The Effects of Truths Told and not Told in “Never Let me Go”

In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, there is substantial metacommentary concerning the motif of what is told and not told. This concept is most clearly seen with the looming body organ donations, as well as the future and responsibilities of the clones. Ishiguro uses this theme in his narrative through how the readers learn about the world in the book.

The sole purpose of the clones is body organ donations, though they are unaware of this fact. However, to say that they are unaware is somewhat of an exaggeration, since they are “aware” of what lies in store for them from about the age of six or seven, but don’t truly understand what the donations actually imply.

This reality is only divulged to them when they’re around fifteen, and not in a way that was intended. One of their guardians became frustrated with their enforced ignorance while they were discussing their futures. She clarified to them that, “None of [them] will go to America, none of [them] will be film stars. And none of [them] will be working in supermarkets as I heard some of [them] planning the other day” (81). She precedes this minor outburst by noting, “The issue, as I see it, is that [they’ve] been told and not told. [They’ve] been informed, but none of [them] really understand,” despite having been informed sporadically about the donation process throughout their lives.

An example that befits this situation is adoption; many adoptees know from a very young age—some even from before they can remember the exact conversation—that they are adopted. However, few apprehend what adoption implies or involves until much later in life, not until they are in the double-digit ages. This mirrors the clones’ understanding of donations because they know of them but do not grasp what they truly entail. Furthermore, Tommy notes “it’s conceivable that the guardians managed to smuggle a lot of the basic facts about [the donations] into [their] heads during their sex education lessons” (83). This, again, follows with the theme of being “told and not told” because, technically, they were told about the donations and the process, but they were intentionally distracted from it by the more intriguing topic of sex. He also observes that the guardians “timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told [them], to ensure that [they] were always too young to properly understand the latest piece of information” (82). Linking this back to the smuggling of information into their heads, Tommy realizes how the guardians have kept them in blissful ignorance while still conveying crucial information about their futures.

This theoretical future that the duplicates envisioned was something else that remained unclear during their youth. There were many unanswered questions, even before the outburst by one of their guardians when they were fifteen. Their reaction to this was a dismissive, “Well, so what? We already knew all that.” Up until then, their understanding of what was to occur after they left Hailsham was vague (82). When they moved to the Cottages, they got a taste of the “real world” for the first time during a city visit to inspect a possible sighting for Ruth. Few of them grasped the significance of this trip, which offered a glimpse of a life they would never lead. They had been led to believe from a young age that their future was set; they were to become carers before making their contributions and learning about the recovery centres and so forth. Such a journey into the “real world” was less shocking as they understood they could not enjoy the freedoms everyone else did (82). This is particularly fascinating because the story is narrated in hindsight by Kathy, a thirty-year-old carer who is well-aware of her impending fate. She addresses the readers as if they were part of her world and inherently understood the terminology she used. This presumption is most palpable in the first few pages, where she casually uses terms like “donations” and “carer,” expecting readers to require no clarification, as if they too, were clones like herself.

The “informed as well as not told” metacommentary is evident in Kathy H’s narration. The first instance of this duality is seen in the initial pages. Kathy uses different terms which are, to her, entirely typical and she presents them in a way that suggests that she anticipates the readers to understand without explanation. Readers are required to infer the significance of these terms for numerous pages before finally discerning their meaning from textual hints. The narration, as if addressed to a peer or another clone, is clear not only from the random terms used, but also through the descriptions of the characters – or the lack thereof. A physical description of the narrator isn’t revealed until halfway through the book, and even then it isn’t a particularly “important” trait, such as eye color – she describes the length of her hair. This absence of description denotes Kathy’s expectation that the readers are to some degree familiar with the characters she discusses. The overall narration is casual, making it inferable that the intended audience is a familiar person or at least someone who she’s familiar with. However, it can be argued that this ambiguity is purposefully reflected by Ishiguro, thus he, too, knew that he would have to sometimes explain the world in more straightforward terms. An instance of such clarity is Miss Lucy’s talk on page 81, when she expresses her dissatisfaction with how the students are planning their futures. Her frustration is not from anger but from pain, as she can’t bear to watch students discuss potential futures knowing they won’t achieve them. Although her words may seem cruel, she was being kind – something Tommy understands quite clearly. Yet, none of the students become angry with her for stifling their dreams, as they were too uncomfortable discussing “donations” for too long. This discomfort is also mirrored in the readers. Ishiguro presents a world that readers don’t entirely want to comprehend due to its being a prospective dystopian future, leaving a part of the audience preferring ignorance over grasping what may come to pass. Similarly, the cloned children feel the same about their futures. Consequently, any new information is often “padded” with distractions. For instance, Kathy remarks that she “could see more drops coming off the gutter and landing on her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to notice” (81). This is immediately followed by the beginning of Miss Lucy’s explanation. This technique of distraction is also employed by the guardians during sex education talks at school, albeit it isn’t narrated as explicitly as the prior example.

Therefore, viewers find out about the globe in Kazuo Ishiguro’s work Never Let Me Go and the characters that populate it in bits and also spurts as a result of what they are and also aren’t told. The mirroring of this motif in the content of the story in the writing and narrative of it shows how deep the surprise sides of the society in this alternate timeline run and also how important this suggestion of what can as well as can not-or should not-be understood is to those who live in it. It also serves to confuse the target market because the world is never ever made absolutely clear to them, equally as the futures of the clones are left shrouded in fog and uncertainty. However, in both situations, a defining moment is gotten to in which the viewers are obtaining clearness about the globe at the same time as Kathy and her good friends; the most noteworthy instance of this is Miss Lucy’s speech on page 81. The readers are learning about what will certainly happen to the personalities as they age, therefore are the students, though few of them take it as seriously as it should certainly be taken therefore stop working to see the gravity of what she did for them.

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