The Role Of Symbolism In "Never Let Me Go" By Kazuo Ishiguro

“Never Let Me Go” is a novel that shows what happens when a society is given the tools to freely experiment. These experiments are done with scientific experimentation without taking into consideration the moral implications. One can read this novel as “a cautionary tale regarding the abuse of science and technology on humans and their civil rights”(Karl Shaddox 448-449). Others might also read this in the sense that “it is a story in which science and technology are conspicuously absent”(Victoria Hoyle 128). In the novel, Kazuo Ishiguro uses symbolism effectively to shape and reinforce multiple themes, the power of memory, time, and human dignity. Ishiguro also uses motifs to help reinforce these themes.

The first symbol is the title “Never Let Me Go,” which is a song that plays a big part in the novel. Ishiguro mentions this song in the novel multiple times. It symbolizes both human love and the fear of losing what you love. This becomes clear to the reader when Kathy explains the lyrics of the song. She imagines that the song is about a mother too scared of losing her children. This image of holding on to something you love recurs multiple times. One of the more noticeable examples is when Kathy and Tommy found out that deferrals are not real and went to the field and held one another with the fear of losing each other. The song is first mentioned by Ishiguro when Kathy buys a cassette tape of the album “Songs after Dark” by Judy Bridgewater, at one of the sales. The author tries to grab the reader’s attention to the song “Never Let Me Go” by making it Kathy’s favorite song, “there’s a bit that keeps coming round when Judy sings; “Never let me go… Oh baby, baby… Never let me go…” ”(Ishiguro chapter 6). When Kathy loses the tape, the author uses the motif of lost and found. This motif was first introduced when Miss Emily describes the “lost corner” to her students. Her description made the students believe that any property that is lost ends up in Norfolk, England. The author makes Kathy, for the first time, experience loss, by making her lose the tape. This foreshadows the losses she will be facing later on. Ishiguro connects this to the theme of time and loss of hope and desire. The theme of time essentially is that all clones have the same fate, which they were taught at a young age and learned to accept. They all ended up as donors, but some were given the choice of becoming carers before becoming a donor like Kathy. After the clones have done several donations, they complete, in other words, they die. The author ignites hope back into Kathy when she and Tommy found a copy of the tape she lost in the lost corner. This makes Kathy believe she can find Tommy again. But her hopes and desire to live a bit longer are later destroyed by Ishiguro when Tommy and Kathy found out that deferrals are not real. The author uses deferrals to show a desire to stop time or buy more of it. But as deferrals were explained in the novel, deferrals can only slow down the inevitable, Death. This same desire for eternal life or to slow downtime is the same desire that started the whole donation program, to begin with. Another symbol the author uses to symbolize time and morality is the crumbling boat. Kathy’s visit to the boat with Tommy and Ruth causes the reader to remember their first visit to Norfolk, but with a lot of detectable differences. Now they are alone without Chrissie and Rodney, and both Ruth and Tommy are now donors. The boat itself is now destroyed over time and surrounded by dead chunks of trees. The author uses the scene before the boat to remind both Tommy and Ruth of Hailsham. But then their trip is filled with sadness and a sense of loss.

The author uses the Open-Plan Office to symbolize the gradual diminishing of the students’ hopes and dreams, which they will never have since they are clones. The author uses this symbol to connect it to the theme of human dignity. Ishiguro first introduces the open-plan office in a magazine where Ruth and Kathy first see it. This inspires Ruth’s “dream future” to work in an open-plan office, “Ruth began telling us about the sort of office she’d ideally work in”(Ishiguro chapter 12). At that stage of the clones’ lives, between childhood and adulthood, they are still able to hold on to that dream. The open-plan office reappears in Norfolk, where some of the students were thinking that they saw Ruth’s possible. Which directly connects to the motif of copies and copying. Ishiguro uses this to signal the closing of all possibilities as the woman in the office turns out not to be Ruth’s possible. Ensuring Ruth that her dream future is just a fantasy. Ishiguro uses this to signal the closing of all possibilities. The author later reminds Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy of their past dreams at a moment when their future has already been set for them. Ishiguro does this by putting the open-plan office on a billboard on Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy’s way when they were returning to visit the boat in Norfolk. Although they might be clones, the author’s writing says otherwise. The author made the novel in Kathy’s perspective for a reason, Kathy’s narration ultimately shows the dignity and humanity of the students that are with her in her memories. The author tries to show the reader that the clones might have a short life, but their lives are full of human experiences like hope, joy, disappointments, and sorrows. Kathy’s memories also ironize the struggles of both Miss Emily and Madame to show the children’s humanity through artwork. Although both Miss Emily and Madame want to improve the children’s lives, they feel revulsion towards the students. Meanwhile, Kathy is using her memories of her loved ones to show their dignity and humanity in a way that Miss Emily and Madame could not.

Ishiguro did not connect any symbols or motifs to the theme of the power of memory, but it is a theme of significant importance to be ignored. The author successfully makes note of this theme by making Kathy the narrator. “He uses this literary strategy to connect his characters’ construction of identity to their fragmented memory, a process that allows them to recover from their phantasmal and unresolved past”(Bizzini 65). Ishiguro makes Kathy survive all she loses by turning her thinking towards her good memories of Hailsham. Kathy holds onto her memories of Hailsham long after it closed. Similarly, she holds onto the memories of both Ruth and Tommy after their death. The title is some sort of demand or plea of never letting go of her memories. Kathy’s memories are powerful, but it also is as brittle as their powerfulness. In her narration, Kathy claimed that her memories are sometimes weak and hard to remember. This causes her memory to be, in a way, incomplete. The author also constructs the other characters reflecting Kathy’s memory. This leaves Tommy and Ruth’s thoughts and motivations unattainable to the reader.

The author’s use of symbolism effectively explains each theme and uses multiple motifs to reinforce these themes. Some of the symbols Ishiguro uses are not clear to a normal reader. A normal reader would need to read the novel two times or maybe three times to understand each symbol properly. But for a reader who likes to go back and forth through the book, the author makes it very easy for these kinds of readers to understand the symbolism he uses. For instance, the first symbol will not be clear at first, but if the reader takes into consideration the novel’s title, the reader will understand this symbol by simply just reading the first six chapters. The author helps the reader understand each symbol to a certain limit, and gives the choice to the reader to decide whether they are really interested in the author’s use of symbolism or not.