Setting that Matches

"Then there's the solitude. you grow up surrounded by crowds of people, that's all you'be ever known, and suddenly your're a country, center to center, hospital to hospital, sleeping in over nights, no one to talk to about your worries no one to have a laugh with." -pg 207

On page 206 of Never Let Me Go I discovered there is third and final part to the novel. Upon encountering this final part, I immediately thought about all the observations I had made about Ishiguro's structure. However, after reading in a few pages, I began to make connections to the stages of life the characters went through and the setting of the individual parts.

Part one was set entirely at Hailsham. Hailsham was described as an isolated place, surrounded by fields and well-organized by guardians, routines, and rules. The description of Hailsham matched the way the students lived. They isolated themselves from their future and made their own rules that obeyed strictly. But they also had fun, played games, and painted. The way children lived matched the place they lived in.

Part two was all about the Cottages. The Cottages were also isolated, but less organized and less pleasant than Hailsham. The Cottages were based in a drafty, chilly farm with fewer classes and teachers than Hailsham. Kathy experience at the Cottages reminded me a lot of the way the Cottages were described. She  had more personal problems, got separated a little more from her friends, but lived a freer more independent life.

Part three has no stationery setting. It is simply base on which center or part of the country Kathy happens to be in. She spends a lot of time driving in the car, contemplating her relationships and past. The plot focuses more on the people than the place, just as Kathy focuses more on her relationships than where she is.

By matching the setting with experience Kathy has there, Ishiguro gives the reader a picture of how Kathy's life is before he even writes about it.