When I first began learning about storytelling in novels, poetry, music, scriptwriting, you name it, one of the main ideas that kept coming across is that a good writer wastes nothing and makes no arbitrary decisions, thus we should believe Ishiguro is no exception in choosing the time frames within
Never Let Me Go. When one pays attention not only to the age group of each section, but also the time period in which it is set, the time frames must have been chosen very specifically. Naturally we all experience different problems from childhood into adolescence and finally adulthood, but Ishiguro made a couple of interesting choices to reflect the humanity of the characters in the time frame.
The 1960s
While the novel opens in the late 90s, the first real action begins as the primary characters are children. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are all students in the same year at an English boarding school called Hailsham. Since the narrator, Kathy, is 31, this places her, and the others', birth in the mid to late 1960s. This is significant for a couple of reasons. First, when dealing with a person and their humanity you must realize that they started somewhere. They were born, they grew, and now they are the person standing before you. So to tell a story about a group of characters that we need to get emotionally involved with in order to appreciate we need to have an exposition of why they are who they are. By starting in their childhood we get a glimpse into how they grew up, dealt with emotions, understood myth, and viewed community. We get everything except how they developed their personalities upto the point when we meet them. Secondly, the 1960s are an age of lost innocence. John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the Vietnam war was being fought, and many countries faced anti-establishment riots and protests (Towson). Additionally, as we saw in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Britain didn't exactly miss out on the American hippie and free love movements. Thus, it makes perfect sense that before Ishiguro reveals the crux of the story that we start knowing the characters were born in the 1960s with the innocence of childhood, growing to adolescence through the 70s and 80s.
The 1970s
From the time line given in the novel we understand the students, beginning actions around age 8, are at Hailsham as “juniors” in the 1970s, growing into the late 70s and early 80s, as shown by the narrators introduction of the cassette player. Most of the action of part one, chapters one through nine, takes place in the 70s. The 70s were a time of questions and discovery. Government distrust was increasing due to Watergate and the spy scandal of Sir Anthony Blunt (Mountain Times). Noticeably, we see this reflected in our characters as they test the mysterious lady known as “Madame”, develop their relationships by accepting some and rejecting others, teasing each other, and beginning to explore their sexuality. While there may have been a different decade that espoused these elements more, the 70s certainly fit as an appropriate time frame to explore these ideas.
The 1980s
By the time we get into the second part of the book, chapters ten through eighteen, we arrive at the cottages; this is where students go after graduating Hailsham. Our characters are now around the ages of 17 or 18, putting us in the middle of the 80s. Here is where Cathy begins exploring her own sexuality physically instead of intellectually, and the plot turns more political. While at Hailsham the students learned that they are clones and will be used in later life as “donors”. They will not become movie stars, lawyers, janitors, or office workers in cubicles. They will care for other donors and eventually become donors themselves, ultimately “completing” in their death. While sexuality in the 60s and 70s was a reaction against authority, sexual promiscuity in the 80s was a different animal altogether, and a psychology degree isn't needed in order to see it. The increase in sexuality in films, music, commercials, and popular art speaks to this, since art reflects its culture. Sex is spoken of more often and more freely in part two, though not in graphic terms. Just as the 80s were colorful in a variety of ways, the setting is removed of color as they arrive at the cottages on an English countryside that is bleak in the winter with a hard ground and several mentions of rain. The characters begin to show less in the manner of cordial treatment of one another as Kathy grows more vocal, Ruth seeks the favor of the most popular couple, and Tommy finally starts producing some art work. Now in the early stages of adult life, the main characters begin to mature and make life changing decisions.
The 1990s
We miss a lot of story here besides catching up with Ruth and Tommy after they have become donors. It is necessary to do so since the plot of the story between Kathy and Tommy needs to be completed, which is why the novel moves into the third and final part. Here the characters wrestle with past decisions, rediscover friendship, and handle old hurts with grace and maturity before they meet their completion. Kathy, as a carer still, will turn in her paperwork to resign and become a donor now that both friends have completed. This echos well with the 1990s since this is when the idea of human cloning really took center stage with Dolly the sheep (BBC News Article). Here we also learn the mystery behind Hailsham as a societal experiment to prove clones have souls through their artwork, and are therefore worthy of proper treatment. Ultimately this is rejected and the school is closed because natural humans do not want to see the pain they cause these "creatures" who are to be used and discarded so that they may live longer, healthier lives. The 1990s were a time of scientific discovery and economic prosperity, and ultimately the frame for what the 1950s would represent in the novel, since the novel reveals this as when science began using clones for donations to cure disease and replace lost limbs.
Through all these time frames there is a lens through which to view the action of the story. Innocence, adolescence, maturity, and death are all present in their proper order. These are all elements of humanity through which we learn about ourselves, the ones we love, the ones who love us, and the ones we push away or outright reject. These backdrops would have been far more difficult if the novel were set in the future, thus it seems obvious that this is why Ishiguro chose to use a current event and set it in the past.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Vintage International, 2006. Print.
