘Oryx and Crake’ is part of the “MaddAddam” Trilogy. It explores genetic engineering, biotechnology, and their impact on society in a way that readers of ‘Never Let Me Go’ are likely to enjoy.

‘ The Giver ’ by Lois Lowry is another great option. Although written for young adults, the novel remains widely popular. It features a seemingly utopian society and explores memory and societal control in a way that’s reminiscent of Ishiguro’s writing.

Readers might also be interested in:

• ‘Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick – this well-loved novel (which was adapted into the movie “Blade Runner”) explores what it means to be human in a world populated by androids.
• ‘ The Road ’ by Cormac McCarthy – This beautiful and deeply sad novel explores a post-apocalyptic future in which a father and son struggle to survive.
• ‘ Brave New World ’ by Aldous Huxley – This is a classic choice and a well-loved novel that depicts a future society in which individuals are genetically engineered and conditioned for specific roles in society.

Legacy of Never Let Me Go

Ishiguro’s contribution to literature has been widely recognized. His works have received numerous awards, and, as noted above, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. ‘Never Let Me Go’ is still a fairly recent novel, but despite having been published less than 20 years ago, it’s already become a part of school reading curricula around the world.

The novel is studied for its many unique themes and the author’s skilled writing style. It’s likely that the public’s enjoyment of the novel will only grow as time passes, and the suggestion that it’s one of the best novels of the century will endure. It is also certain to remain relevant, particularly as discussions around genetic engineering, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence continue to grow in contemporary society.

The book was adapted into a film in 2010 starring Carey Mulligan as Kathy, Andrew Garfield as Tommy, and Keira Knightly as Ruth, bringing the story to a wider audience.

Never Let Me Go Review ⭐️

‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro was published in 2005 and is regarded as one of the best books of the early 20th century. 

Never Let Me Go Historical Context 📖

This is an early 21st-century novel that is just as relevant now as when it was published in 2005.

Never Let Me Go Best Quotes 💬

‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro is a haunting contemporary novel that features a number of compelling quotes about humanity, memory, and childhood. 

Never Let Me Go Characters 📖

This is a deeply sad novel that features a few key characters, all of whom are connected to Kathy’s youth and present experiences.

Never Let Me Go Themes and Analysis 📖

This is a science fiction novel that was published in 2005. The book explores a wide variety of themes, like humanity, love, and loss. 

Never Let Me Go Summary 📖

This is a moving novel published in 2005. It explores a dystopian reality in which clones are commonplace and created for the sole purpose of using their organs to save the lives of non-clones. 

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Books — Never Let Me Go

Essays on Never Let Me Go

Prompt examples for "never let me go" essays, cloning and identity.

Discuss the theme of cloning and its impact on the characters' sense of identity in "Never Let Me Go." How do Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth grapple with their status as clones, and how does it influence their self-perception and relationships?

The Ethics of Human Cloning

Examine the ethical questions raised by human cloning in the novel. How does the society depicted in the book justify the existence of clones, and what moral dilemmas do the characters face? Discuss the consequences of treating clones as mere organ donors.

Love and Relationships

Analyze the complex relationships among Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth. How do their friendships and romantic entanglements evolve over time? Discuss the role of love and connection in a world where the future is predetermined.

Social Commentary and Isolation

Discuss the social commentary present in "Never Let Me Go." How does the novel critique societal norms and the treatment of marginalized groups? Explore the theme of isolation and the characters' limited agency in shaping their own destinies.

The Role of Art and Creativity

Examine the significance of art and creativity in the lives of the characters. How does Tommy's artwork serve as a form of self-expression and coping mechanism? Discuss the importance of creativity in finding meaning and individuality.

Loss and Mortality

Discuss the themes of loss and mortality in the novel. How do the characters confront the inevitability of their fate as organ donors? Explore the emotional impact of facing death and the ways in which characters cope with loss.

