Themes: 'Never Let Me Go'- Ch.10

Themes: 'Never Let Me Go'- Ch.10

1. THE COTTAGES

   • They learn skills that will be useful in later life
     • Driving
     • Passing time
   • Interpersonal relationships
     • Ruth mimics those on TV
     • Kathy fears her wants
     • "how well you were coping was refllected by how many books you'd read"
   • "the remains of a farm that had gone out of business years ago"

2. FRIENDSHIP

   • Ruth copying mannerisms

3. IDENTITY

   • Kathy reads novels to try and understand herself
   • '"poplar"- Used to show how short their lives are
   • "Even Ruth looked daunted"
   • "If you had told me that within a year [..] I'd start taking long solitary walks, [..] I'd have thought you were mad

4. REAL WORLD

   • Not being behind walls
   • The Hailsham Students are shocked at the nonchalance with which students leave 'the Cottages'
   • What to expect
   • No guidance

5. FREEDOM

   • Being able to leave whenever
     • some restrictions
       • "provided we were back by day"
       • " and the time we entered into Keffer's ledgerbook"
   • No guardians
     • "a few of us even tried to think of Keffers as a guardian, but he was having none of it"
       • They miss the parental safety and protection they had before
   • No rules
   • The students have not experienced this before
     • "going off for two or three days at a time with what seemed to us scary nonchalance"

6. FEAR OF RUTH

   • Trying to fit in
   • Ruth not letting Kathy and Tommy be together
   • Ruth acting as though she knows everything
   • "We'd always move about together and seemed to spend large parts of the day akwardly standing outside the farmhouse, not kowing what to do
     • "'Oh Kathy, the great expert on real families'"
     • "'we've agreed, he shouldn't hold me back'"
   • "As though she expected people to be really grateful for her asistence"
   • "she was always the one who pretended to have finished anything anyone happened to be reading|"
   • "I saw a gleam come into Ruth's eyes"
     • "I suppose you haven't been that slow making friends with at least some of the veterans"

7. FEELING LOST

   • No one understands what is happening
     • "he gave us a moody glance"
   • they pick up things from other people
   • Moving on
   • small society
   • Separation
   • transition
   • development
   • helplessness
   • isolation
     • "we rarely stepped beyond the confines of the Cottages"
   • Leaving Hailsham
     • l"ike when you draw friend and its almost quite night but not quite, and the face on the sheet gives you the creeps"
   • The essay and books help them to cope with their isolation
     • "and I find I'm thinking about my essay"
     • "It was like we were clinging to our essay, this last task from Hailsham"
     • "it was a farewell gift from the guardians