as a motif to illustrate its function as a lasting representation of timeless innocence. An illuminating example is the image of Kath dancing to “Never Let Me Go” as a child. Madame explains to Kath how watching her dance to that song—as a person responsible for her eventual expiration through organ donations—made her feel, realizing the weight of the “harsh, cruel world” which she has been complicit in implementing:

I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go. (272)

As illustrated in this quote, this novel examines the anxiety revolving around society’s devolvement when humans exchange empathy for technology’s allure, which feels resonant when Kath’s friends turn to corpses. Ishiguro paints a tragic reality in this passage by stressing Madame’s hopeless attitude towards humanity’s fate. On the other hand, however, the song’s message—and title of the novel—serves as an enduring, eternal thread solidified by the friendships between Kath, Ruth, and Tommy, because, in Kath’s words, they are “unable quite to let each other go.”

A Motif is a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition, and Never Let Me Go is rife with them.

Animals
The book is full of animal imagery -- the kids at Hailsham are constantly painting, drawing, or sculpting animals for inclusion in the Gallery. Tommy, specifically, spends a great deal of time drawing his imaginary animals. We return to them over and over, in childhood and adulthood. But the interesting thing about animals as a motif is that we don't really encounter any real animals. This serves to highlight the divide between the manmade and natural world: between the "originals" and the clones.

Water
Water also plays a key role in the imagery of the book. We encounter it a lot in dreams -- for example, Tommy's dream of two people clinging to each other in the strong current of a river -- but we also are faced to confront a lack of it -- when Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy go to look at the boat that has been abandoned in the sand. Even though too much water can be dangerous, water represents movement and life, whereas a lack of it represents stagnation and death.

The Cassette Tape
The book gets its title from the song that Kathy listens to over and over, and the cassette is the first item on the list of Kathy's lost things. Losing the tape foreshadows all of the loss that she will endure in her life, as her most important relationships begin to drop away.