Never Let Me Go, Section 2 - The Sequence of Events

After reading farther into Never Let Me Go, a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, one detail that becomes more and more apparent over time is the semi-confusing sequence of events within the story. The speaker often switches from one event at a certain time to an event much later very quickly, creating an interesting story to follow. It seems as though Ishiguro was almost trying to make his novel read like a collection of memories put together. People do not remember everything that has happened to them in perfect order. Rather, a person’s memories usually come in snip-its when something that occurs in the present reminds us of something that happened in our past. Ishiguro chose this style for his novel quite simply because the novel is the story of the speaker’s life. Kathy, a young woman now, is telling the story of her intriguing past, and as she speaks, certain memories trigger others. This causes both skips in the timing of events and a confusing plot line. Ishiguro writes, “And that’s how it was…I came to notice various odd little things she said or did that my friends missed altogether. There was the time, for example…,” (Ishiguro, 78). This quote shows exactly how one of the speaker’s memories within the story quickly blends into another, creating an interesting sequence of events.