Hailsham and Its Symbolism in Never Let Me Go

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The Construction of Kathy's Identity in "Never Let Me Go"

A theme of values of life in kazuo ishiguro’s never let me go, never let me go as a marxist novel, review of the novel "never let me go" by kazuo ishiguro, death and human dilemmas: creating sympathy for the characters in romanek’s ‘тever let me go’, the marxist ideology in kazuo ishuguro's "never let me go", the challenges of proletariats in ‘never let me go’ by kazuo ishiguro, never let me go: analyzing and evaluating the film adaptation, the connection between the novels never let me go by kazuo ishiguro and 1984 by george orwell, destiny and choice in never let me go and harry potter and the half-blood prince, feminism in never let me go by kazuo ishiguro and my sister's keeper by jodi picoult, identity, ethics, and love in "never let me go".

March 5, 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro

Science Fiction Novel

Kathy H., Tommy D., and Ruth C.

There is no specific source material that Never Let Me Go is based on. However, the novel deals with themes of science fiction and speculative fiction, which are often found in works of dystopian fiction.

In Never Let Me Go, Kathy H. looks back on her life as a student at the Hailsham boarding school, where she and her classmates were raised to be organ donors. As Kathy approaches her own donation, she begins to question the purpose of her life and the value of her relationships.

The main theme of Never Let Me Go is the value of human life and the meaning of existence.

The color red, the number three, blood, organs

Never Let Me Go has been influenced by works of dystopian fiction, science fiction, and speculative fiction.

The novel has been adapted into a film, which was released in 2010. The book was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2005. The novel "The Never Let Me Go" was included in TIME magazine's list of the 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005. The novel was included in The Times' list of the 100 best books of the 21st century."

"Weirdly enough, I always felt it was me who was looking after her, not the other way round." -Kathy H. "That's the thing about Hailsham, it gives you a false sense of security." -Kathy H. "I'd been trying to understand all evening why we were so different from other people, and I think it finally dawned on me: we were just better at being human." -Kathy H. "It was as if we all knew we had only a limited time left, and we were determined to get through as much living as we could." -Kathy H. "But if we'd had any sense, we'd have known that however much we pretended to be adults, we were still children, and that the real adults were the people who had to look after us." -Kathy H.

The topic of the book is important because it deals with the value of human life and the meaning of existence. The novel explores the question of what it means to be human and whether or not human life has inherent value.

The value of human life theme should be used for the essay because it deals with the meaning of existence. This theme promotes a message of hope and compassion and also encourages its readers to question the value of human life and the meaning of existence.

1. Robbins, B. (2007, July). Cruelty is Bad: Banality and Proximity in" Never Let Me Go". In Novel: A Forum on Fiction (Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 289-302). Duke University Press. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40267704) 2. Griffin, G. (2009). Science and the cultural imaginary: the case of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Textual Practice, 23(4), 645-663. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09502360903000570) 3. Shaddox, K. (2013). Generic Considerations in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Hum. Rts. Q., 35, 448. (https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hurq35&div=31&id=&page=) 4. McDonald, K. (2007). Days of past futures: Kazuo Ishiguro's never let me go as" speculative memoir". Biography, 30(1), 74-83. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/213178/summary) 5. Tsao, T. (2012). The Tyranny of Purpose: Religion and Biotechnology in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Literature and Theology, 26(2), 214-232. (https://academic.oup.com/litthe/article-abstract/26/2/214/1028132) 6. Garland-Thomson, R. (2017). Eugenic world building and disability: The strange world of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Journal of Medical Humanities, 38, 133-145. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10912-015-9368-y) 7. Ingersoll, E. G. (2007). Taking off into the realm of metaphor: Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Studies in the Humanities, 34(1), 40-60. (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA172905570&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00393800&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E9a94f5b6) 8. Hu, Q., Liu, B., Thomsen, M. R., Gao, J., & Nielbo, K. L. (2021). Dynamic evolution of sentiments in Never Let Me Go: Insights from multifractal theory and its implications for literary analysis. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 36(2), 322-332. (https://academic.oup.com/dsh/article/36/2/322/5856850) 9. Rich, K. (2015). " LOOK IN THE GUTTER" INFRASTRUCTURAL INTERIORITY IN NEVER LET ME GO. Modern Fiction Studies, 61(4), 631-651.(https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/rich/files/rich-infrastructural_interiority_mfs_2015.pdf)

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