Never Let Me Go, Section 2 - The Fate of the Hailsham Students

After reading section two of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, the true identity of the students of Hailsham is revealed. Miss Lucy tells of how each student was cloned from another person, and their purpose in life is to donate their organs to others in a few years. After I discovered what was going on within the novel, the unethical nature of the whole plot shocked me. Children would sit around, planning their lives, future occupations, or begin to form relationships, never knowing that all of these things would never become available to them. This revelation also seems to explain Miss Lucy’s later departure and the fear Madame, a mysterious woman who often visits the school, shows towards the students. For Miss Lucy, it is very likely that she could just not deal with seeing her students have such hope for their futures that they would never be able to carry out. However, Madame’s fears are now explained. If she was aware that the student were clones and knew of their purpose, it could be a very touchy or strange idea to her, instilling her fear. However, the other part of the situation that I found confusing was that, even after Miss Lucy’s revelation, the topic of their futures does not really seem to bother the students. Kathy states after Miss Lucy’s talk, “But as I say there was surprisingly little discussion about what she’d said,” (Ishiguro, 82). One would assume that such a life changing topic of discussion would cause a riot among the students or provoke some people to try and escape, but nothing along those lines happens. It seems as though the students have come to terms with their fates, which is even harder to understand as they are teenagers with their whole lives ahead of them.