Never let me go summary, Appunti di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Never let me go summary e più Appunti in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! NEVER LET ME GO SUMMARY CHAPTER 1 Kathy H., the thirty-one-year-old narrator, introduces herself as a “carer.” She explains that she has held this job for almost twelve years, although she will be leaving it in about eight months. Kathy takes pride in her work, noting that the “donors” for whom she cares are rarely agitated and tend to recover quickly after giving donations. As a result, she has gained certain privileges including the opportunity to choose her donors. Kathy says that other carers may resent her for this, especially since she tends to choose donors who attended Hailsham. She explains that this is how she reconnected with her childhood friends Ruth and Tommy. Kathy used to resist the urge to look back on her school days. Then, one of her donors made a bad first donation. In the days before he “completed,” he asked her repeatedly for stories of Hailsham and refused to talk about his own apparently grim childhood. This experience made Kathy realize how lucky she and her friends were to attend Hailsham. Kathy sees many reminders of her school days while driving around the country, including sports pavilions that look like the one at Hailsham. She recalls an afternoon at Hailsham when she was about twelve years old. In the memory, Kathy is lounging in the Hailsham pavilion with Ruth and a few other girls. The pavilion is a favorite hideout where they can gossip away from the eyes of their “guardians.” Through the window, they watch a group of boys refuse to pick Tommy for a football (soccer) game in order to provoke him into a temper tantrum. The girls gossip about how Tommy has never tried to be creative in their art classes. Meanwhile, Kathy worries that Tommy will ruin his favorite blue polo shirt as he stomps around in the mud. She walks over to Tommy and tries to calm him down, but he continues to flail his arms and accidentally hits her in the face. Kathy points out that his shirt is covered in mud. Tommy brushes off her concern, but then seems to regret it. Kathy returns to her friends, feeling frustrated and aware that the other students are watching her. CHAPTER 2 Kathy continues to recall her childhood at Hailsham. A few days after his tantrum, Tommy stops her on the stairs to apologize for his behavior. Kathy feels embarrassed to be addressed in such a public place, as the stairs are filled with students heading to and from their weekly medical examinations. However, she accepts his apology. The other boys continue to play pranks on Tommy, who responds with more tantrums. One night in the girls’ dormitory, Kathy discusses the situation with Ruth and their other friends. Ruth says that Tommy needs to try harder to be creative if he wants the teasing to stop. She points out that Tommy does not submit anything to the Exchanges, quarterly art exhibitions at which the students can trade their works with one another, and purchase works with school-issued tokens. Kathy interrupts this memory to explain that students skilled at “creating” generally earned the most respect from their peers at Hailsham, a phenomenon encouraged by the Exchanges. She adds that Tommy’s struggle with creativity began years earlier in art class, when he made an intentionally childish watercolor of an elephant to get the other students to laugh. Unaware that this was purposeful, the sympathetic guardian Miss Geraldine praised his efforts instead of scolding him. After that incident, the other students started to mock Tommy’s artistic efforts. Kathy believes that Tommy tried briefly to improve, but soon began exaggerating the childish quality of his pictures to cover up his lack of ability. He also started throwing tantrums in response to the teasing from his classmates. Kathy’s memories return to the aftermath of the football incident. Although the pranks continue, Tommy suddenly stops losing his temper. The other boys lose interest in teasing him and start to include him in their games. Puzzled, Kathy finds Tommy in the lunch line and asks about his new attitude. Tommy attributes it to the guardian Miss Lucy, who recently told him that he did not have to be creative if he did not want to be. Kathy thinks this is a joke and walks away angrily. Tommy promises to explain and asks her to meet him at the pond after lunch. ANALYSIS Although Never Let Me Go takes place in the 1990s, Kathy’s opening lines suggest that this is not straightforwardly historical fiction, but instead a parallel universe. She casually refers to unfamiliar terms like “carers” and “donors,” which seem to be well known and accepted roles within her world. Kathy does not explain these roles, indicating an assumption that her audience is already familiar with them.  