Lucy's Loss

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is about people who have been created for the sole purpose of organ harvesting. The main character and narrator, Kathy, is one of these individuals who is reminiscing on her past. One of the most predominant settings she reflects on is Hailsham, a boarding school in where some of the “donors” become students and receive an education. One of her teachers, called guardians in the novel, goes by the name Miss Lucy. According to Kathy she is not one of the favorite instructors, but she is the “most sporting” and she harbors a “brisk style” which the other teachers lacked (26). On account of these character traits, it is unsurprising that Miss Lucy is the one to tell the children of their future outright before any of the other guardians.

The somberness and severity of the scene in which she does this is set with a rainstorm corralling the students together. Kathy states that, “The downpour had started while we were changing, and we found ourselves gathering on the veranda—which was sheltered by the pavilion roof—while we waited for it to stop. But the rain kept going . . .” which analogizes their future through symbolic undertones (79).

The downpour, a stand-in for the dystopian horror of the students’ circumstances, begins as they are changing, symbolizing them getting closer to adolescence, closer to their seemingly inevitable fate. In response to this threat the students cluster together where they feel safe, meeting on the sheltered veranda, a representation of their status and privilege as Hailsham students. And so, they wait, thinking that their position as Hailsham students affords them licenses and security that ordinary “donors” do not have, but this hope is false, which is symbolized by the rain continuing to fall.

Miss Lucy, the only guardian present at the time, appears to be brooding on something similar to this interpretation as Kathy remembers,

. . . wondering if there wasn’t something a bit odd about her posture, the way her head was bent down just a little too far so she looked like a crouching animal waiting to pounce. And the way she was leaning forward over the rail meant drops from the overhanging gutter were only just missing her—but she seemed to show no sign of caring (79).

Miss Lucy’s posture and lack of concern in getting wet highlight an inner conflict she is attempting to resolve within herself, but it also hints at the precarious nature of what she is planning on doing. In telling the students about their future before Miss Emily, the head guardian, ordains it to be told to them, she is putting herself at risk, implied by how the drops from the gutter are only just missing her. Lucy, of course, continues regardless of the precariousness of the situation, which is foreshadowed by her not showing that she cares about getting wet.

She turns and interrupts two boys talking about their future dreams of being actors and then she, “. . . raise[s] . . . her gaze to include the rest of us and . . . [takes] . . . a deep breath. ‘All right, you can hear this, it’s for all of you it’s time someone spelt it out’” (79). The students start to listen but very few of them understand the gravity of the situation as most of them think that Lucy’s speech will be “a big telling-off” or “a new rule . . . [about] . . . rounders” but Kathy recognizes that her next words will “be something more” (80).

As Lucy starts to tell them the truth of their circumstances Kathy sees that “. . . drops . . . [are] . . . coming off the gutter and landing on her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to notice,” signifying that Lucy is stepping outside of her jurisdiction as a guardian and is superseding on Miss Emily’s behalf (81). Miss Lucy declares to the students that, “Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults, then before you’re old, before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do . . . [and] . . . you have to know what lies ahead of you, every one of you” (81).

After this she falls silent, which Kathy believes is her biting her tongue and stopping herself from saying anything more than she already has. Then Lucy looks out at the field and says, “‘It’s not so bad now,’ . . . even though the rain was as steady as ever. ‘Let’s just go out there . . . ” implying that despite her revealing the truth, nothing about the students’ plight has changed, leaving the only real difference being her getting soaked from the gutter bouncing water back at her (81-82). In other words, a testament to her failure to save or change her students’ lives, even at the cost of her own.