Chapter 6 - Summary
On the 15 pages from chapter six from “Never Let Me Go” published 2005 by Kazuo Ishiguro Kathy proceeds her story about Ruth being nice and a special cassette. Let’s go into detail.
At first, the first-person-narrator hints her best friend that she won’t leave the lie. Therefore Ruth is especially friendly the next days. Before the narration is continued the popular Norfolk joke is explained. In geographic class Miss Emily shows many pictures of the surrounding of Hailsham but she hasn’t shown any photograph of Norfolk as it wouldn’t exist so it is referred as “a lost corner”. Also the guardians are warning before the consequences of smoking and that it is very important to stay healthy. Miss Lucy says after she was asked that she’d been smoking for a short period but stopped. She underlines that Hailsham students are special. Then finally Kathy talks about the third track on the cassette which is called “Never let me go” from the album “Songs After Dark” by Judy Bridgewater (1956). She describes it as different in comparison to the other music which is listen to at Hailsham. Moreover she say that she hasn’t had many opportunities to listen the song because there are only a few devices and they are at positions where other students hang out. Furthermore, she imagines that the singer can’t have a baby and holds one while singing, “oh baby never let me go”. One time she plays this situation as she catches sight of Miss Madame who is standing in the door frame and cries. As she reports it to Tommy his response is that she was sad for her, because all Hailsham students aren’t able to have children. No one is really bothered that they can have sex without worrying about babies. Two months later the cassette gets lost and Kathy is upset. As a replacement and thanking her for keeping the secret Ruth, who doesn’t care much about music, gifts her another tape, not knowing that the song is important to her not any music. But because Ruth really thought about it Kathy likes the new cassette also a lot but doesn’t listen to it much.
In conclusion, the chapter ends with a happy Kathy.