Never Let Me Go: Analyzing and Evaluating the Film Adaptation Anonymous 11th Grade

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go highlights the human tendency to create hope when forced to confront a harsh reality. In the novel, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy gradually learn of their predetermined fates as clones to donate their organs, yet they continue to hope for a better future. Romanek’s film adaptation of Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go somewhat deviates from the novel’s portrayal of the necessity of hope in accepting reality, thus developing the relationship between hope and reality to a limited extent.

The film places less emphasis on symbols in the students’ childhoods at Hailsham, weakening the development of the role of hope as the clones begin to understand their reality. Romanek cuts out the pencil case incident, during which Ishiguro demonstrates Ruth’s ability to hope. The pencil case symbolizes Ruth’s desire for an emotional bond through special treatment, not simply superiority among the students. In the novel, Kathy’s confrontation with Ruth subverts her act of deception, essentially stripping her of her hope of forming emotional connections. However, Kathy’s immediate regret for exposing the truth, as she expresses her guilt on page 60 for “[upsetting her] dearest friend” who had only “fibbed a little,” places...