Never Let Me Go Lesson 3-4

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Never Let Me Go

Lesson 3

Characters & Characterization

In Class Today

Character Analysis

Recap & analysis Chapters 1-2

Recap & analysis Chapters 3-4

Recap & analysis Chapters 5-6

Foreshadowing

Kathy H. 

Ruth

Tommy

Madame

Hailsham

In one sentence:

How would you summarise chapter 1?

Analysis Chapter 1

Kathy’s opening lines suggest that this is not straightforwardly historical fiction, but instead a parallel universe. She casually refers to unfamiliar terms like “carers” and “donors,” which seem to be well known and accepted roles within her world. 

Kathy does not explain these roles, indicating an assumption that her audience is already familiar with them. 

Analysis Chapter 1

In contrast, Kathy does not expect her audience to know about life at the Hailsham school. She often pauses to explain Hailsham rituals and traditions, like the Exchanges. 

This shows Kathy’s assumption that her audience has not experienced Hailsham, and evokes the sense that her idyllic childhood was somewhat exceptional. 

Analysis Chapter 1

Kathy’s donor seems to yearn for Kathy's childhood memories in place of his own. This donor’s desire to forget his past reverses Kathy’s desire to remember and record her own. 

In one sentence:

How would you summarise chapter 2?

Analysis Chapter 2

As Kathy recalls Hailsham it seems in many ways to be a privileged boarding school, but puzzling details like the weekly medical exams and the emphasis on artistic achievement suggest that there is more to Hailsham than meets the eye. 

Analysis Chapter 2

Kathy’s establishes her relationships with both Ruth and Tommy, and conveys information about all three of their personalities. 

Kathy's anxiety about being seen or overheard seems partly to do with Tommy himself, and the gossip that she might provoke by speaking with a boy. Yet it also reflects the lack of privacy at Hailsham, where the constant presence of other students and guardians means that Kathy is often under surveillance. 

In one sentence:

How would you summarise chapter 3?

In one sentence:

How would you summarise chapter 4?

Analysis Chapter 3-4

Tommy’s conversation with Miss Lucy shows that secrecy is fundamental to life at Hailsham. In one sense, the adults at Hailsham are “guardians” because they safeguard the wellbeing of the students. 

In another sense, they also act as “guardians” of knowledge. Although they are the teachers at Hailsham, the guardians ironically refuse to educate the students fully about topics like donations. 

Analysis Chapter 3-4

The students themselves help to maintain this secrecy, shying away from taboo subjects like Madame’s Gallery in front of the guardians. 

However, the students also generate their own forms of “knowledge” through rumor and speculation. They develop theories to help explain what the guardians will not discuss, although they can only test these theories indirectly. 

Analysis Chapter 3-4

Miss Lucy’s conversation with Tommy shows that she is ambivalent about her role as a guardian of information.

Unlike the other adults at Hailsham, she believes that the guardians should teach the students more fully about donations. 

While she reassures Tommy about his lack of creativity, she also inadvertently encourages Tommy and Kathy to speculate about creativity’s connection to donations. 

Analysis Chapter 3-4

In their conversation by the pond, Tommy and Kathy bond over their shared curiosity about Madame’s Gallery. They show a mutual desire to understand the mysterious role of creativity at Hailsham. 

In one sentence:

How would you summarise chapter 5?

In one sentence:

How would you summarise chapter 6?

Analysis Chapter 5-6

Like Hailsham itself, Ruth’s secret guard operates on the principles of secrecy and investigation. Its members endlessly collect “evidence” of a secret but vague plot, shielding their theories from other students and guardians. 

In the same way, Hailsham students piece together the guardians’ veiled hints and references in order to understand the “plot” that governs their lives. 

Analysis Chapter 5-6

The “secret guard” allows Ruth to play out a fantasy of control. The guard lets the students imagine themselves as “guardians” who protect Miss Geraldine and hold secret information. 

The secret guard also gives the students a privileged, if make-believe, connection to Miss Geraldine, a guardian beloved for her kindness. 

Analysis Chapter 5-6

Ruth’s devotion to Miss Geraldine contrasts with Tommy’s curiosity about Miss Lucy. 

While Ruth makes up evidence for her bond with Miss Geraldine, 

Tommy uses the evidence from his conversation with Miss Lucy to theorize about the mysterious link between donations and creativity. 

Analysis Chapter 5-6

The students’ fears about the woods convey a more general sense of foreboding about what lies beyond the familiar walls of Hailsham.

Like much of their knowledge, what the students know of the woods comes largely from rumor and speculation. Yet the terrible stories about children who leave Hailsham also foreshadow the students’ own futures. 

Analysis Chapter 5-6

Kathy returns to the story of losing her tape, which she notes has Judy Bridgewater holding a cigarette on the cover. She keeps the tape hidden at Hailsham because the students are told they must stay perfectly healthy and are explicitly forbidden from smoking.  

Analysis Chapter 5-6

One day, Kathy is singing along to the song and swaying her pillow like a baby. When the song ends, she sees Madame watching her from the hallway.  Madame is crying, and leaves abruptly. 

Tommy theorizes that Madame cried because she knew the students could not have babies

“Never Let Me Go” evokes the deeply human impulse to hold onto loved ones in the face of losing them

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, or a chapter, and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a story. There are various ways to create foreshadowing.

What do you suspect will happen later in the novel?