Never Let Me Go

by

Kazuo Ishiguro

Hailsham Symbol Icon
The school where Kathy, Ruth, Tommy are educated—and where they learn slowly of their status as clones and their coming jobs as carers and donors—Hailsham is, at first, a paradise and refuge for the students. But as Kathy and the others grow older, they realize that Hailsham is simply a well-groomed way-station for them—a place where they are protected (so they will be healthy organ-donors) and gently nurtured to be predisposed toward accepting their organ-donor purpose. Once they reach the Cottages, the Hailsham students already begin to realize that their bond is dissolving, even as others, who didn’t go to Hailsham (like Chrissie and Rodney) view a Hailsham education as a sign of special privilege among clones. Kathy later learns, from her friend Laura, that Hailsham is closing, and Madame and Miss Emily inform Tommy and Kathy at the end of the novel that Hailsham was a social experiment in more humane conditions for clones. But public favor has turned against these institutions, and so Hailsham loses its funding. This means that Kathy has not only lost her connection to some of her Hailsham friends; she has lost the physical reality of the school itself. At the close of the novel, however, after Tommy’s and Ruth’s deaths, Kathy realizes that her memories of Hailsham will never deteriorate, and that the bond she shared there with her friends was a real and powerful one.

Hailsham Quotes in Never Let Me Go

The Never Let Me Go quotes below all refer to the symbol of Hailsham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

So I reached forward and put a hand on his arm. Afterwards, the others thought he’d meant to do it, but I was pretty sure it was unintentional. His arms were still flailing about, and he wasn’t to know I was about to put out my hand. Anyway, as he threw up his arm, he knocked my hand aside and hit the side of my face.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Tommy
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Well . . . . The thing is, it might sound strange. It did to me at first. What she said was that if I didn’t want to be creative, if I really didn’t feel like it, that was perfectly all right. Nothing wrong with it, she said.

Related Characters: Tommy (speaker), Kathy H., Miss Lucy
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

The gallery Tommy and I were discussing was something we’d all of us grown up with. Everyone talked about it as though it existed, though in truth none of us knew for sure that it did.

Related Characters: Tommy (speaker), Kathy H.
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:

If she doesn’t like us, why does she want our work? Why doesn’t she just leave us alone? Who asks her to come here anyway?

Related Characters: Laura (speaker), Madame
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 35-36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

I accepted the invisible rein she was holding out, and then we were off, riding up and down the fence, sometimes cantering, sometimes at a gallop. I’d been correct in my decision to tell Ruth I didn’t have any horses of my own, because after a while with Bramble, she let me try her various other horses one by one, shouting all sorts of instructions about how to handle each animal’s foibles.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Ruth
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

When it came down to it, though, I don’t recall our taking many practical steps towards defending Miss Geraldine; our activities always revolved around gathering more and more evidence concerning the plot itself.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Ruth, Miss Geraldine
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

It’s not good that I smoked. It wasn’t good for me so I stopped it. But what you must understand is that for you, all of you, it’s much, much worse to smoke than it ever was for me. You’ve been told about it. You’re students. You’re . . . special.

Related Characters: Miss Lucy (speaker), Kathy H., Ruth, Tommy
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

I froze in shock. Then within a second or two, I began to feel a new kind of alarm, because I could see there was something strange about the situation. The door was almost half open . . . but Madame hadn’t nearly come up to the threshold. She was out in the corridor, standing very still . . . . And the odd thing was she was crying. It might even have been one of her sobs that had come through the song to jerk me out of me dream.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Madame
Related Symbols: The Judy Bridgewater Tape, The Judy Bridgewater Tape, Hailsham
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you’re going to have decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly. . . . Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults . . . and before you’re even middle-aged, you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do.

