Never Let Me Go 4- Guardian Angry… At What?

“’Shaking. With rage. I could see her. She was furious. But furious deep inside.'”

(pg. 28)

I found this quote very profound. It comes from Tommy when he was describing Miss Lucy, one of the guardians at the school. She called him down to her office to discuss his creativity and his problems he was having in class. However, Tommy describes how something was different in what Miss Lucy was saying, especially when she told him it was fine not to be creative. To me, after just briefly reading the novel, this was shocking. It seems that creativity was the objective at Hailsham; they were always creating, whether it was making pieces of art or composing poetry. To follow this up, Miss Lucy began to seem flustered and angry as the quote from Tommy reveals. She then went on to say that the students at Hailsham weren’t being taught enough, hinting at the lack of knowledge the students’ had about what they were to do after they left the school. I’m very interested as to what this teaching is that they have not learned about that seems very important in the world outside the gates of Hailsham. I’m left hooked in the novel wandering what there is to know about the secrets the guardians have kept from them. Also, it seems as though there is a higher power governing the guardians which has not been mentioned so far. I’m not sure if this is true, but it seems Miss Lucy would otherwise have taken this teaching upon herself if she were able to do so since she obviously feels so strongly about it.