Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview… a student who is discovering that hall monitor at his school means something different entirely.Tommy C. is living at Hailsham, a strange boarding school where the children are constantly monitored. Leaving campus is prohibited and those who try to run off are said to never return alive. Despite the sinister rumors, Tommy is content to spend his days drawing and hanging out with his friends, Kathy and Ruth. He doesn’t realize that Hailsham’s darkest secret is about to come to light – one that will change the life of every student.
Personality... sensitive and whiny. Tommy C. is Hailsham’s resident crybaby. It really doesn’t take much to set him off. A bit of gentle ribbing can start a tantrum of epic proportions. Luckily, Tommy’s good friend Kathy knows exactly how to cheer him up.
Get to Know him 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.
