In this blog post, we examine the protagonists’ lives of submission to fate through ‘Never Let Me Go’ and explore whether that choice was truly freedom.
The story’s protagonist and narrator, Kathy, is a 31-year-old “carer.” She has spent over 11 years caring for “donors,” among whom are her former classmates Tommy and Ruth. Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth all attended Hailsham, the prestigious boarding school everyone envies. This is the background information initially provided to the reader. From there, the story unfolds as Cathy recalls her time at Hailsham. The lives of Hailsham students, as seen through Cathy’s school days, feel incredibly familiar. Subtle power dynamics operate among friends, bullying exists, there are awkward romances, and secret societies fill the need for belonging so crucial in adolescence. Yet, strange aspects are also evident throughout. For instance, all students are absolutely forbidden from leaving Hailsham, having never seen the outside world since birth; they must undergo weekly health check-ups by a doctor; and smoking is strictly prohibited.
Gradually, the reader learns that the children of Hailsham are ‘clones’ born for organ donation, and it is ultimately revealed that Hailsham is a special pilot school created by a few individuals who raised concerns about the cruel and unethical environment of clone farming.
Author Ishiguro stated in an interview that the theme of this work is ‘human lifespan,’ explaining he wanted to explore death by setting a special situation where lifespans are approximately 30 years. The predetermined fate of the clones he imagined is as follows: First, the clones are raised and educated in boarding schools. At age 16, they are transferred to cottages where they live for several years. Here, they first encounter the outside world and can act relatively freely. After about two years in the cottages, they transition into the life of a caregiver, then become donors, typically dying after their third donation on average. The lives of these 30-year clones are vastly different from ours. Yet, the many metaphorical devices woven into their lives compel readers to contemplate life and death. This book, in particular, invites reflection on love, duty, and destiny from a different angle.
‘If I were to die soon, how would I spend my remaining time? When I’m older, what moments will I remember as the happiest?’ These are questions I asked myself when thinking, ‘I don’t know what to do now, but I want to live this moment so I won’t regret it later.’ The author’s answer to this question in the novel can be found in the following scene. It’s seen in Tommy and Cassie, facing death, striving hard to ‘postpone becoming donors and gain a few more years together,’ and in the scene where Cassie recalls the moments she spent searching for CDs with Tommy, feeling happiness welling up inside her. Through this, the author seems to convey the message that the most important thing in life is the time spent with the people you love.
I’ve neglected family and friends more times than I can count while living a busy life. I’d put off time with those around me because I was busy with exams, club activities, or homework. But I realize now that all of that was possible because I ignored the truth that “humans will die someday,” and because that truth was buried in the back of my mind most of the time. I believed the people I cherished would always stay by my side, that the present moment would last forever. But death will come someday, and we will part ways. When we confront this obvious yet hard-to-accept truth—that the time given to us is limited—many things change. Things we considered important in the short term seem trivial, while we realize that among the things we neglected were the truly precious ones and the things we absolutely must finish. This book offers an opportunity to reconsider what is truly precious through the worries, thoughts, and events of those facing death.
However, the author does not take only a positive stance on love. In interviews with other media, the author stated the following:
“If we don’t feel that what we cherish is in danger, there’s nothing to be sad about the fact that time is limited. The protagonists in the novel irrationally believe that love can exempt them from fate. Just as we all do. But love cannot protect us from death.”
The author recreated our tendency to overestimate love’s power through Tommy and Cassie, who believe love can delay the end. Therefore, the conclusion drawn in that scene—“Considering time’s finiteness, the most precious things in life are love and friendship”—was my own interpretation. Yet, as the author suggests, even if love lacks the power to alter fate—like extending lifespan—doesn’t its capacity to bring genuine happiness make it sufficient to be “the most precious thing in life”?
Throughout the book, I felt sympathy for the clones’ fate. The fact that they couldn’t have children, had no freedom to choose their careers, and had to donate organs and die at a young age, leaving behind the ones they loved, was deeply pitiful and heartbreaking. On the other hand, it made me think about the freedom I enjoy. And I couldn’t understand why the clones, living such pitiful lives, didn’t rebel but instead conformed to the lives assigned to them. I kept thinking that since Earth is so vast, shouldn’t they at least try to escape during their cottage years and hide deep in the mountains? Why don’t they even attempt that? But the author stated in an NPR interview that she deliberately portrayed them that way. “The clones live in a closed world, only among people like themselves. It’s the only form of life they know, and their lifespan feels natural to them. Therefore, rather than feeling a desire to escape, they feel a sense of duty and strive to do well.”
As I pondered those words, the distinction I had drawn between Cassie and myself dissolved, and I began to wonder if I might be living a life similar to Cassie’s or the other clones in the story. Cassie, a clone, conforms to the life given to her, waiting for the day she becomes a donor. Caregiver Cassie takes immense pride in excelling at her caregiving duties. Hailsham-raised Cassie consoles herself with the fact that she was chosen over others and is incredibly fortunate. Living in Korea, I attended middle and high school, came to university, and now await the day I join a company after graduation. As a student, I feel happy when I do well on exams and strive to perform well. I thought I had been given more than others because I lived in a good family environment. As this thought came to me, I realized the author’s words were not wrong, at least for me. I too had walked the path many tread, trying only to do well, without much thought about why I lived this life. I never even considered breaking free, nor did I muster the courage to try. If the clones trapped in boxes seemed foolish, wouldn’t my similar life appear foolish to someone else’s eyes?
Yet, in other interviews, the author didn’t portray conforming to fate and fulfilling one’s duty as negatively as I had imagined. “Escape is not a theme I wanted to explore in this book. Because in real life, it’s not an option. The protagonists in this book are simply doing what we all do. That is, striving to give meaning to our lives by fulfilling our duties.”
In another interview, the author stated: “I tried to celebrate the decency that confronts the dark truth in all our lives. That dark truth is that we live with a countdown that keeps ticking.”
The author did not view the act of fulfilling one’s duty as a passive, slave-like existence, but rather as an active effort to preserve human dignity within the bleak condition of life—that we will all die someday. If we accept this view, perhaps I needn’t blame myself so harshly for diligently fulfilling my given duties, rather than doing nothing out of the thought that everything is futile because we will die someday. However, as I am about to finish my student life and become a member of society, I believe the question “What is my given duty?” remains valid, precisely because I can now choose my ‘given duties’.
Living each day habitually, I repeated only routine tasks under the excuse of being busy, leaving no time for questions. No, I did keep asking questions. “What am I studying for? Why must I live so busily, sometimes—no, often—sacrificing time with family? Do I need to achieve something in life?” But I brushed them aside without proper answers, citing lack of time. These issues, so important yet dismissed as trivial, resurfaced anew as I read this book. This time, I feel it’s time to make the effort to think and think again, finding my own answers to them one by one. Though this book tells the story of an ordinary cloned human life, not some extraordinary figure, the author’s subtle intentions hidden within compel me to reflect on my own life once more.
