"This was all a long time ago so I might have some of it wrong; but my memory of it is that my approaching Tommy that afternoon was part of a phase I was going through around that time-- something to do with compulsively setting myself challenges--and I'd more or less forgotten all about it when Tommy stopped me a few days later." (page 13)
In chapter 2, I found a literary device that was also used in chapter 1. The author uses a flashback continually throughout the chapter to retell a story that is somehow significant to the overall book. The flashbacks are sometimes short and sometimes really long. However, Kathy, the main character, always chimes in at some point and expresses how she felt at that time or what she was thinking. Also, it seems as if Kathy feels differently about a lot of things now than she did when she was younger and growing up at Hailsham. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley used this literary device to introduce the character John and show how different his world was from everyone else. By using the flashback to John's early life, the reader was able to see the differences in John's society and see how it may have an impact on the rest of the book. This summer, I read a book called Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen, and the book starts off with a crucial flashback that helps the reader to understand the entire plot of the book. I feel like this may be what Ishiguro is doing as well. Flashbacks help the reader to further understand something that would otherwise be completely unknown. Most often, it relates to the developmemt of the plot or to help explain important characters. The flashbacks that have occured in Never Let Me Go so far have been in effort to explain the life at Hailsham and other characters (mainly Tommy). However, there is also a secret of some sort that keeps having to be discussed in private areas. I'm hoping that this will make more sense in the chapters to come.
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