In contrast, Kathy does not expect her audience to know about   life  at   the  Hailsham school.   She often pauses   to  explain  Hailsham rituals  and  traditions,   like   the Exchanges. This shows Kathy’s assumption that her audience has not experienced Hailsham and evokes the sense that her idyllic childhood was somewhat exceptional. The story about Kathy’s donor reinforces this sense since he seems to yearn for her childhood memories in place of his own. This donor’s desire to forget his past reverses Kathy’s   desire   to   remember   and   record   her  own.   Ironically,   Hailsham  proves   central   to   both   his   process   of forgetting and her process of remembering. For the donor, Hailsham is an imagined escape from his own memories. For Kathy, Hailsham is the way into recalling and making sense of her memories. The impulse to look back on the past is characteristic of Kathy , who sees ghostly echoes of Hailsham wherever she goes. Kathy even uses her role as a carer to reconnect with Hailsham, choosing to care for donors who are former Hailsham   students.   Although   she   is   preparing   for   a   major   transition   in   her   own   life,  she spends her time remembering her childhood instead of looking ahead to the future.  Kathy’s focus on the past also affects her narration, which can be disorienting for the reader.  Kathy does not recall the events of her life in chronological order. She often narrates by association, jumping back and forth in time as details from one memory trigger her recollection of others. While Kathy’s memories move primarily between the present and her time at Hailsham in these chapters,  she also refers  to other moments from her  life  in brief  asides.  Her narrative style reflects  the process of recollection itself. Sifting through a jumble of memories, Kathy offers an account that is incomplete, episodic, and out of order. Her style also raises questions about her reliability as a narrator. Only Kathy’s point of view is available to the reader. She presents other characters and events subjectively, and at times she also admits that she may be misremembering details. CHAPTER 3 Kathy meets Tommy at the pond but feels uneasy about being visible from the main house. Tommy explains that about two months prior, he helped Miss Lucy to carry some materials back to her study. When they were alone, Miss Lucy told him that he was not to blame for his lack of creativity. She also told him that it was wrong for the guardians or other students to pressure him about being creative. Miss Lucy shook with anger while she spoke, but her anger did not seem to be directed at Tommy. Tommy says the talk helped him to adjust his behavior, but makes Kathy promise not to tell anyone about it. He adds that Miss Lucy told him she believes the students are not “taught enough” about donations. Kathy and Tommy speculate that donations and creativity may be connected. Kathy thinks that such a connection might help explain Madame’s Gallery. => IN THE FILM, THIS HAPPENS WHEN THEY ARE GROWN YET, AND OUTSIDE OF HAILSHAM Kathy pauses this memory to describe Madame, a woman who occasionally visited Hailsham to take away the best student artwork. Students believed that she put the art in a personal gallery, although they had no proof that “Madame’s Gallery” existed. They also considered it taboo to mention Madame’s Gallery in front of the guardians, who never addressed the subject. Madame herself was aloof and distant from the students on her visits. When Ruth and Kathy were around eight years old, Ruth proposed a theory that Madame was afraid of the students. They tested this theory with their friends by walking in a group past Madame on one of her visits. Madame froze and seemed to suppress a shudder, confirming Ruth’s theory. This encounter made Kathy realize that some people on the “outside” of Hailsham dreaded contact with students like her. CHAPTER 4 As Kathy prepares to stop being a carer, she feels an increasing urge to make sense of her memories. She believes that her memories of Hailsham will help to clarify what happened between her, Tommy, and Ruth after they left school. Kathy recalls the “tokens controversy” caused by Madame’s visits. She explains that students who submitted art to the Exchanges received tokens with which to “purchase” other students’ work. In this way, the Exchanges allowed students to build up collections of personal items. When Kathy was about ten years old, she and her classmates protested not receiving similar “compensation” when Madame took their artwork. During the token’s controversy, one of the students asked Miss Lucy why Madame wanted their art in the first place. Miss Lucy refused to