Observations about “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro: my interpretations

*contains spoilers*

This novel was a truly interesting read, and it took watching me several hours of YouTube videos (all that I could find about this novel, really) to begin to make my own interpretations. The below points that I make are not only my own interpretations, though. They are also pieces of information that I got from other book blogers’ YouTube channels, or from interviews with the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, himself. So some are other peoples’ interpretations, and some are pieces of information about the novel.

It’s quite interesting that a book as gentle and tender and subtly dramatic as this one is considered under the genre of sci-fi, because it truly doesn’t feel like it. But the author mentioned that cloning was the only way to go that would make logical sense for the book, that he had tried various other things in place of cloning, but that it had worked best. Now why exactly does cloning work so perfectly to bring a new sense of fragility into this novel? (my interpretation, so take it with a pinch of salt!) It doesn’t seem as though so intricately weaving a fundamental sci-fi element, cloning, with the seemingly fragile characters and beautiful but incredibly, subtly dramatic plot should work. But it does. The characters have all been cloned from someone. And this act of cloning, as well as all its implications throughout the novel -like the potentials and the characters’ search for them- give us an insight into the inner world of the characters. For example, at one point in the novel, during their time at the Cottages, two older students spot someone that they think might be Ruth’s possible, and Ruth recruits her two best friends (whom I introduced in my previous post) Tommy and Kathy, as well as the two older students, to go and see this possible for themselves. (I forgot to mention, in the novel, possible means a person whom a student at the Cottages might be cloned from). So one day, they take a trip and spot the person whom the two older students believed to be Ruth’s possible. They follow her around for quite some time, and it becomes a sort of game. After some time, the woman steps into a store, and they come in with her. They watch her in the store, but after a few minutes of hearing her speak and watching her interact with others, it becomes quite obvious that she only has a resemblance to Ruth, that there’s no way she could be her possible because their similarities end at the physical. This goes on to convey to the reader that the students believe they aren’t only physically similar to the person they were cloned from, but mentally as well. That although these two people grow up in different generations (the people that students are cloned from are usually around 30 years old, and so there’s a 20-30 year age gap) and completely different environments, they will somehow grow up to be similar people; which is a notion that is further explored through a previous part of the novel in which Kathy skims through porn magazines (which we will get to in our second point). After realizing that there’s no way this woman is a possible, Ruth’s mood suddenly drops. Her friends try to cheer her up, but she snaps at them, saying how it was a stupid idea to think she could’ve been cloned from a normal person, that they were all cloned from individuals society didn’t want, like poor people, or criminals, or prostitutes. Ruth’s anger makes the reader think: what could have led a character that normally keeps her composure very well to have a sudden burst of anger such as this one? And then the reader realizes: because this sudden revelation, which she already knew deep in her heart but was too scared to admit and was perhaps still holding out hope for, is being confirmed. The fact that there is no on in normal society that might be their possible confirms the dreaded theory that they are cloned from “unwanted” people (which isn’t necessarily true, and isn’t confirmed nor denied to the reader anywhere in the novel), which means they themselves have the possibility of becoming one of these people. But what these sheltered, cloned students fail to understand is that blood only creates physical resemblances. That being genetically linked to someone is not going to make you become like them. And this creates a series of questions arise in the reader as well, about how similar they are to the people they are linked with, about how whether it’s inevitable that you will become like the people who made you.

So is it inevitable? Is it everyone’s destiny that they adopt some things from their parents, or from the people they’re related to by blood? Answering this question is not easy, and of course there will be a different answer for everyone. But research suggests that both environmental factors and genetics affect your personality traits, so they are both acquired and inherited. This may be an unfortunate truth for some people, or most people, because our parents aren’t perfect. Children are oftentimes the ones that suffer the most through their parents’ mistakes, which is why this revelation might be as scary to us as it was to Ruth, or Kathy. Because we don’t want to be the person whose mistakes others might have to suffer through, though I believe this to be an inevitable part of being human. And for others, this might be a rather relieving revelation. “At least I will always carry a part of my parent with me”, you might think. Or perhaps your parent is somehow incredibly unique and didn’t make any mistakes, or minor ones at best; and you feel lucky to have inherited the traits of a parent, or parents, that made no mistakes. Though either way, it doesn’t make sense to be too happy, or too sad, about personality traits being hereditary, because even when they are, they’re only partially hereditary. It’s up to you to recognize if you’re making mistakes and to change the part of yourself that is making you make those mistakes. Of course you’ll still make mistakes, but at least you will feel as though those are yours, not others’. 🙃

I think I will now make a part two of my interpretations since this post has become too extensive. See you!