Name:______________
Ms Paine 12 English Studies
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Study Questions *Please note that due to the many different editions of this text, there is likely to be some
discrepancies in the page numbers. If you are affected by this, use the chapter number to help find the
relevant passages.
PART ONE – HAILSHAM
1. Look closely at the opening of Never Let Me Go. Who is Kathy H? What details are revealed about her life and
role in society?
2. Kathy H is the primary narrator of Never Let Me Go? What evidence that she is aware of her own fallibility as a
narrator? Does this make her a reliable or unreliable narrator? Why?
3. The relationship between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy is at the centre of Never Let Me Go. For each character, do
the following:
a. Describe their personality and social interactions with evidence from the novel. How does each
character change in Part One?
b. Describe their relationship and attitude towards each other?
i. Kathy and Ruth
ii. Kathy and Tommy
iii. Ruth and Tommy
4. How is Hailsham described throughout Part One by Kathy H?
a. Describe the attitude towards Hailsham and its students by other donors.
b. What features of a typical boarding school does Hailsham have? (You might like to compare it to
Hogwarts in the Harry Potter novels).
c. What signs are there that the students and Hailsham are not a normal school?
d. What are the Exchanges? Why are they so important to the students of Hailsham? What do they
symbolise for the students?
e. Who are the “guardians”? How is Ms Lucy so different from the other “guardians”? What does she
reveal to the students and privately to Tommy?
f. How does Ishiguro use a range of techniques to create a sense of nostalgia for Hailsham in this section?
5. What is the “Gallery” (CH 3)? Why is it considered so important to the students of Hailsham? Why do you think
the “guardians” and “Madame” encourage the students and their creative pursuits? What might it reveal about
the clones to the outside world?
6. Look at Chapter 6, and the story of Kathy H’s favourite song, “Never Let Me Go”, by Judy Bridgewater.
a. What does the young Kathy H think the song “Never Let Me Go” is about?
b. Who observes Kathy H singing and dancing to song? How is their reaction so different to earlier in the
book, when confronted by the clones?
c. Look at the song’s title, “Never Let Me Go” and consider the implication of those words in light of Kathy
H’s role as a carer and the clones’s relationship with the larger dystopian world. You might like to think
what they might mean in the context of a variety of different relationships – wife to husband, child to
parent, lover to lover, and so on.
7. The use of analepsis (or flashbacks) in Never Let Me Go.
“A flashback or analepsis is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the
story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to
fill in crucial backstory. In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the
future. Both flashback and flashforward are used to create suspense in a story, develop a character, or add
1
structure to the narrative. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative;
external analepsis is a flashback to a time before the narrative started.”
(Accessed on 09/03/15 - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback_(narrative)>)
Many of the events in Never Let Me Go are told through analepsis as the narrator, Kathy H, reflects on her
childhood at Hailsham and how this has affected her later. Find an example in Part One, where Kathy H’s
narrative transitions from her present life as a carer to her memories of Hailsham.
a. Note down the context for the analepsis and the events recounted. Explain why they seem significant
to Kathy H.
b. Analyse the techniques in your example that Ishiguro uses to create a split between the present and
past in Never Let Me Go.
8. Passages for close reading.
a. INTRODUCTION: Look closely at the following opening passage from the novel – from “My name is
Kathy H” (CH1, pg 3) to “Tommy, Ruth, Me, all the rest of us” (CH1, pg. 6) and answer these questions.
i. What mood and tone is created through her narration in this passage? How?
ii. Note down the nomenclature used to describe the clone and donor system in this world –
“carer”, “completion” etc. How does the meaning of these words differ from their usual
definitions? What effect do these euphemisms have upon you as the reader?
B. MADAME AND THE GALLERY: Look closely at the following passage from the novel – from “The autumn
I’m now talking about” (CH3 pg.33) to “troubling and strange” (CH3 pg.36).
i. Why do Ruth and the other girls decide to swarm around Madame?
ii. What simile is used to describe Madame’s reaction to the students? How does this reflect her
attitude to the clones?
iii. Why is Madame’s reaction so troubling to Kathy and the other students? What does it reveal
about society and its attitude towards the clones?
iv. Find another simile that Kathy uses to describe this moment, and explain why Ishiguro has used
it at this stage of the narrative.
c. KATHY AND RUTH: Look closely at the following passage from the novel – from “But that’s not really
what I want to talk about…” (CH4 pg.45) to “over the next several days” (CH4, pg.48).
i. Describe the interaction between Kathy and Ruth. Why do you think Kathy finds it so
memorable?
ii. What is symbolic about the way Ruth and Kathy play? What does it reveal about their
characters and future relationship?
2