Never Let Me Go Study Guide

Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go is told from the perspective of Kathy, a clone, as she looks back on her childhood and youth, especially on her friendship with classmates Tommy and Ruth. Kathy and the other clones she grew up with are kept separate from the normal society, destined to first become carers for other clones, and then donors of vital organs for the rest of the population. Even though she knows her ultimate destiny, Kathy struggles with friendship, love, and the meaning of her life.

Never Let Me Go Characters

Table of Contents
  • Kathy – The protagonist and narrator of the novel. A clone raised to be a donor, who are harvested for organs through a series of donations. During her childhood, Kathy is free-spirited, kind, loving, and stands up for what is right. At the end of the novel, Kathy is a young woman who doesn't show muchemotion when looking back on her past. As an adult, she criticises people less and is accepting of the lives of her and her friends.
  • Tommy – A male donor, and friend of Kathy's. He is introduced as an uncreative and isolated young boy at Hailsham, with a bad temper, and the subject of many tricks played on him by the other children because of his short temper. Initially, he reacts by having bad temper tantrums, until Miss Lucy, a Hailsham guardian, tells him something that, for the short term, positively changes his life: it is okay if he’s not creative. He feels great relief. Then one day, Miss Lucy tells him that she shouldn't have said what she did, and Tommy goes through another transformation. Once again upset by his lack of artistic skills, he becomes a quiet and sad teenager. As he matures, Tommy becomes a young man who is generally calm and thoughtful.
  • Ruth – A female donor from Hailsham, described by Kathy as bossy. At the start of the novel, she is an extrovert with strong opinions and appears to be the center of social activity in her cohort; however, she is not as confident as the narrator initially perceived. She had hope for her future, but herhopes are crushed as she realises that she was born to be a donor and has no other future. At the Cottages, Ruth undergoes a transformation to become a more aware, thoughtful person who thinks about things in depth. She is constantly trying to fit in and be mature, repudiating things from her pastif she perceives it will negatively affect her image. She threw away her entire collection of art by fellow students, once her prized possessions, because she sensed that the older kids at The Cottages looked down on it. She becomes an adult who is deeply unhappy and regretful. Ruth eventually givesup on all of her hopes and dreams, and tries to help Kathy and Tommy have a better life.
  • Madame (Marie-Claude) – A woman who visits Hailsham to pick up the children's artwork. Described as a mystery by the students at Hailsham. She acts professional and stern, and a young Kathy describes her as distant and forbidding. When the children decide to play a prank on her and swarm around her to see what she willdo, they are shocked to discover that she seems disgusted by them.
  • Miss Emily – Headmistress of Hailsham, can be very sharp according to Kathy. The children thought she had an extra sense in that allowed her to know where a child was if he or she was hiding.
  • Miss Lucy – A teacher at Hailsham that the children feel comfortable with. She is one of the younger teachers at Hailsham, and tells the students very frankly that they exist only for organ donation. She feels a lot of stress while at Hailsham and is fired for what she tells the students.
  • Chrissie – Another female donor, who is slightly older than the three main characters and was with them at the Cottages. She and her boyfriend, Rodney, were the ones who found Ruth's possible, and took Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth to Norfolk. She completes before the book ends.
  • Rodney – Chrissie's boyfriend, he was the one who originally saw Ruth's possible. He and Chrissie are mentioned to have broken up before she completed.

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