explain, saying only that the students would not understand. Kathy also describes the monthly Sales, where students used their tokens to purchase toys, clothes, and other objects brought in from the “outside”. The stern head guardian, Miss Emily, often lectured the students about their rowdiness on Sale days. Kathy recalls Miss Emily’s odd speeches and remembers how her sharp intellect at times seemed to give way to a dreamy daze. Kathy also shares her earliest memories of Ruth. When Kathy was five or six, she saw Ruth angrily confront two girls playing in a sandpit. A couple of years later, Ruth invited Kathy to join her in riding imaginary horses. Kathy enjoyed the game until Ruth became inexplicably cross with her. Suddenly, Ruth asked Kathy if Miss Geraldine was her favorite guardian. When Kathy said yes, Ruth invited her to be one of Miss Geraldine’s “secret guards.” CHAPTER 5 Kathy recalls her involvement with the secret guard, a small group of students dedicated to protecting Miss Geraldine from a supposed kidnapping plot. Led by Ruth, the guard collects “evidence” linking various guardians and students to the plot. Although the details of the plot are always vague, the guard believes that it will involve the woods behind Hailsham. Students generally fear the woods, passing down frightening stories about former students who died there. One rumor involves a boy found with his hands and feet cut off, while another is about a little girl who starved to death. Kathy and her friends once “punished” their classmate Marge K. for embarrassing them by forcing her to look at the woods at night through a window. Kathy remembers that everyone in the secret guard helped to maintain the “fantasy” of the plot, even after outgrowing it. By way of explanation, she describes an incident she has with Ruth over chess. One day, Kathy buys a chess set at a Sale because she thinks Ruth can teach her to play. Ruth has often implied that she knows the game, but her attempt to teach Kathy shows that she does not. Kathy walks away from their game in anger. The next day, Ruth expels Kathy from the secret guard. Nonetheless, Kathy still defends the guard when another student calls it childish. Kathy’s memories jump ahead about three years. Ruth comes to class with a new polka-dotted pencil case, insinuating that it is a gift from Miss Geraldine. Ruth often implies that she is a special favorite of Miss Geraldine, although Kathy can never tell if she is telling the truth. Kathy is particularly annoyed about the pencil case, which she suspects Ruth purchased at a recent Sale. As a test, she tells Ruth that she has seen the register where Sale purchases are recorded. Kathy is bluffing, but when Ruth becomes visibly upset, this confirms Kathy’s theory. Kathy immediately regrets trying to catch her in a lie. She assures Ruth that she did not see much in the register, but Ruth walks away. CHAPTER 6 After the pencil case incident, Kathy tries to make up for her behavior by implying that Miss Geraldine does favor Ruth. One day, another student asks where Ruth got her pencil case. Ruth hesitates, but Kathy covers for her by calling it a to special opportunities and believed it possible that Ruth might work in an office one day. Chrissie and Rodney invite Ruth on a trip to Norfolk to search for her possible. Kathy and Tommy decide to come too, which does not seem to please Ruth. CHAPTER 13 Rodney arranges to borrow a car for the Norfolk trip, but his plans fall through just before they are supposed to leave. Ruth becomes visibly upset, although she has, up until now, treated the trip like a joke. Rodney secures another car and the trip proceeds as planned. On the way to Norfolk, Ruth sits between Kathy and Tommy in the back seat. She spends most of the drive leaning forward to speak with Rodney and Chrissie, which prevents Kathy and Tommy from talking to one another. Kathy suggests that she and Ruth switch seats, but Ruth angrily accuses her of trying to make trouble. Ruth sulks in silence for the rest of the drive. The mood lightens when they arrive in Norfolk and go to a local café for lunch. Kathy expects to discuss Ruth’s “possible” over lunch. Instead, Rodney and Chrissy suggest visiting their friend Martin, a carer who lives in Norfolk. Kathy points out that they are not supposed to visit carers, provoking a sarcastic comment from Ruth. Tommy asks about Ruth’s possible, but Rodney seems reluctant to discuss the subject. Chrissie says that one day Ruth herself may work in a Norfolk office, then shares a rumor about a former Hailsham student who supposedly got a job in a clothes shop. She adds that Ruth told her about another Hailsham student working as a park ranger. Tommy expresses confusion and denies ever hearing these rumors, but Kathy pretends to know