The Various Objects of Hope in Never Let Me Go

In Never Let Me Go, the lives that the students are predetermined to lead are very gloomy and bleak. Throughout the novel, the main characters attach themselves to a specific object, and I believe these items are meant to give these characters a glimmer of hope in their lives.

As a student at Hailsham, Kathy has a Judy Bridgewater tape, and according to her, "what made the tape so special for [her] was this one particular song: ... 'Never Let Me Go'" (70). The lyric she loves so much goes, "'Never let me go ... Oh baby, baby ... Never let me go..." (70). As a child, Kathy thinks this song is about a mother who had a baby after not being able to conceive. Although this is a misinterpretation of the lyric, this is a symbol of hope of Kathy both literally and figuratively. All the students at Hailsham are unable to have children, so this gives Kathy that same hope as what she believes the mother in the song has in that someday she can have a miracle baby. Additionally, this is a figurative symbol of hope for Kathy because her "baby" is the few good moments and relationships she has in her life, and she wants to hold onto that as long as she can.

Tommy takes up a hobby of drawing imaginary animals. He takes up this hobby because he thinks the Hailsham students' art "revealed what [they] were like inside... [that] they revealed [their] soul" (175). His theory that the best art is used in the Gallery to see if couples were really in love when they asked for deferrals. Tommy's theory of deferrals gives him hope, so he spends so much time making his drawings as beautiful and detailed as possible. When he finds out that his theory is not true, he most likely stops drawing the animals so much because he has lost hope.

Ruth does try and locate her possible, but she also attaches herself to a specific object that gives her hope: the fishing boat. Kathy takes her to see the boat because according to Ruth, "All this time in and out of hospital. Then cooped up here. Things like that matter more than they once did" (217). Ruth knows that she is dying, and the thought of going out and seeing this object from the real world that she had been sheltered from from much of her life gives her the last sliver of hope that she needs in the last moments of her life.

While these objects may seem mundane to most people, these objects are so important to the main characters because they represent hope. Hope is a necessity to these characters because they are destined to spend most of their adult lives weak and to die young, and hope is the one thing they are able to hold onto in their tough, short lives.