Related Characters: Miss Lucy (speaker), Kathy H., Ruth, Tommy
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

And you didn’t want to do it in the fields even when it was warm enough, because you’d almost certainly discover afterwards you’d had an audience watching from the house passing round binoculars. In other words, for all the talk of sex being beautiful, we had the distinct impression we’d be in trouble if the guardians caught us at it.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Don’t you realize, we won’t be here together like this much longer?
I do realize that, Kath. That’s exactly why I can’t rush back into it with Ruth. We’ve got to think about the next move really carefully . . . . Like you say, Kath. We’re going to be leaving here soon. It’s not like a game any more. We’ve got to think carefully.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Tommy (speaker), Ruth
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

You were different. I remember. You were never embarrassed about your collection and you kept it. I wish now I’d done that too.

Related Characters: Ruth (speaker), Kathy H.
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

The point about Chrissie—and this applied to a lot of the veterans—was that for all her slightly patronizing manner towards us when we’d first arrived, she was awestruck about our being from Hailsham. It took me a long time to realize this.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Chrissie
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

It was that exchange, when we finally mentioned the closing of Hailsham, that suddenly brought us close again, and we hugged, quite spontaneously, not so much to comfort one another, but as a way of affirming Hailsham, the fact that it was still there in both of our memories.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Laura
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

Poor creatures. What did we do to you? With all our schemes and plans?

Related Characters: Madame (speaker), Kathy H., Tommy
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

I was thinking about back then, at Hailsham, when you used to go bonkers like that, and we couldn’t understand it. We couldn’t understand how you could ever get like that. . . . I was thinking maybe the reason you used to get like that was because at some level you always knew.
. . . That’s a funny idea. Maybe I did know, somewhere deep down. Something the rest of you didn’t.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Tommy (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 275
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

. . . and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until I’d see it was Tommy, and he’d wave, maybe even call. . . . and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn’t sobbing . . . I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.

Related Characters: Kathy H. (speaker), Tommy
Related Symbols: Hailsham
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Never Let Me Go LitChart as a printable PDF.
Never Let Me Go PDF