about the student. Chrissie brings up a rumor that Hailsham couples in love can apply to defer their donations for a few years and asks how to apply. Ruth claims to know about deferrals but not to know about the application process. Tommy tells them that he does not know what they are talking about. Ruth tries to explain Tommy’s cluelessness by saying that he was left out at Hailsham, and then says that she wants to go see her possible. CHAPTER 14 Rodney leads the way to the office, but Chrissie makes them stop at Woolworth’s first to buy birthday cards. In the store, Kathy overhears Ruth and Chrissie discussing deferrals again. Ruth continues to imply that Hailsham students have special access to deferrals, and gets angry when she notices Kathy listening in. The students eventually find the open-plan office, and Rodney points out an older woman visible through its floor-to-ceiling windows. They all agree that she resembles Ruth enough to be a legitimate possible. When a few of the people in the office look over, the students quickly move away. Ruth wants to wait a few minutes and then return for another look, but then they see Ruth’s possible leaving the office. At Ruth’s insistence, they follow the possible to an art gallery called The Portway Studio. Inside the studio, they observe the possible talking with the gallery manager. When viewed up close, the woman begins to seem much less like Ruth than they had originally thought. The students do not follow the woman when she leaves. The gallery manager asks if they are art students, prompting Kathy to explain that they are merely interested. The gallery manager talks to them about the artwork on display, reminding Kathy of the guardians at Hailsham. When they leave the studio, the students all agree that the woman from the office is not Ruth’s model. Noticing that Ruth seems upset, Kathy resents Chrissie and Rodney on her behalf. Although Chrissie and Rodney try to cheer Ruth up, Kathy senses that they are relieved not to have more evidence of Hailsham’s exceptionality. Kathy and Tommy also try to comfort Ruth by making light of the situation. Although Kathy expects Ruth to respond to their support more positively than she did to Chrissie and Rodney, Ruth does not acknowledge them. Ruth claims to have known it was a stupid idea all along, snapping at Tommy when he attempts agree with her. She says the students are copied from “trash,” declaring that their models are convicts, junkies, and prostitutes. Rodney and Chrissie again suggest a visit to Martin, their friend who is now a carer, but Kathy refuses to go. Ruth angrily leaves with the veterans, while Tommy stays back with Kathy. CHAPTER 15 Tommy tells Kathy that he was looking for her lost tape in Woolworth’s but could not remember the title of the album. He recalls searching for the tape at Hailsham too, noting how Ruth had urged the other students to look for it. Tommy suggests that he and Kathy continue the search in Norfolk, and they visit several secondhand stores together. Kathy finds a copy of the tape at one of them, and Tommy buys it for her. On their walk back to the car, Tommy says that he thinks deferrals are connected to Madame’s Gallery. Tommy recalls Miss Emily once telling another student that artwork reveals the soul. He theorizes that Madame’s Gallery is used to determine if couples who apply for deferrals are really in love, reasoning that Madame uses the artwork to see if a couple’s souls go together => PRESENT IN THE MOVIE BUT NOT IN THIS SEQUENCE Tommy confirms that none of his artwork made it into Madame’s Gallery but reveals that he has started drawing again just in case. He says that he draws tiny imaginary animals, inspired by a children’s book he found at the Cottages. Tommy says that Ruth does not know about his animals or about his deferral theory. When they arrive back at the car, Tommy tells Kathy that Ruth’s comments about their models inspired another one of his theories. He thinks that Kathy looks at pornographic magazines because she is searching for her possible. Kathy admits that she has strong sexual urges, which made her think that her model might be in those magazines. She has tears in her eyes but manages to avoid crying. Tommy assures Kathy that her desire for sex is not unusual and admits to having the same urges. Soon, the rest of the group returns. Ruth is in a much better mood, pointedly including Kathy and Tommy in conversation on the drive home. Kathy decides not to tell Ruth about finding a copy of her lost tape. CHAPTER 16 Back at the Cottages, Ruth refuses to talk about the Norfolk trip. The others follow her lead, while Kathy also continues to avoid telling Ruth about her tape. In the spring, several veterans depart for carer training. The remaining veterans begin to