Never Let Me Go Chapters 3 4 5

Never Let Me Go Chapters 3, 4 & 5

• “…I definitely had on the maroon track suit top that zipped up the front, which I’d got at a Sale in Senior 1. ” – How many of us can remember, with clarity, what we wore on any given day? – What does this suggest about life at Hailsham? Chapter 3 Questions

• ‘…she said we weren’t being taught enough, something like that. ’ ‘Taught enough? You mean she thinks we should be studying harder than we are? ’ ‘No, I don’t think she meant that. What she was talking about was, you know, about us. What’s going to happen to us one day. Donations and all that. ‘But we have been taught about all that, ’ I said. ‘I wonder what she meant. Does she think there are things we haven’t been told yet? ’

• Who is Madame? What does she appear to do when she visits the school? • Ruth says that Madame is ‘scared’ of the students. To what extent do you agree/disagree with her? • Consider the logistics/implications of a gallery that exhibits student work. Who would visit it? Why would it exist? Chapter 3 Questions

• Consider the ‘plan’ created to test Madame. • In groups, recreate and photograph, (as a tableaux/freeze frame) the scene in which they approach Madame. Your photo will be uploaded to the blog. Getting into the novel…

Chapter 3 Questions • How does Madame’s reaction affect the students? Why do you suppose they feel this way?

• ‘Outside, out there, they sell everything. ’ • How does the novel build on a feeling of ‘otherness’ and ‘isolation’ for those at Hailsham? (physically and mentally) • There is an ‘us versus them’ mentality that permeates throughout the novel. What does this suggest? Who are ‘they’? Chapter 3 Questions

• Read-re the last paragraph on page 36. Write a response, using support from the text, that answers the following Task question: • How does Ishiguro create a feeling of isolation and otherness in the passage?

• What key plot details are we given in Chapters 3, 4 7 5? • What do we learn about the three main characters and their relationships? Discussing the Section

• As children, did you ever invent fanciful stories to intimidate and scare each other, like the children of Hailsham did with the woods? Tell us about it.

Ruth • How is Ruth able to effectively maintain control over people around her, to the point where people will ‘preserve the fantasy’ (p 52) for her? • What type of person is she, based on: – The pencil case incident – Kathy’s confrontation of Ruth, and Ruth’s reaction to this

• Imagine you are Ruth. Write a diary entry in which you reflect on your conversation with Kathy under the eaves of the main house. Exploring alternative points of view