Hailsham Symbol Timeline in Never Let Me Go

The timeline below shows where the symbol Hailsham appears in Never Let Me Go. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...England, in the 1990s, and the narrator is Kathy H., a former student at the Hailsham school. Kathy now works as a “carer,” although the details of her job she does... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
Kathy notes that she enjoys thinking about Hailsham, and she often tries to choose the people she cares for (something that is only... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
Kathy often thinks about Hailsham when she drives around the English countryside, visiting her donors. In particular, a certain kind... (full context)
Chapter 2
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...later, Tommy came up to her—in a line for “medical checkups,” which occur weekly for Hailsham students—to apologize for accidentally hitting her, and for being rude when she expressed concern about... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...and Kathy discussed a meeting of art class with a kind guardian (the term for Hailsham instructors) named Miss Geraldine, who took a particular liking to Tommy. Tommy’s art for that... (full context)
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Losing and Finding Theme Icon
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...by Tommy’s admission, since creativity is made to be such a big part of their Hailsham education. Tommy tells Kathy he will give her more information when they can talk in... (full context)
Chapter 3
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Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...Kathy, to be angry while talking to Tommy—not at Tommy, but at the system of Hailsham itself. Miss Lucy also mentions to Tommy that Hailsham ought to be “teaching the students... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...Tommy why “Madame” (a very businesslike woman, whom they believe to be the superintendent of Hailsham, though she only visits every so often) always takes away certain samples of their art... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
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...the reader a little about the Gallery. Every so often, the Madame would come to Hailsham, and the students assumed that, when she did so, she would take with her certain... (full context)
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Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
Kathy then flashes back to another striking scene in her time at Hailsham—a scene that, like her conversation with Tommy about creativity, seemed to point to something interesting... (full context)
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Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
...her humor, asks painfully why Madame “wants their art,” if she finds the students at Hailsham repulsive. And Kathy thinks to herself that she and the other girls began to see,... (full context)
Chapter 4
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Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Kathy briefly details an event at Hailsham, dating from around the time she was ten, which she calls “the Tokens controversy.” She... (full context)
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Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
Kathy also describes, briefly, the sales, which, unlike the exchanges, were held at Hailsham so that students could “buy” (with tokens given by the guardians) objects from “the outside... (full context)
Chapter 5
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Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...Miss Eileen and Mr. Rogers, were in charge, and that somehow also the woods surrounding Hailsham were to be the location of the kidnapping. But Kathy also notes that, after a... (full context)
Chapter 6
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...a dress—but because Bridgewater was smoking in the picture, and smoking was expressly banned at Hailsham. Kathy goes off on another tangent, noting that the rule against smoking was a hard-and-fast... (full context)
Chapter 7
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
...Tommy by the pond, when they were thirteen, to be the “marker” between eras at Hailsham. Before this time was a “golden period” when the worries of the world did not... (full context)
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Losing and Finding Theme Icon
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...the only guardian watching them; some of the students are discussing their dream jobs after Hailsham, and one says he’d like to move to America to pursue an acting career. But... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
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...she is telling them this information with such emotion, since, technically, all the students at Hailsham, by age thirteen, understand their fates. Lucy then stops speaking after “revealing” this information, and... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
Loving, Caring, and Donation Theme Icon
...even much later, when Kathy is Tommy’s carer, and Tommy offers a theory for how Hailsham prepared its students for their fates. Tommy believes that Hailsham very carefully calibrated the revelation... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Losing and Finding Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
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...very real possibility. In all, Kathy recalls that many conversations with the teenaged students at Hailsham revolved around health and wellbeing, with an eye to keeping them ready for their eventual... (full context)
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
Individual Goals vs. Social Expectations Theme Icon
Life, Death, and Humanity Theme Icon
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...again involving Tommy, who cuts his elbow in a small accident and goes to the Hailsham infirmary to have it bandaged. Afterward, some of the other male students tell him that... (full context)
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...does not know why she didn’t think about Miss Lucy more, during her time at Hailsham. (full context)
Chapter 8
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Kathy notes that, during the year in which she turned 16 (her final year at Hailsham), things became “mixed up” and confused. Some of this she attributes to the fact that... (full context)
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Kathy mentions that other students begin having very obvious sex lives, and that Hailsham rules seemed rather ambiguous as regarded sex. Ruth and Tommy had become an “item,” although... (full context)
Chapter 9
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...But in the following days, Kathy is startled to learn that Miss Lucy has left Hailsham and won’t be coming back. Kathy wonders why this could be, and runs off to... (full context)
Chapter 10
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...begins Part 2 by reminiscing about her essay, which is the final assignment given to Hailsham students when they leave at the end of their age-16 year. Kathy chose to write... (full context)