talk about deferrals again, but Rodney and Chrissie do not participate. The “Norfolk effect,” as it is referred to, extends to Tommy and Kathy, who do not discuss Madame’s Gallery further. One day, Kathy finds Tommy drawing his imaginary animals in a nearby barn. He shows her the pictures, which all are tiny and highly detailed. He says that Ruth is the only other person who has seen them. Kathy does not know how to judge the “fantastical” creatures and wonders aloud what Madame would think of them. However, she feels more and more drawn to them the longer she looks. She compliments Tommy and encourages him not to keep his artwork a secret. A new group of students arrives at the end of the summer, but none are from Hailsham. Kathy senses that Hailsham is slipping into the past, and that her Hailsham friends at the Cottages are drifting apart. She is also annoyed at Ruth, who regularly pretends to forget details about their school days. Kathy flashes back to a night earlier in the same summer when she is gossiping in her room with Ruth. They are laughing about Kathy’s sexual experiences with a veteran named Lenny when Ruth sees Kathy’s Judy Bridgewater tape. Kathy tells her about finding the tape in Norfolk, and Ruth does not seem bothered. Reflecting back on their talk, Kathy wonders whether Ruth saw the tape before and was just waiting for the right moment to bring it up. They begin to talk about Tommy’s animals, and Ruth encourages Kathy to admit that they are funny. Several days later, Kathy finds Ruth and Tommy talking in a churchyard near the Cottages. Ruth says that Tommy has shared his theory about Madame’s Gallery with her. Tommy says that he might submit his animals to the Gallery, but Ruth tells him not to embarrass himself. Ruth adds that she and Kathy both find his animals funny. Kathy does not deny this claim and walks away, though she almost immediately regrets this and her decision not to explain herself to Tommy. CHAPTER 17 Kathy tries to act normally around Ruth and Tommy, who are still officially together, but the three of them still grow increasingly distant. Eventually, Kathy decides to confront Ruth. They walk to an old bus shelter near the Cottages, where Kathy points out that Ruth’s words and actions often upset Tommy. Ruth admits that Kathy is right, but also points out that Kathy may be interested in dating Tommy if he and Ruth were to break up. Ruth says that while Tommy respects Kathy, he will never be interested in her romantically because he does not like dating girls who have slept with other men. Kathy and Ruth change the subject to their days at Hailsham, but Ruth annoys Kathy by again pretending not to remember details from their childhood. Shortly afterwards, Kathy files paperwork to start her training as a carer. She keeps her distance from Ruth and Tommy until she departs. CHAPTER 18 Although caring is difficult and lonely work, Kathy copes with the strain more effectively than many other carers. Kathy spends hours driving to see her donors at hospitals and recovery centers. One day, she runs into her Hailsham classmate Laura at a car service station. Laura is also a carer, and seems completely worn down. Laura brings up a rumor that Ruth had a bad first donation and asks why Kathy has not asked to be her carer. Kathy says that she and Ruth did not part on good terms. Kathy and Laura also discuss Hailsham, which has recently closed. Kathy’s memories skip back a year or so to the day she heard that Hailsham was definitely closing. She wondered what would happen to the carers and donors who had attended Hailsham, which linked them together. That night, she thought about a clown she had recently seen while walking down a gloomy road. The clown was walking ahead of her and carrying balloons. She imagined the closure of Hailsham would be like cutting the strings and letting the balloons drift away. After speaking with Laura, Kathy decides to become Ruth’s carer. It is about two months after Ruth’s first donation, and she is still weak. Although their first visit is pleasant, Kathy and Ruth do not discuss their parting at the Cottages. Kathy soon realizes that Ruth does not entirely trust her. Their visits become increasingly guarded and silent, until Kathy is ready to give up. The situation changes when they hear rumors of an old fishing boat stranded in the marshes by the Kingsfield recovery center. Ruth wants to see the boat, and Kathy agrees to drive her. Kathy also suggests visiting Tommy, who is at the Kingsfield recovery center. Ruth admits that she wants to see Tommy, whom she has not seen since the Cottages. Kathy sends a message to Tommy’s carer, explaining that they will visit the following week. CHAPTER 19 Kathy drives Ruth to the Kingsfield recovery center. Ruth panics as Tommy approaches