Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Characters	Locations
Kathy H. – narrator, carer for 11 years, age 31 when telling story Ruth Tommy Hailsham: Miss Geraldine – favorite guardian Miss Lucy – thought students not being taught enough, should be told the truth Madame – took best art work for Gallery Miss Emily - head guardian Chrissie and Rodney – at The Cottages, thought they saw Ruth’s “possible” in Norfolk	Hailsham Through age 16 Guardians Collection chests The Exchange The Sales The Cottages There for two years after Hailsham People left to become carers or donors Norfolk

 For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition of book.

1. The reader is told the destiny of the Hailsham students on page 81.  Were you surprised or did you figure it out before that?  How well did the author plant clues to keep you interested without explicitly giving the information?
2. What affect did not knowing anything about the outside world have on the students? 
3. Did you agree with Miss Lucy that the students should be told more about their purpose in life?
4. Discuss the ongoing relationship among Kathy, Ruth and Tommy.   Why did each behave the way they did?  Why did Ruth always seem to cause conflict?
5. The purpose of encouraging art and collecting the best work for The Gallery was to show others that the children had souls.  Did you agree with this?  Did it give them false hope?
6. Kathy noticed that couples at The Cottages patterned their behavior after couples on TV shows (page 120) and after a while Ruth changed how she interacted with Tommy to match.  Did you find this surprising?  In the novel it was in the early 2000’s.   What TV couples were they modeling?  If children had no other role models, what would they learn today from watching how couples and friends interacted in the media?
7. Did your opinion of Madame change at the end of the novel, particularly when reading her interpretation of why she cried watching Kathy dance to song as a young girl.  She told her, “And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain…”  (page 272).
8. As she was leaving Kathy and Tommy, she said, “You poor creatures” (page 272).  How did this make you feel?  How did it affect Kathy and Tommy?
9. Was it kind or cruel to raise the students at Hailsham where it was, “…demonstrated to the world that if students were reared in humane, cultivated environments, it was possible for them to grow to be as sensitive and intelligent as any other ordinary human being” (page 261)?  Why was this not popular with the citizens in the country?
10. What did you think about the idea that the students were cloned from “trash” instead of a productive person?
11. On page 96, Kathy directly addresses the reader and identifies the reader as another donor, “I don’t know how it was where you were but at Hailsham…”  Did you pick up on this?  Does it make a difference in your understanding of the story?
12. Did you know the basic premise of the story before beginning the novel?  (In my edition of the of the book there was no plot summary on the back cover.)  What difference did prior knowledge of the story, or lack of prior knowledge, make to your reading experience?
13. Do you often read dystopian novels?  Do you like the genre?  If not, did you like this one?
14. The blurb on the front of my paperback edition says, “The best novel of the decade.” by Time magazine.  Do you agree?   Why was the novel so highly regarded?

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First Semester Success: 2nd edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an eBook and hardcopy from amazon.com and a hardcopy from wordassociation.com.