Never Let Me Go: The Creation of Kathy's Identity Anonymous 9th Grade

The thoughtful formation of identity is a significant part of Hailsham life, and as a narrator, Kathy shares her doubts while consciously searching for the aspects of her personality that could answer her queries about her life at Hailsham. Kathy’s search is divided into her actions, uniqueness, as well as key events like art and donations that help shape her identity. Amongst these three quests, she constantly seems to blame her personality for her deeds. Hence, exploring her distinctiveness and questioning herself “what makes me so different?”. Due to the integral nature of art and donation in Hailsham students’ lives, Kathy is compelled to investigate how it influences her character. In Never Let Me Go, author Kazuo Ishiguro demonstrates the ways in which the search for identity can be a conscious process through her uniqueness, actions and events such as donations and art that help shape her identity.

Kathy is mindful of the fact that students at Hailsham are unlike those in the outside world in terms of their personalities. However, she doesn’t understand the meaning behind it, “We certainly knew–though not in any deep sense–that we were different from our guardians, and also from the normal people outside; we perhaps even...