Narration

Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro

An important aspect of this novel is the narration and its point of view. Kathy tells the story of her life as she recalls her time growing up at Hailsham and moving on to her time at the Cottages. As Kathy progresses through her story, the readers learn about Kathy's life with the unanswered questions that Kathy also had at that time of her life. Just as Kathy and her peers once questioned their situation and suspected various reasons, so we too question and suspect their situation as well. By having Kathy narrate her youth, Ishiguro creates suspense through the questions that the readers develop about Kathy's life. Ishiguro maintains this suspense by prolonging the tangents that Kathy tells while in the middle of her anecdotes. Ultimately the tangents lead to make Kathy's greater point of her stories, but they still prolong the suspense created by the unanswered questions.

In addition, the reader sees the contrast in the maturity level of Kathy as she once was in her stories and as she is now while telling her stories through her narration. "I was really upset by Ruth's remark at the time, but it's pointless now trying to judge her or anyone else for the way they behaved during those early days at the Cottages" (Ishiguro, 131). Events that used to upset Kathy no longer seem to bother her. Perhaps Kathy has matured like any other person would, but I still wonder if something greater happened to her that sparked her maturity. Kathy has seemed set apart from her peers throughout the novel, possibly because she is narrating the events, but perhaps there is a greater reason as to why she stands apart from her peers and as to why she is narrating this story.