Never Let Me Go Section 2

The reader receives the history of Kathy and her friends in a series of flashbacks and anecdotes.  She is older and proclaims herself to be wiser now.  She begins to make connections that she was incapable of making at Hailsham and in the Cottages.  One of the more interesting aspects of the novel is how vividly these memories come back to her and how foreboding of the future they can sometimes be.  Especially in regards to Tommy, Kathy's memory is infallible.  She even often remembers exactly what he was wearing.  The recollections of her conversations with Ruth are also extremely detailed.  Both of these occurrences indicate the importance of these two character as Kathy matures.

Due to the fact that the story is told from the point of view of Kathy's future self, foreshadowing is prevalent.  In general, after every anecdotal story Kathy recounts, she references something that will happen in the future.  When she is discussing the Exchanges and Patricia C.'s calendar, she says, "It's one of the things I lost when I left the Cottages, when my mind was elsewhere and I wasn't being so careful what I took with me--but I'll come to all that in its place"  (Ishiguro, 94).  Such subtle indications keep the reader interested as many of the references tend to be grim and ominous.

"Acquainted with the Night"-Robert Frost

In "Acquainted with the Night", Robert Frost sets an extremely depressing tone.  The setting of the poem is the nighttime, and the diction makes the imagery all the more discouraging.  There is an overwhelming sense of isolation.  The speaker never interacts in any dialogue and even avoids eye contact with others.  

"I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain." (Frost, 976)

To the speaker, there exists no division between right and wrong.  Or, at the very least, he fails to perceive it.  In his world, humanity as approached a glass ceiling and can progress no further.  Therefore, they fall into a cycle.  Some men do horrible things, while other sit back and watch.  They are the silent observers of destruction.  The speaker claims he has been both.  In this moral -lacking world, the speaker can express only loneliness and despair, because that is all that exists.  Due to the cyclical nature the poem is structured in, the speaker appears to be saying that is how it will always exist as well.    

"Sorting Laundry"-Elisavietta Ritche

When I read this poem, I initially thought it was a plea.  The first stanzas served as reminders of the comfort and enjoyment found in the pairing's relationship.  In lines 39 and 40, when she discusses the "broken necklace of good gold you brought from Kuwait" (Ritche,842)  I saw it as a declarations of how good the man was to her, and she was undeserving of it.  Then, I perceived "the strangely tailored shirt left by a former lover..." (Ritche, 842) as her admission to cheating on him.  The following three stanzas, consequently, served as her begging for him to stay with her.  I assumed when her significant other went to Kuwait she cheated on him with another.  One of the points that supported this ideology is found when the speaker is describing the contents of her laundry.  Many of the articles are ruined or serve no purpose ("uncouple socks"), yet she refuses to rid of them.  Similarly, her relationship was now broken and possibly beyond repair leading her confess how terrible her life would be without her lover.  However, in this analysis, I missed one supremely important word as the speaker describes the shirt.

"left by a former lover..."

Here, the word former served as an allusion to a relationship far in the past.  She is showing how perfectly imperfect her life has been with this man and how she does not know how she would live without him.

"I taste a liquor never brewed"-Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson employs a strong sense of natural imagery throughout this poem.  She discusses the clouds, the air, the dew, the sky, the bees, the butterflies, the snow, and the sun.  As the poem progresses, I noticed a subtle change in the seasons.  At first when the speaker refers to the butterflies and bees and the halting of their drinking/nectar intake, I thought she was referring to the fact that the season were switching and the plants off of which they survive would soon die.  With this, I became confused as to whether the speaker was professing her love for nature throughout the entirety of the year or just during summer months when nature seems to be in full bloom.  The argument support that the speaker only appreciates nature during the summer is found when the speaker says,

"Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats." (Dickinson, 797)

 However, the argument supporting the speaker's love of nature at all times is backed by the phrase,--

"I shall but drink the more!" (Dickinson, 797)

--even though the seasons are changing.  Despite these arguments, Dickinson makes the speaker's attitude toward nature crystal clear.  

"The Convergence of the Twain"-Thomas Hardy

In the first sections of the poem, the speaker highlights what a waste the Titanic was.  The boat consisted primarily of members of the American and British high-class.  Much intelligence and wealth was lost at its sinking.

"Jewels in joy designed 

To ravish the sensuous mind

Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind." (Hardy, 778)

Surprisingly, the speaker never references the loss of life.  However, he does seem to take a swing at them in the first section when contrasts the solitude of the sea to human vanity and how the two would never had naturally mixed.  He furthers this point as the poem shifts from the boat's current state to when the boat converged with the iceberg.  He references a force one may perceive to be fate as "the Imminent Will" and the "Spinner of the Years."  With this specific diction, the speaker indicates, the collision, while unnatural, was unavoidable.  However, rather than focus on how nature destroyed the ship and all the lives upon it.  Earlier in the poem, the speaker discusses how the ship has disrupted the peacefulness of the sea.  According to him, human conceit is a blemish, not something to take pride in.  

"My Mistress' Eyes"-William Shakespeare

"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare 
As any she belied with false compare" (Shakespeare, 885).

Here, the speaker in Shakespeare appears to be claiming that the poets who describe their lover as perfect are liars.  Shakespeare presents the speaker as a realist.  The first twelve lines would be offensive to any woman who was the recipient of the poem.  Yet, the idea the speaker presents is not hard to accept; it is common sense that no one is perfect.  The speaker chooses to say this through accuses other men of lying.  The speaker switches the tone in line thirteen.  He declares even though his mistress is not perfect, she is just as rare as any other woman who was compared to perfection.  The speaker furthers this argument by referring to such comparisons as "false."  He points out the realistic idea that women cannot be perfect and presenting them as so is deceptive to the woman and to other women of society who now feel they must be the same.  In the simplest terms, the speaker is saying even though his mistress is not perfect, their love is just as good as anyone else's, and he is not lying like many others are.  

"Barbie Doll"-Marge Piercy

"To every woman a happy ending" (Piercy, 836).

The irony of the last line of the poem conveys the speaker's attitude about a woman's role in society.  Her criticisms of society's demands of women are strong.  She presents these through the use of a "girl child" who is growing up.  As she grows, she is healthy, smart, and kind.  Yet, all society and the people around her can see are "a fat nose on thick legs."  Society forced her to conform to the image of an ideal woman which eventually strips away at her mentality.  The speaker of the poem shows that she had more positive qualities than the two negative.  Still, her negative aspects were all people could see which therefore became all the girl could see.  In the end, the girl offers up her good qualities ("good nature") in order to rid of her bad qualities.  Though the speaker suggests a happy ending for all, the irony is that no one is technically happier.  The girl has diminished her sense of self, and the world is worse off not having the kind, smart girl that was originally described.