Oh baby, baby, never let me go..

"...I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, maybe even call." (pg. 263)

I don't even know what to say. This book may as well have torn my heart out and stomped on it. It's been a long time since I've read something as powerfully sad as the last page of Never Let Me Go, and it's left me feeling rather empty. I can still hardly hold back tears as I think of Kathy staring out into a dirty field, combining her childhood fantasy of finding her precious lost things with a very adult longing for her lost love. I think it's the striking contrast between the childhood innocence and the harsh truth of reality in this scene that moved me so deeply.

Contrast seems to be used quite a bit in this novel to make certain themes more powerful. The highly polarized behavior of various characters, not to mention the way in which the writing style itself contradicts some of the dehumanizing content, only makes the emotional lines more hard-hitting.

For instance, the empathy and compassion shown by Madame when she sees Kathy dancing in the dorm draws attention to both the cruel nature of the lives clones are exposed to as well as the intimately human emotions they experience. And although Madame is revealed to be one of the clones' greatest allies in the battle for their rights, she is also portrayed as having an innate fear or disgust of the clones. I found Madame to be an interesting character in general because she plays a central role in both the dehumanization of and empathy for the clones.

I almost felt as though the clones, or "freaks" in this in this novel were even further dehumanized than those in Nights at the Circus or Geek Love. What bothered me the most was the way that death is referred to as "completion". This word alone draws attention to the fact that the clones live with only one purpose; all human emotion and experience is simply an aside to their ultimate use as a tool to save the life of another. At no point in their lives, not even in death, are they seen by the outside world as having any value as an individual. This takes the idea of a "freak" not being human one step further than in either of the other novels we covered in class. To me, this context of dehumanization and human life as a commodity was what made Kathy and Tommy's love so powerful to read about.

"And so we stood together like that, at the top of that field, for what seemed like ages, not saying anything, just holding each other, while the wind kept blowing and blowing at us, tugging our clothes, and for a moment, it seemed like we were holding onto each other because that was the only way to stop us being swept away into the night." (pg. 251)

This was another scene that deeply moved me. It draws attention to the unfair and heartbreaking circumstances of the lives from which they have no escape. It also serves as a contrast the dehumanization of the clones by demonstrating their capacity to experience the most powerful human emotions. In doing that, the author shows that not only are these characters fully human, but they are not at all different from those in the outside world.

Though in a theoretical sense this novel is very different from Geek Love or Nights at the Circus, I found that I enjoyed it more. Though I have felt that every book we've covered has a central theme of what it is to be human, in my opinion this is the best example. This book and these characters will stay with me for a very long time.