Never Let Me Go Chapter 19 Quotes
Never Let Me Go Chapter 19 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
"I was like you, Tommy. I was pretty much ready when I became a donor. It felt right. After all, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it?" (19.61)
To us, the idea of being "ready" to donate your organs sounds pretty crazy. But to Ruth, it's what she's "supposed to be doing." She doesn't see becoming a donor as a defeat or a sign that she's given up. Instead, it's more like she's finally reached the goal that society set for her. She has finally fulfilled her purpose.
"It's funny," I said, "remembering it all now. Remember how you used to go on about it? How you'd one day work in an office like that one?"
[…]
"Don't you sometimes think," I said to Ruth, "you should have looked into it more? All right, you'd have been the first. The first one any of us would have heard of getting to do something like that. But you might have done it. Don't you wonder sometimes, what might have happened if you'd tried?"
"How could I have tried?" Ruth's voice was hardly audible. "It's just something I once dreamt about. That's all." (19.90, 92-93)
For all her dreaming, Ruth never actually tries to work in an office. And as Kathy points out to her, if you don't try, then you definitely won't succeed. To Ruth, it's as if there was no point in trying in the first place. Way to have a positive attitude, Ruth. Here Ruth's submissive outlook seems pretty different than the younger, more defiant powerhouse we got used to seeing.