Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up... at Hailsham, a boarding school in the English countryside. None of the students there had any parents for one crucial reason: they are all clones, created to be organs donors. Before they are even middle-aged, they will start to donate. And sometime around the third or fourth donation, they are "completed" and die.
Living... alone. Kathy's not home much because she likes to travel and wander around nearby towns.
Profession... carer, a job she's had for nine years. As a carer, Kathy supports the organ donors, which gives her a temporary reprieve from having to donate organs herself. Although Kathy is one of the best carers alive, it's not easy dealing with so much death, and the job is starting to get to her.
Relationship Status... single. She had a crush on Tommy when she was at Hailsham, but Tommy ended up with her friend Ruth, and the three friends lost contact with each other for several years. Now, they're together again, but under very different circumstances.
Challenge... accepting her fate. Until quite recently, Kathy was quietly resigned to her fate – but now that Tommy is here again, she wonders if she might be able to win a few more years for the two of them. Still, Kathy wonders if even that time will be enough for what she wants: "we all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."
Personality... caring, calm, and idealistic. Ever since childhood, Kathy has been a kind girl, and her caring nature carries well into her current job as a carer. Coupled with her level-headedness, Kathy is the perfect person to have when you're in a corner.
Get to Know her in...
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As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy spend their childhood at an idyllic and secluded English boarding school. As they grow into adults, they must come to terms with the complexity and strength of their love for one another while also preparing for the haunting reality awaiting them.
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Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it's only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is. Never Let Me Go is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.
