Understanding Sex and Infertility in Never Let Me Go Jessica Viggiani College

Kazuo Ishiguro’s science-fiction novel Never Let Me Go tells the heartbreaking story of Kathy H, a clone who is confined within the walls of Hailsham where she guided into the life of becoming an organ donor. Kathy’s life is spent at Hailsham awaiting her imminent death as an organ donor, and is placed under the strict authority of the guardians in order to protect herself and her body. For the entirety of their lives, everything that the clones at Hailsham have ever been able to achieve or obtain has been in the public eye, and often times their possessions are taken away from them by the guardians. As the clones grow older and begin to experience puberty, they come to realize that something they are in complete charge of and no one can take away from them or dictate is their own sex lives. In Ishiguro’s coming-of-age novel, when Kathy and her fellow clones first begin to experience puberty and sexual urges, being infertile has a painfully distressing impact on the way they view and have sex. Kathy and the clones at Hailsham have an unsentimental attitude towards sex as a direct result of their non-reproductive nature. They attempt to perceive sex in the same manner that humans do, with care, respect, and caution; however, not...