Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro has a distinct genre that can be looked at from two different perspectives. In terms of literary genres, this novel can undoubtedly be categorized as speculative fiction. Speculative fiction is a general genre that encompasses many other genres from a narrative point of view. This can intimately be described as a narrative that contains some supernatural or visionary elements. In my own words, this means that it is a made up story that entails an experience or journey which readers join the narrator on. This story, however, includes theories of what the author thinks may happen in the future as a result of current events and society, that are usually over exaggerated using unrealistic elements. In my opinion, this describes the novel Never Let Me Go perfectly because, in the seven chapters that I read, I found that the author takes us on a journey that illustrates his theory that people are not directly told the whole truth about their condition or situation. It can be inferred that this theory is addressing modern doctors when discussing terminal illnesses. As we saw in the Sontag piece, talk about illnesses like cancer has become especially secretive over the years. The lack of knowledge about the illness causes people to not only fear the illness but also to make it taboo to talk about. We learn that in certain places in Europe, people aren’t even told they have cancer but instead only their family members are told. This is just like in Never Let Me Go as all the Guardians, who raise and care for the kids, know that the kids are nothing more than mechanisms to create organs for human transplants but the kids are “told but not told”. We embark on this journey with a girl named Kathy who tells the story from a reminiscent point of view. She recalls past events and reflects on the actual meaning of what happened and how these events have affected her life.  However, elements such as “children” being raised as organ donors and the hinting of another species adds a science fiction element that makes it seem too far from the truth. Overall this novel uses a science fiction approach to convey a theory that the author believes is an issue in society today which is why it can be categorized as a speculative fiction novel.

On the other hand, we can also look at Never Let Me Go from a narrative point of view. In this case, we can classify the novel as a quest narrative. A quest narrative is one where the narrator – the one who is ill or suffering – accepts their illness, looks to face life head-on despite the illness, and in the end, gains something from their experience that stays with them for rest if their life. Although I haven’t completed the novel as of yet, I can see that the build-up fits this narrative style. Kathy takes us on her journey as she figures out what “condition” (being an organ donor) she has and what she decides to do with her life after the fact. As a reader, Kathy not only explains her past but also illustrates what her life is in the present. As an added fact, Kathy also watches her friends live out their lives with the same “condition” she has. I can infer that as the story continues, we will see Kathy live out her life, and will be exposed to a lesson she learns from her “condition”.

To conclude, the author Kazuo Ishiguro has made a plethora of themes prominent in these first seven chapters. These themes are conveyed to readers through different events that happen in Kathy’s life and her thoughts/reflection of the event. In other words, as Kathy tells us about her past growing up in Hailsham, the reader is exposed to situations that happened and that Kathy learns from as a student, as well as an adult. These themes include; the importance of friendships, self-Identification/self-acceptance, and confinement just to name a few. The importance of friendship is displayed throughout the seven chapters as readers watch Kathy’s friendship with both Ruth and Tommy grow and evolve. Especially with Ruth, we see how in order for both of them to stay friends, they have to overcome tension, strains of their relationship, and differences that they don’t like in one another. As for Tommy, it is illustrated how Kathy’s curiosity and desire to help bring the two closer together and increase their trust in one another. Just like in her relationship with Ruth, Tommy and Kathy also go through obstacles in their relationship but the opinions of their peers play a larger role in how their relationship pans out. Through both Tommy and Ruth readers can see how important friendships are to Kathy and how they helped her as she grew and later on in her adult life. The second theme of self-identification and self-acceptance comes later on in the chapters. As Kathy and her peers advance through school, they realize what they are, and their role in society. From a young age at Hailsham students are told that they are organ donors and that their purpose is to supply the humans. However, this is not an accepted thought until the students are within a year of being released to fulfill their destinies. As the students and Kathy get older, they become more comfortable with talking about who they are and stop looking towards other “human” careers, dreams, and aspirations. Lastly, a brief overview of the how the theme of confinement is tied into the story is through Kathy’s entire experience at the school. At Hailsham, the students are surrounded by a fence and have no access to the outside world but the Sales they hold every once and awhile. Throughout the story, we see examples of how sheltered the kids are. An example of this is Miss Emily’s geography lesson. In these lessons, the student’s only idea of the rest of England is calendar photos that Miss Emily accompanies with every lecture. Even as an adult, Kathy reflects on how when she travels, she looks for landmarks similar to the photographs she had seen because that was her only idea of what these places were supposed to look like. An additional example is how the kids theorize about what lays beyond the fence, specifically the forest. The kids are scared of the forest that lays right outside their campus because their whole time spent on the school is spent inside the fence. To make things worst, stories of kids daring to go outside of the fence only deter the students further from trying to escape the confinement the school inflicts on them. Just like animals, the kids are kept separate from the rest of the world until they are ready to harvest. All in all, throughout these few chapters, a lot is revealed to readers about the genre of the literature and the themes it entails.