the car, but Kathy gets out and hugs him. Tommy sits in the back seat with Ruth, where they greet each other politely. On the drive, Ruth tells a rambling story about another donor at her center. Kathy somewhat light-heartedly cuts her off, causing Tommy to laugh. Ruth is quiet for the rest of the drive. After parking, they walk through the woods to find the boat. The walk tires Ruth, who panics again when they have to cross a barbed wire fence. Kathy and Tommy help her through the fence. Looking back on it, Kathy thinks they both felt badly for ganging up on Ruth in the car. As they walk to the boat, Kathy realizes that Ruth would have snapped back at them for it in the old days. They find the boat, but the marsh prevents them from getting too close. Kathy sits on a dead tree trunk, and Tommy sits on a nearby trunk with Ruth. The boat is bleached and crumbling, but Ruth says it is beautiful. Tommy says that he imagines Hailsham now looks like the marsh. Ruth shares that she recently dreamed she was at Hailsham, looking out the window at a giant flood with rubbish floating in it. The scene in her dream was tranquil, much like the marsh. Ruth also brings up Chrissie, who completed on her second donation. Kathy saw Rodney not long afterwards, and she says that he seemed to be doing okay. Ruth angrily tells Kathy that she could not understand what Rodney felt because she is still a carer. Tommy says he thinks he was a lousy carer, while Ruth says that she felt ready to become a donor after five years of caring. On the drive back, Kathy feels disappointed that she and Tommy have not had much to do with one another during the day. 3 Kathy pulls the car over to point out a billboard featuring an open- plan office. She reminds Ruth of the magazine ad they saw near the Cottages, and Tommy recalls their trip to Norfolk. Kathy says that Ruth should have looked into working at an office. Tommy agrees and points out that Ruth always talked as if she might qualify for special treatment. Ruth protests that there was no way to look into it. Suddenly, Ruth apologizes to Kathy for holding Kathy’s sexual urges against her. Ruth admits to having the same urges, and to having sex with veterans at the Cottages. She also apologizes for keeping Kathy and Tommy apart, when she knew they belonged together. She urges them to pursue a deferral. Kathy begins to cry, protesting that it is too late. Ruth says that she has uncovered Madame’s address for them, handing it on a piece of paper to Tommy for safekeeping. They drop Tommy off at his recovery center and do not discuss what had just happened on their way back to Ruth’s center. After the trip, Kathy and Ruth spend peaceful days reminiscing together at Ruth’s recovery center. They still never directly reference their roadside conversation, but Ruth periodically encourages Kathy to become Tommy’s carer. Ruth later completes after giving her second donation. As Ruth is dying, Kathy promises to become Tommy’s carer. Their eyes lock briefly, and although she is not certain, Kathy thinks that Ruth heard and understood her. CHAPTER 20 Almost a year after their visit to the boat, Kathy becomes Tommy’s carer . Tommy has just given his third donation and is recovering at the Kingsfield center, where he and Kathy spend relaxing afternoons reading and talking. Eventually, they also begin to have sex. They are happy together but cannot avoid feeling that they waited until it was too late. After becoming Tommy’s carer, Kathy also sees him drawing more imaginary animals. Tommy does not hide his drawings from Kathy, and even asks for her opinion on them. Kathy feels relieved and happy, recognizing that Tommy has moved past the tension that arose about his drawings at the Cottages. Kathy sees the animals as a sign that Tommy is still preparing to apply for a deferral. But she also thinks that his drawings look more labored, almost as if he copied them. She senses again that they are doing everything too late. As summer ends, they expect to receive notice for Tommy’s fourth donation. Kathy tells Tommy that she has visited the address Ruth provided, and watched Madame enter the house there. Tommy and Kathy decide to visit Madame the following week. Tommy wonders where they might go, if granted a deferral. He says that they will have to select carefully from among his animal drawings. CHAPTER 21 Kathy and Tommy visit Madame’s house. They arrive in the evening, after a long day of medical tests that leave Tommy feeling carsick. Kathy parks the car in town, where they spot Madame walking down the street. Kathy and Tommy follow Madame, walking slightly behind her. This reminds Kathy of following Ruth’s possible in Norfolk. When Madame reaches her front door, Kathy calls to her from the gate. Madame’s demeanor is cold