Never Let Me Go Lesson 9

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• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Never Let Me Go

Lesson 9

In Class Today

Summary and Analysis Chapters 20-21

Written justification

Chapter 20 - Summary

One year after the trip to see the boat, Kathy becomes Tommy’s carer. 

Tommy has now had three donations, and his condition is stable, though he is weaker. 

Kathy begins visiting him regularly in Kingsfield, and the two talk, read together, and even begin having sex—in part because, Kathy thinks, if they are to get a deferral, they’ll need to demonstrate that level of “physical intimacy.” 

Chapter 20 - Summary

They generally avoid the subject of speaking to Madame, and one day, Tommy asks Kathy to look again at some of the new animals he’s been drawing. Kathy sees them and experiences a “flood of emotions” - she is grateful that Tommy has decided to share them with her again - but wonders, too, if the new drawings aren’t more “labored” than the previous ones, as though Tommy were trying to impress his audience (namely, Madame) with the idea of his artistic achievement.

Chapter 20 - Analysis

 Kathy notices that Tommy has been doing everything he can to make animals that Madame might like. Of course, Tommy has no idea what Madame desires - nor does he even know if Madame is still accepting art for the Gallery. Nor does he know if the Gallery still exists, or even existed . . .  

Whether Tommy's goal is at all achievable is extremely questionable, but the work he put in regardless gives meaning to his life.

Chapter 20 - Summary

But Kathy insists to the reader that, despite all the emotional complexities of this time, Kathy enjoyed her romance with Tommy. 

One day, Kathy tells Tommy that she went to Madame's house and that she saw her going inside. They decide to go to her house as soon as they can, taking some of the animal pictures with them, to attempt to ask for a romantic deferral.

Chapter 20 - Analysis

It turns out that Ruth’s information is correct - meaning that she has truly done Tommy and Kathy a service, allowing them to find a way to talk to Madame in person. 

Again, it is not clear how Ruth managed to get this information, and Kathy later realizes that, perhaps, it was better Ruth did not survive to go along—since the news Madame and Miss Emily share is so devastating to Tommy and Kathy.

Chapter 21 - Symbolism

This chapter contains very complex symbolism that makes many details of the chapter that might otherwise seem random or arbitrary take on a greater meaning. Although this symbolism is certainly open to different interpretations, let’s assume that Madame and Miss Emily’s house represents the mind of society in terms of its attitude toward the clones. If that is the case, what might the following details of this chapter symbolize? 

• the darkness of the house (p.243)
  
• the barely-visible watercolor painting of Hailsham—lit by a lamp that has “a crooked shade covered with cobweb traces” (p.244)
  

Chapter 21 - Summary

Tommy and Kathy have a hard time getting to the seaside town where Madame lives, but soon they spot Madame walking back to her house. 

Tommy and Kathy decide to follow behind her at a safe distance, and when they reach the gate of her house, they introduce themselves, saying that they are former Hailsham students who want to talk to her, and who don’t want trouble. Although Madame seems shocked at first—and draws back from them as she did long ago, at Hailsham, as though she were scared—she soon relaxes and welcomes them inside.

Chapter 21 - Analysis

Madame’s response to seeing Tommy and Kathy is not dissimilar from her response to the girls at Hailsham many years before. As Emily later relates, even the thought of touching or coming near a clone is difficult for a “normal” person. 

Here, Ishiguro taps into a fear that seems very “real” and plausible to the reader - the idea that clones might somehow be not quite human, or strange to see, touch, and be near. Or perhaps that fear stems from the fact that the normal humans feel shame for how they have treated clones.

Chapter 21 - Summary

Tommy and Kathy sit in a dark room and look at the decorations while Madame goes upstairs to prepare for their talk. Tommy points out a picture of Hailsham, but it’s a view of the school Kathy does not recognize, and Tommy urges her, saying that she couldn’t possibly have forgotten that particular view, “near the pond.” Madame finally comes down and invites Kathy to tell her why they are here to see her.

Chapter 21 - Analysis

The tables are turned—Kathy sees that she, too, has forgotten certain moments of her Hailsham life, even though Tommy remembers them. Kathy, of course, often chastised Ruth, when she was alive, about failing to remember certain “indelible” things about Hailsham.

Chapter 21 - Summary 

Kathy begins her speech, but finds that her ideas are “garbled,” even though she has practiced this speech in her head for some time. But finally Kathy tells Madame everything—that they are there to ask about a romantic deferral because they are “deeply in love.” 

Madame interjects, asking how they know they are deeply in love, and begins crying a small amount. Tommy joins in, talking about their art and the gallery, and the idea that the art was used by Madame to track their inner souls and to pair off potential “matches” who were in love enough to warrant deferral.

Chapter 21 - Analysis

Madame is struck by the idea that the clones are soulful and “human” enough to want to fall in love, to believe they are in love, to form genuine human relationships. 

For Madame, all along, has believed that clones are fully human, and that they deserve fully human treatment even as their professional lives—which are immensely difficult—are laid out before them. 

Chapter 21 - Summary

Madame seems to find this idea about the gallery very clever, even as she indicates, in her surprise, that this was not the purpose of the gallery at all. 

Madame keeps saying, to no one in particular, if she should “proceed” in her explanations, and finally, Kathy realizes that Madame is addressing a fourth person, enshrouded in the darkness, whom Madame wheels out to speak to Kathy and Tommy—it’s Miss Emily, the former head of Hailsham. 

Madame tells Miss Emily “it’s she Kathy and Tommy wish to talk to.”

Chapter 21 - Analysis

The revelation that Miss Emily is in fact the real headmistress of Hailsham, and that Madame wasn’t secretly in charge—isn’t actually so large a revelation perhaps as Ishiguro might have liked. But Emily’s emergence at the end of the novel allows for certain loose ends to be tied up, even if more questions about Hailsham’s background, and about the political situation in England surrounding cloning, are left unanswered.

Compare and contrast Madame and Miss Emily

At the end of the novel, Madame is bitter and seems disgusted by the clones. She has a pessimistic outlook toward life that is cast into relief by her humanitarian work on behalf of the clones with whom she is so uncomfortable. Miss Emily, in contrast, is much more at peace with the world and with her own work, and believes the clones are lucky to have benefited from everything she did for them.