Healing Fragmented Selves through Recollecting Memories in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Abstract

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go discovers the delicateness and resilience of human subjectivity using the concepts of trauma, memory and identity. The central characters of the novel, who are clones reared as organ donors, experience fragmented selves, dissociation, alienation and disjointed memories. Ishiguro demonstrates how memory serves as a tool for preserving emotional connections, reconstructing identity and fostering ethical awareness in dehumanised dystopian setting through Kathy’s unreliable and nonlinear recollections. Kathy recollects her memories of Hailsham, friends and past experiences and it provides her a sense of self and solace despite a predetermined and oppressive existence. Memory is portrayed as a fragile and sustaining element and its role in resisting systematic erasure and affirming the persistence of selfhood are highlighted throughout the novel. Eventually, Ishiguro observes the conventional notions of identity and autonomy, suggests that most fragmented selves can regain moments of wholeness through the act of remembering.