and severe, but she gives a small smile when Kathy says that they are from Hailsham. Tommy says that they have brought some things for her gallery and wish to speak with her. Madame invites them inside and asks them to wait in a front room while she goes upstairs. As they wait, Tommy points out a framed picture of what he thinks is Hailsham hanging in the corner of the room. They hear Madame speaking with a man upstairs. When Madame returns, Kathy says that they have come to ask about deferrals. Kathy explains that she and Tommy are in love, and Tommy says they think they know the purpose of Madame’s gallery. Madame wants to know what he thinks, but looks at Kathy and asks, oddly, if she is “going too far.” Tommy begins to explain his theory, and Madame realizes that they believe she looks at their artwork to see their souls . She then turns to Kathy, asking again whether she goes too far. Tommy admits that he did not get any art into Madame’s gallery at Hailsham and offers to show his drawings to her. Madame calls them “poor creatures,” and Kathy thinks there are tears in her eyes. Madame again turns to Kathy and asks if she wishes to continue. This time, Kathy realizes that Madame is actually talking to someone in the next room. Suddenly, Miss Emily enters in a wheelchair. Madame tells Miss Emily to speak to them. CHAPTER 22 Miss Emily greets Tommy and Kathy, whom she remembers from Hailsham. She says that she only has a short time to talk because she is expecting movers to come for a bedside cabinet that she is selling. Miss Emily is unwell but hopes that she will not need her wheelchair for long. She says that Madame, who she refers to as Marie-Claude, feels disillusioned about the way their Hailsham project ended. However, Miss Emily feels proud of what they accomplished. She is familiar with the rumor about deferrals but confirms that deferrals have never existed. Miss Emily explains that Hailsham was part of a small progressive movement dedicated to making the donation program more humane . Many people preferred to see the students as less than human, because this made it easier to justify using their organs. While most clones grew up in terrible conditions, Hailsham offered a benevolent alternative. Miss Emily and Madame showed the students’ artwork at special exhibitions to prove to the public that clones had souls. - In the movie, the characters are not depicted well. For example, the friendship btw Kathy and ruth is not very described. It seems like they are even not friends.  - On the contrary, tommy is probably the MOST ACCURATE: he still does the part of the “boyfriend”         CHARACTERS 1. KATHY Kathy H. is the novel’s protagonist and narrator. She is a thirty-one-year-old carer at the beginning of the novel, although she is preparing to soon become a donor. Kathy has worked as a carer for nearly twelve years, much longer than most of the students with whom she grew up at Hailsham. Although she is still a relatively young adult, she has outlived most of  her childhood friends.  Kathy spends her days  looking backwards,  recalling  her memories  of  the people that she has  lost.  Through these memories, the novel traces her complex relationships with her Hailsham friends Tommy and Ruth. Kathy’s reflections also preserve the memory of Tommy and Ruth, both of whom have already “completed.” However,  Kathy is also an unreliable narrator.  Her account is subjective,  presenting events from only her point of view. She does not recall events in strict chronological order, frequently interrupting one memory to share a related memory from another period in her life. She often states that she may be misremembering certain details. At times, she also admits that Tommy or Ruth recalled a particular event or conversation differently  than she does. These idiosyncrasies reflect the  unreliability of memory itself, which is necessarily incomplete and episodic. At the same time, Kathy is also an unreliable narrator because she carefully guards her own feelings. Kathy never explicitly states the depths of her feelings for Tommy, for instance, although her love becomes increasingly clear as the narrative unfolds. Kathy’s memories likewise show her reliance on silence and indirection, especially when it comes to expressing her emotions. For instance, Kathy often expresses her anger with Ruth by walking away rather than explicitly confronting her. As a student at Hailsham, Kathy exhibits restraint and self-consciousness. She often worries about being seen or overheard, especially in conversation with Tommy. Kathy also frames herself as a careful observer. She often stands outside  the  action  in  her  memories,  carefully  watching  those around her  and noticing subtle  details  about  their behavior. At the Cottages, for