Never Let Me Go

Essay Assignment
ELA 9
Mr. Northrop
Never Let Me Go
Written Assessment – 100 Points

Assignment: Compose a 3-5 paged (MLA format), formal literary analysis of Kazuo
Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go answering one of the 12 questions listed on page two of this
document. If there is an additional aspect of the novel or the writer’s style that you are
interested in exploring, you are free to create your own essay topic as long as you clear it
with me in person or by email before you begin writing.

Requirements:

1. You must take a strong stance and actually answer the question you choose. Begin
your paper with an introduction that includes your thesis statement (answer to the
essay question) and develop the rest of your paper as an argument, proving that
your answer (thesis statement) is correct using evidence from the text.

2. I must be able to identify your thesis statement beyond any shadow of doubt. I even
recommend you highlighting it. This will help to ensure that you have written a
clear, arguable/defendable thesis that you will spend the rest of your essay proving.

3. Must include text-based evidence (quotes) in each body paragraph

a. Textual evidence = summary, paraphrase, specific details, direct quotes
b. I recommend a mixture of block quotes and in-text citations
c. Quotes must be introduced, then quoted, and then explained. NO HANGING
QUOTATIONS!!
i. Remember the PIE model
1. P = Point
2. I = Information (quote)
3. E = Explanation

4. Must follow MLA format and adhere to technical requirements below

5. Must be your own work. If I believe that you have violated FCW’s academic integrity
policy you will receive a 0/100 on this assignment.

Components: your analytical essay must include

 Introduction
o Capture reader’s interest without using a gimmicky hook
o Include author’s name and title of novel
o Start broad and funnel us toward your essay topic
o Thesis statement; clear, concise, defensible

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 Never Let Me Go
Essay Assignment
 Body Paragraphs
o At least three, all with specific, relevant, and increasingly convincing defenses
of your thesis statement
o Each must include a topic sentence
o Must include textual evidence
o Must relate back to thesis statement
 Conclusion
o Brings your analysis to a close
o Remind the audience how your body paragraphs have proven your thesis
o Do not directly re-state the thesis
o Do not introduce any new topics or information

Technical Requirements:

• Length: 3-5 pages

• MLA Format (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12pt. font)
• 1.0” margins (the default is 1.25’, you will have to change them)
• No Cover Page
• Must have original title
• Minimal spelling errors, fragmented sentences, run-on sentences, etc.

Rough Draft Due: January 5th

Final Draft Due: January 12th

Grading:
 Points - This essay is worth 100 points and will be graded according to our class
analytical rubric and may be revised for additional points up to 1/2 of the points
originally taken off.
o For example, if you get a 70 on your first draft, if you make all necessary
changes and submit a perfect second attempt, you could earn an 85 at max.
 Weight
o Literary Analysis – 40%
o Writing Process – 40%
o Standard English Conventions – 20%

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 Never Let Me Go
Essay Assignment
Potential Essay Questions

1. What is the purpose of Kathy H’s narrative? That is to say, what does she get from
the process of writing? Why is it important to her? How does her narrative style
reflect her deepest desires?
a. Consider the following… Philosopher Julia Kristeva depicts the life writing
project as a fight against corporeal decline and disintegration, with the writer
as warrior facing oncoming death.

2. It was once said by Denise Winn that “the power of being told certain things by
people that have a great deal of influence over you will affect you as a child and what
you are told when you are a child will become the core to your life”. Explore
Ishiguro’s thematic treatment of free will, indoctrination, and brainwashing. Are the
donors every truly free? Why do the students never try to leave Hailsham? Why
don’t they run away while they have cars at The Cottages?

3. How does Tommy serve as a catalyst for the character development of Kathy and
Ruth? How does he bring out their most and least human sides?

4. Never Let Me Go is also a meditation on status and identity – particularly, the

characters’ creation of in-groups and hierarchical social structures to combat the
void of meaning present at Hailsham and The Cottages. Discuss the various forms of
status creation (creativity, sex, novel reading, fitting in with the veterans, even being
“good” carers and donors, etc.) and what they suggest about the characters and the
need/desire for social order.

5. How well do you think the author captures what it is like to be a child in Part One of
the novel? Find some examples from the text featuring Kathy, Ruth and/or Tommy
where you think Kazuo Ishiguro has managed to ‘think and feel as they would’.

6. Never Let Me Go, while not highly concerned with the science behind cloning, does
explore the ethical implications of creating an underclass whose sole purpose is to
provide vital organs for the dominant class. In class, we discussed how this is similar
to humans’ treatment of animals… lambs to the slaughter just like our beloved
students. Discuss Ishiguro’s treatment of this ethical dilemma, and how he
demonstrates outrage (or lack there of) among the main characters.

7. Compare and contrast the cloning system in Never Let Me Go to a real world
example of oppression. How are they similar? How are they different? How does the
dominant class in each situation effectively oppress the underclass?

8. As we get older, as we lose our friends and family, as the environment around us
changes and things once familiar to us disappear or become unfamiliar, as we cling
to our memories of how things used to be. How do Tommy, Kathy, and Ruth come to
accept the fact that their lives are finite and create meaning within their limited
existences? In other words, how do the three characters deal with the fact that they
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 Never Let Me Go
Essay Assignment
will die long before their time and lose everything they have along the way? (Hint –
each of the three deal with their mortality in very different manners).

9. According to NLMG, "What does it mean to be human?" "What is the soul?" "What is
the purpose for which we've been created, and should we try to fulfill it?"

10. At the end of the novel, Tommy says to Kathy “What you've got to remember about
Ruth, when it came to things like that, she was always different to us. You and me,
right from the start, even when we were little, we were always trying to find things out.
Remember, Kath, all those secret talks we used to have? But Ruth wasn't like that. She
always wanted to believe in things.” Discuss the psychological implications of Ruth’s
willful ignorance/self deception and Kathy and Tommy’s deep desire to understand
their condition. How does hope play into this question?

11. Discuss the symbolic significance of water and wind in the novel.

12. Compare and contrast Miss Lucy, Miss Emily, and Madame’s views about Hailsham.

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