Never Let Me Go

As a girl, Kathy becomes obsessed with a song titled “Never Let Me Go” by the fictional singer Judy Bridgewater. She listens to the song repeatedly while she is alone though she does not really understand the romantic implications of the lyrics. She imposes her own meaning on the song, and the song becomes a metaphor for her exploration of her feelings. Kathy chooses to believe that the song is about a mother who has a baby after being told that she could not. The mother sings the song to the baby and never wants to leave her. The students at Hailsham are all orphan clones who cannot have children of their own. The song allows Kathy to explore feelings of motherhood and abandonment that she does not fully understand. The song is a representation of the stunted emotional capacity of the children, who have not been taught the full ramifications of their situation. The tape represents Kathy’s attempt to tackle these issues.

Madame watches Kathy dance to the song while cradling a pillow. The sight of the young clone girl makes Madame cry. Later in the novel, Madame confesses that she did not understand the emotional meaning that Kathy projected onto the song, but Madame projected her own emotional meaning onto the sight of the girl with the pillow.