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...they were terrified of their freedom, the lack of guardians, and the new world beyond Hailsham they were meant to inhabit. Kathy also states that, although their time at the Cottages... (full context)
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...fires back, however, that Kathy need not try to maintain the old social order of Hailsham, and that Kathy ought to “grow up” and enjoy the life of the Cottages more.... (full context)
Chapter 11
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...chats in their rooms, over steaming cups of tea, the way they used to at Hailsham. During one of these chats, Kathy had asked Ruth if Ruth ever got “urges” to... (full context)
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...time, Ruth appeared to be doing her best to mature quickly, to lead the other Hailsham students into maturity. Kathy also notes that Ruth told her, much later, that she never... (full context)
Chapter 12
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...especially interested in the three of them (Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy), because they were from Hailsham, and because they seemed to think that Hailsham students received special treatment, fundamentally different from... (full context)
Chapter 13
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...spent months talking about with each other—the possibility of a “deferral” of caring duties for Hailsham couples who can “prove that they’re properly in love.” Ruth nods heatedly in assent, as... (full context)
Chapter 14
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...always useful to have around), and there, Kathy overhears Ruth telling the couple that, at Hailsham, people knew about the “deferral” rumor but didn’t say much about it. Kathy pretends not... (full context)
Chapter 15
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
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...and asks what present it could be—Tommy responds that it’s the tape Kathy lost at Hailsham (Tommy learned long ago from Ruth that the tape was missing). Tommy tells her he... (full context)
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...of other used, old cassettes. She understands that this isn’t the actual lost tape from Hailsham, and Tommy is upset with himself that he didn’t spot it first, but he nevertheless... (full context)
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...shop, and waiting for the others, Tommy tells Ruth that he has another theory about Hailsham, one he’s been thinking about since they left. Tommy fears that the Gallery was used... (full context)
Chapter 16
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...has once again grown strained. Ruth begins to pretend that she can’t remember things about Hailsham—even though Kathy knows that Ruth shares her associations about the guardians and parts of the... (full context)
Chapter 17
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...the spring and then summer of their second year. Kathy is one of the few Hailsham students still to be working on her Victorian novel essay—she knows that the essay doesn’t... (full context)
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At the end of this conversation, Kathy makes a comment about the rhubarb patches at Hailsham—a reference she assumes Ruth will understand—but when Ruth “only vaguely” remembers what Kathy is talking... (full context)
Chapter 18
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
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...it. Kathy runs into Laura after several years on the job—one of her acquaintances from Hailsham, who was always cracking a joke—at a treatment center, where Laura is also working as... (full context)
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...Kathy says that might not be a good idea. Laura also mentions the fact that Hailsham is closing—a piece of information Kathy heard several weeks before. Kathy does not know what... (full context)
Chapter 19
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
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...which they all find beautiful. Tommy wonders aloud if the decrepit boat looks the way Hailsham looks now, although Ruth dismisses this notion abruptly. (full context)
Chapter 21
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...they reach the gate of her house, they introduce themselves, saying that they are former Hailsham students who want to talk to her, and who don’t want trouble. Although Madame seems... (full context)
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...while Madame goes upstairs to prepare for their talk. Tommy points out a picture of Hailsham, but it’s a view of the school Kathy does not recognize, and Tommy urges her,... (full context)
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...Madame wheels out to speak to Kathy and Tommy—it’s Miss Emily, the former head of Hailsham. Madame defers to Miss Emily, and says “it’s she Kathy and Tommy wish to talk... (full context)
Chapter 22
Maturation and “Growing Up” Theme Icon
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...Madame, or “Marie-Claude” as she calls her, is now somewhat disillusioned with the idea of Hailsham—that Madame now wonders whether the school “did any good at all.” But Miss Emily, who... (full context)
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...of those clones that already existed. This negative tide caused financial support for institutions like Hailsham to “dry up,” and by the 1990s, Hailsham and other places like it had run... (full context)
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...defend her firing of Lucy, saying that things were better the way they went at Hailsham, and that Lucy’s method would have been no better for the clones in the long... (full context)
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...find Tommy having one of his tantrums, just like he did when he was in Hailsham. Kathy this time manages to grab hold of Tommy and calm him down, and Tommy... (full context)
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...Kathy’s response to Tommy and his tantrum is different. Kathy tells Tommy that, “back at Hailsham,” when Tommy would have tantrums, perhaps it wasn’t because he was immature, but because “he... (full context)
Chapter 23
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...if Ruth would have liked to have known everything Tommy and Kathy found out, about Hailsham and their own lives, from Emily and Madame. But Tommy notes that Ruth “wanted to... (full context)
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...so long.” But mostly Kathy recognizes that, because Ruth died before knowing the truth about Hailsham, there’s “a line with Tommy and Kathy on one side and Ruth on the other,”... (full context)
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...fourth donation. She remarks to herself that, though she has “lost Tommy and Ruth and Hailsham,” she still has memories of these places, and she can keep these memories with her,... (full context)