Never Let Me Go Chapter 22 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"Whatever else, we at least saw to it that all of you in our care, you grew up in wonderful surroundings. And we saw to it too, after you left us, you were kept away from the worst of those horrors. We were able to do that much for you at least." (22.24)
To Miss Emily, ignorance is bliss. So she makes sure that even after the students leave Hailsham they're still wearing blinders. Miss Emily sure does seem like a powerful woman. But her tone here also sounds sad, like she wishes she could've protected the students more.
Quote 2
Finally she said: "She was a nice enough girl, Lucy Wainright. But after she'd been with us for a while, she began to have these ideas. She thought you students had to be made more aware. More aware of what lay ahead of you, who you were, what you were for. She believed you should be given as full a picture as possible. That to do anything less would be somehow to cheat you. We considered her view and concluded she was mistaken." (22.49)
Miss Lucy has the minority opinion at Hailsham. She wants to tell the students the truth (gasp!). In contrast, Miss Emily firmly believes that curiosity kills the cat (or, ahem, clones). So she tells Tommy and Kathy just how wrong she thinks Miss Lucy is. Sure, she may have their best interests at heart, but we're not sure Miss Emily is making the right call here.
Quote 3
"You see, we were able to give you something, something which even now no one will ever take from you, and we were able to do that principally by sheltering you. Hailsham would not have been Hailsham if we hadn't. Very well, sometimes that meant we kept things from you, lied to you. Yes, in many ways we fooled you. I suppose you could even call it that. But we sheltered you during those years, and we gave you your childhoods. […] You wouldn't be who you are today if we'd not protected you" (22.51)
Here we get the campaign platform for Team Miss Emily: keep the kids in the dark as much as possible. Take a look at the verbs Miss Emily uses here: shelter, lie, fool, protect. Does she seem to think all these verbs mean the same thing? Or does the end justify the means?
Quote 4
I realised, of course, that other people used these roads; but that night, it seemed to me these dark byways of the country existed just for the likes of us, while the big glittering motorways with their huge signs and super cafés were for everyone else. (22.86)
Check out how Kathy sets up a contrast here between "other people" and "the likes of us." It's as if she's segregated the roads for different types of people. Well, this kind of thinking makes one thing clear: Kathy sure does see herself as different from the rest of society.
Quote 5
"And for the few couples who get disappointed, the rest will never put it to the test anyway. It's something for them to dream about, a little fantasy. What harm is there? But for the two of you, I can see this doesn't apply. You are serious. You've thought carefully. You've hoped carefully." (22.6)
Miss Emily has seen a handful of couples like Kathy and Tommy who are looking to get a deferral. She's probably had to turn a few away before, too. But Kathy and Tommy are different. They haven't been hoping willy-nilly, and that makes Miss Emily's revelation that there are no deferrals that much worse.
Quote 6
"But this dream of yours, this dream of being able to defer. Such a thing would always have been beyond us to grant, even at the height of our influence. I'm sorry, I can see what I'm saying won't be welcome to you. But you mustn't be dejected." (22.24)
Seriously, Miss Emily, did you really think they wouldn't be sad? Miss Emily has just dashed Kathy and Tommy's hopes of spending more time together. Of course the lovebirds are going to be bummed that their dream of a deferral has come tumbling down.
Quote 7
"But do you see what we were up against? We were virtually attempting to square the circle. Here was the world, requiring students to donate. While that remained the case, there would always be a barrier against seeing you as properly human." (22.28)
Sometimes barriers are psychological rather than physical. Here, public opinion about the clones creates a fence that even superhuman Miss Emily can't plow through. People in the outside world don't want to see clones as real human beings. So they've set up a mental wall with proper humans on one side, and clones on the other. Sounds like it's going to be nearly impossible for the clones or their supporters to ever break out of this barrier. Here's hoping there's a sequel with a healthy dose of revolution.
Quote 8
"There was a time you saw me once, one afternoon, in the dormitories. There was no one else around, and I was playing this tape, this music. I was sort of dancing, with my eyes closed and you saw me."
"That's very good. A mind-reader. You should be on the stage. I only recognised you just now. But yes, I remember that occasion. I still think about it from time to time."
"That's funny. So do I." (22.67-69)
While they are standing in front of Madame's house, Kathy realizes that she and Madame are both remembering the same thing. Both ladies have thought about the dancing girl a lot over the years. In many ways, they share this memory together, which is kind of sweet.
Quote 9
"You said it was because your art would reveal what you were like. What you were like inside. That's what you said, wasn't it? Well, you weren't far wrong about that. We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all." (22.19)
Wow, this is a hefty role for art to play. Does this mean that if the students are bad artists, then they have lesser souls? That doesn't seem quite fair. Unfortunately, Miss Emily doesn't explain her theory in detail. Just like she doesn't explain, oh, anything.
Quote 10
"That was why we collected your art. We selected the best of it and put on special exhibitions. In the late seventies, at the height of our influence, we were organising large events all around the country. […] 'There, look!' we could say. 'Look at this art! How dare you claim these children are anything less than fully human?' Oh yes, there was a lot of support for our movement back then, the tide was with us." (22.24)
Miss Emily firmly believes that art proves humanity (although we think it shouldn't require that much). Here she and Madame use art as propaganda for the pro-clone movement. Does this make for effective campaigning? According to Miss Emily, the art worked like a charm… at least for a little while.
Quote 11
"I can see," Miss Emily said, "that it might look as though you were simply pawns in a game. It can certainly be looked at like that. But think of it. You were lucky pawns. There was a certain climate and now it's gone. You have to accept that sometimes that's how things happen in this world." (22.41)
This idea that the Hailsham students are pawns in a game makes a lot of sense to us. Just like pawns, they have very little control over their lives. Instead, someone else is pushing them around the board and they passively follow suit. We're thinking that this sounds like the least fun game of chess ever.
Quote 12
I caught a glimpse of his face in the moonlight, caked in mud and distorted with fury, then I reached for his flailing arms and held on tight. He tried to shake me off, but I kept holding on, until he stopped shouting and I felt the fight go out of him. (22.95)
Tommy is upset after he and Kathy have visited Miss Emily and learned that there are no deferrals. We'd be pretty upset, too. Tommy's tantrum in this cow field is one of the few moments where we see one of the clones fighting against the role society has given them, even though it doesn't do him any good. And in the end, even Tommy gives in and stops fighting once and for all.