Passivity in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go: A Twin Interpretation of the Text

Kazuo Ishiguro' s Never Let Me Go is a complex novel that tells the life story of Kathy, Tommy and Ruth (three young clones). In the novel there are three themes that I believe are the key to fully understanding the novel's message: identity, empathy and passivity. With the theme of identity, the novel tries to convey that it is not just our origins that define who we are, but also the memory of our life’s emotional affairs. Meanwhile, the theme of empathy is morally ambiguous. Never Let Me Go shows how dangerous it is to put too much faith in empathy because, although it is usually beneficial, it is often based on emotional identification and similarity, which can lead to exploitation and suffering. The most important element in the characters' lives, however, is their passivity, which can be interpreted in two different ways. On the one hand, the clones' passive behaviour towards their already determined future is explained as the only reaction they could have, given the education they received at Hailsham and the inhumane way they are treated by society. More specifically, according to this interpretation, Kathy's story is a metaphor for the inequalities of global economic systems of today's world. The second interpretation, on the other hand, reflects Ishiguro's real intention when he wrote Never Let Me Go, which was to create a metaphor for the human condition; therefore, the characters' lack of rebellion represents the natural, human reaction to our mortality. Kathy cannot change her fate, just as we cannot change our mortality, so there is no point in trying to escape it. The only thing she can do is focus on her friendships and try to experience all those emotions, like love, hope, and sadness that make life worth living.