instance, Kathy realizes that many of the veteran couples have copied their gestures of affection from television Being the narrator, she obv analyzes everything => her narrator is DETACHED > her style of narration reflects the place we are in, and thx to this, we can also understand her emotions. Sometimes she’s also a bit impassive: she doesn’t tell her feelings (in fact, she never said that she lo9ves Tommy)  2. RUTH Ruth is Kathy’s close childhood friend. Kathy lives with Ruth at Hailsham and at the Cottages, and later becomes Ruth’s carer when Ruth is a donor. At Hailsham,  Ruth is outspoken and hot-tempered. She is a natural leader among her friends, although she is often highly controlling as well. Ruth is a foil to Kathy’s quieter and more guarded personality, and the two argue frequently. But like Kathy, Ruth generally quarrels using subtle hints and indirection rather than direct confrontation. As a teenager,  Ruth also begins a longstanding romantic relationship with Tommy. This is an underlying and unspoken source of tension in her friendship with Kathy, who has romantic feelings for Tommy as well. At Hailsham, Ruth often leads her friends in make-believe games. Her most elaborate invention is the “secret guard,” dedicated to protecting her favorite guardian Miss Geraldine from an imaginary plot. The fantasy of the secret guard shows Ruth’s controlling personality, but it also reflects her larger tendency to “pretend” around her peers. Ruth often implies that she has special knowledge and privileges unavailable to other students. For instance, Ruth hints that she receives special  favors from Miss Geraldine. This habit annoys Kathy, who usually suspects that Ruth is lying and quarrels with her over it. However, Ruth’s pretending also shows her earnest   desire to believe in hopeful possibilities   . At Hailsham, her hints about Miss Geraldine reflect her longing for affection from a caring adult. At the Cottages, Ruth indulges in the fantasy of her “dream future” and pins her hopes on the vague story of her “possible,” or a person who resembles her and from whose DNA she may have been cloned, in Norfolk. Ruth can be capricious and unkind to both Tommy and Kathy. In her attempts to fit in at the Cottages, she often ignores and mocks both of them. However,  Ruth has the capacity for deep generosity and thoughtfulness as well . When Kathy loses her Judy Bridgewater tape at Hailsham, for instance, Ruth marshals their classmates to search for it and then gifts her a different tape as a substitute. Later, Ruth also offers Kathy and Tommy the gift of Madame’s address, which demonstrates Ruth’s inherent hopefulness because that she believes Kathy and Tommy still have the chance to ask Madame for a deferral on their donations. Through the offering of Madame’s address, Ruth shows her sincere desire to make amends for keeping Kathy and Tommy apart. She’s like the villain of the couple: mean, selfish, manipulative, jealous. BUT she is also the MOST HUMAN, even for the bad traits.   3. TOMMY Tommy is Kathy’s close childhood friend, for whom she also harbors romantic feelings. At Hailsham, Tommy becomes an outcast  among  his  peers  because,  unlike   them,  he   lacks  artistic  ability.  He develops  a  violent   temper,  often throwing tantrums in response to teasing from his peers. Tommy remains anxious and self-conscious about his artistic abilities as a young adult, initially keeping his artwork a secret at the Cottages. However, he also begins to derive pride and personal satisfaction from drawing. His compelling imaginary animals resist interpretation, reflecting the deep humanity and complex individuality of the clones themselves. Tommy is in many ways more straightforward than Kathy and Ruth, often missing the subtle digs and sarcasm that they shoot back and forth. While Kathy often knowingly defends Ruth’s pretenses in front of others, Tommy usually expresses his confusion or doubt aloud. He also lacks the kind of emotional restraint that Kathy and Ruth exhibit. While Kathy and Ruth tend to express their angers and frustrations indirectly,  Tommy is prone to violent temper tantrums. Yet Tommy also has very different relationships with Ruth and Kathy.  He maintains a  longstanding but difficult romantic relationship with Ruth, who at times belittles and ignores him. Meanwhile, he bonds with Kathy over their  mutual  desire   to  discover   the   truth  about  Hailsham.  Tommy tends   to   trust  Kathy  with  his  biggest  secrets, including his odd conversations with Miss Lucy. In his theorizing with Kathy,  Tommy also shows an observant and reflective side to his personality that mirrors her own He has some human characteristics: he is not so impactful as the other 2 characters. He is in the middle btw ruth and Kathy