Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

Throughout the novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, the author uses strong descriptive language and creative use of setting to foreshadow and emphasize the melancholy lives of all the Hailsham students. Ishiguro uses the first person character, Kathy, and setting to speak to the reader indirectly, instead of simply telling the reader about the meaning and feelings among the characters and their lives. Ishiguro uses this method in the cliffside scene at Rover, the backstreets of High Street, and in Madame’s house. Overall, in Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro uses setting to show the lack of freedom and inevitability of death among the lives of the main characters, the Hailsham students. Ishiguro uses the cliff edge/seaside town at Rover to emphasize the rare feeling of being open and free among the students, and uses the cliff to emphasize the inevitable death among the group as well. When the group arrives at this rundown cafe at the edge of a cliff, Kathy mentions, “Things cheered up considerably, though, once we arrived in our seaside town” (Ishiguro 148). The ride was rough, and once they reach the scene, it feels like a burden lifts from the characters. This open scene contributes to the sense of freedom and happiness that the Hailsham students are searching for. Ishiguro emphasizes the trip to the cliff and its open setting to move “away” from the distractions and limitations of everyday life amongst these students. Furthermore, when Kathy explains that they “felt so exhilarated to be out and about,” and “didn 't give much thought to what had brought [them] there,”

Overall, Ishiguro’s method of using setting in Never Let Me Go allows him to speak to the reader in a unique way with little confusion. Throughout the novel, the countless settings always have underlying meaning, and reflect the somber lives, and pessimistic moods of all the characters, especially the Hailsham students. This is what separates Never Let Me Go from other fictitious novels of this