Never Let Me Go Lesson 10

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 4

Never Let Me Go

Lesson 10

In Class Today

Summary and Analysis Chapters 22-23

Plot

Chapter 22

Discuss the differences in Madame’s and Miss Emily’s attitudes, personalities, and philosophies. Consider, for example, their attitudes toward the social movement to give clones better lives, the value of their work, and the persistent rumors of deferrals.

Chapter 22 - Summary

Miss Emily begins speaking to Kathy and Tommy, telling them that Madame, or “Marie-Claude” as she calls her, is now somewhat disillusioned with the idea of Hailsham - that Madame now wonders whether the school “did any good at all.” But Miss Emily, who created the school, always believed in its mission, which she details slowly for Kathy and Tommy.e 1960s as a reform movement designed to show that clones could be raised in humane conditions and accorded human dignity, even if clone and organ programs continued operating.

Chapter 22 - Summary

 Emily first notes that school like Hailsham did not exist for decades after the development of clones, because, once organ donation and cloning technologies were created, people preferred to think that “their donated organs simply came from nowhere.” The idea was prevalent, before Hailsham, that clones were not people and should not be treated as such. Hailsham, and a small number of other institutions like it, were started in the 1960s as a reform movement designed to show that clones could be raised in humane conditions and accorded human dignity, even if clone and organ programs continued operating.

Chapter 22 - Analysis

Miss Emily here gives more of the political background that, at this point, the reader has probably craved for some time. This section answers a few broad questions but opens many more: 

• Why did cloning follow the second World War, and what technology preceded its development? 
• How did the British public become comfortable with cloning, even after they saw that clones grew up to be real human adults? 
• How did the reform movement gain political traction, allowing public funds to be allocated to places like Hailsham, for the “humane” treatment of clones?
  

Chapter 23 - Summary

PLOT

Plot is a literary element that describes the structure of a story. It shows the causal arrangement of events and actions within a story. 

Most great stories, whether they are a Pixar film or a novel by your favorite author, follow a certain dramatic structure. According to Freitag, these stories can be broken down into five elements, usually including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution or denouement.

Exposition. 

This is a set of scenes in which no major changes occur and the point is to introduce the principal characters, time period, and tone, and set up the “exciting force.”

Exciting Force. 

Freytag also calls this the “complication,” and other frameworks call it the “inciting incident,” when some force of will on the part of the protagonist or an outside complication forces the protagonist into motion.

Rising Action.

Now that the chief action has been started, this continues the movement toward the climax. Any characters who have not as of yet been introduced should be introduced here.

Climax.

In Freytag’s framework, the climax occurs in the middle of the story.

In this framework, the climax can be thought of as a reflection point. If things have gone well for the protagonist, at the climax they start to fall apart tragically.

Or in a comedy, if things have been going poorly for the protagonist, things start improving.

After the climax, whatever ambition the protagonist showed is reversed against himself, and whatever suffering she endured is redeemed. In other words, the energy, values, and themes shown in the first half are reversed and undone in the second half.

Falling action.

Things continue to either devolve for the protagonist or, in the case of a comedy, improve, leading up to the “force of the final suspense,” a moment before the catastrophe, when the author projects the final catastrophe and prepares the audience for it. As Freytag says, “It is well understood that the catastrophe must not come entirely as a surprise to the audience.”

But just after this foreshadowing, there must be a moment of suspense where the slim possibility of reversal is hinted at.

Resolution.

Freytag was chiefly focused on tragedy, not comedy, and he saw the ending phase of a story as the moment of catastrophe, in which the character is finally undone by their own choices, actions, and energy.

Freytag's Pyramid

Can you fill in Freytag's pyramid for Never Let Me Go? 

Freytag's pyramid

Exposition: Kathy and Ruth begin a bumpy friendship at Hailsham.

Rising Action:  Kathy recalls growing up with Ruth and Tommy at Hailsham, where ambiguous references to their future as “donors” punctuate their idyllic childhood. As they become young adults, they hope in different ways for the possibility of changing or deferring this future.

Climax: Kathy and Tommy visit Madame’s house, where Miss Emily cuts off their last hope for more time together when she reveals that deferrals on donations do not exist.

Falling Action: Kathy spends a last few weeks with Tommy before he completes on his fourth donation, leaving her with her memories as she waits to become a donor herself.

Resolution/Denouement: Kathy mourns Tommy in Norfolk shortly before becoming a donor.

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