Recreating the Past and Identity as Stories in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

This essay analyzes Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and shows that the past and the characters’ identities are recreated as stories in a postmodernist style. It points out that the characters rely on their memories to reconstruct their past, giving it their own interpretation and turning it into a story. Kathy, the narrator of the novel, and her interlocutors can understand their past by reflecting on their memories and drawing their conclusions in their stories. The way they interpret their past and its symbols in their subjective accounts offers suggestions about their identity which is also their story.