NEVER LET ME GO

The main themes are: friendship ,love, the brevity of life, memory
and nostalgia. Never Let Me Go is a novel which might also show what
happens when a society is allowed to use scientific experimentation
freely and without considering its moral implications.Mostly It is a novel
about friendship and about longing for the past, as well as a novel which
allows the reader to question the ethics of human cloning.

Audioscript: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jCB59pPG7

Ishiguro’s aim was to write a story about how love and friendship
fitted into people’s lives particularly when they started to realise
that time was short and that mortality was a fact. He was always
looking for that kind of a metaphor for human existence, for that
fact that our condition, our existence is limited The sci-fi
speculative surface of the story was almost the last thing, the last
piece of The Jigsaw, it was a way, a device to make the thing
work, to create this world that seems very cold and distant initially
,then the readers will eventually realise that that is their own story.
Inevitably , having chosen this dystopian world starts to raise
issues about biotechnology, organ donation. However, it is not at
the heart of what he was trying to do. The main theme is in fact
love and friendship in the face of the bleak fact that we are
mortal. The other question is : why don’t they escape? It is not the
story of “ brave slaves who rebelled and escaped” , he was
fascinated by the extent to which people don’t run away. If we
look around that is the remarkable fact : how much we accept of
what fate has given us. Sometimes it might be passivity,
sometimes simply perspective. Ultimately it is more how we/
humans face mortality: we can’t escape from that, we can’t
escape from the fact that we have a limited amount of time. So
we try, by telling ourselves stories, we have religion, we try to do it
focusing on our achievements,on our children but in the end ,
however, it is very difficult to escape. Therefore this is not a story
about escape but a story about how the clones ( i.e. humanity )
accept their fate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Es5-nhZWo

The Title and the Song “Never Let Me Go”

As a child at Hailsham, Kathy had 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 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.During one of the “sales” at Hailsham, Kathy finds a
cassette tape called Songs After Dark, performed by an artist named
Judy Bridgewater. Kathy becomes enamored of the tape, in particular of
a song called “Never Let Me Go,” which Kathy interprets to be about a
young mother and her child. But Kathy “loses” the tape at Hailsham, only
to find another copy with Tommy while in Norfolk, some years later.
Earlier, back at Hailsham, Kathy dances to this song one day, cradling
an imaginary child to her chest, when Madame walks by and sees her.
Kathy notices that Madame is crying when she spots Kathy; Kathy later
thinks this might have something to do with the fact that Hailsham
students, being clones, are incapable of having children. But Kathy, in
later discussion with Madame, learns why this scene caused Madame to
cry: Madame believed that Kathy enjoyed the song’s depiction of a
“kinder world,” as compared to the cruel world into which Kathy will soon
be thrust. The Bridgewater tape therefore symbolizes many of the
characters’ attitudes toward life before and after Hailsham. For Kathy,
the Bridgewater tape embodies her innocence at Hailsham, and her
desire for physical and emotional connection with other people—with
lovers, with children. For Tommy, the tape also embodies this long lost
emotional connection—Tommy wants desperately for Kathy to find the
tape again in Norfolk. For Ruth, the tape symbolizes a secret connection
between Tommy and Kathy—a connection with which Ruth can have no
part. And for Madame, the tape recalls the cruelty of the world for clones
whom she has tried to protect but whose lives are defined entirely by
their cruel purpose as organ donors for "real" people.

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 to 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 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.