Never Let Me Go--- Eighteen

Quote from page 207:

And sooner or later, a donor doesn't make it, even though, say, it's only the second donation and no one anticipated complications. When a donor completes like that, out of the blue, it doesn't make much difference what the nurses say to you afterwards, and neither does that letter saying how they're sure you did all you could and to keep up the good work. For a while at least, you're demoralised.

Quote from page 225:

"I'll tell you something I heard. I heard about Chrissie. I heard she completed during her second donation."

"I heard that as well," said Tommy. "It must be right. I heard exactly the same. A shame. Only her second as well. Glad that didn't happen to me."

"I think it happens much more than they ever tell us," Ruth said.

Based on these two excerpts, I feel it's safe to say Ishiguro is foreshadowing someone's "completion", most likely during their second donation. It cannot be Tommy since he seems to be doing quite well and is past his second donation. I'm assuming it will be Ruth since Ishiguro stresses her weakened state in the marshland scene:

And it was then, as she stood there, her shoulders rising and falling with her breathing, that Tommy seemes to become aware for the first time just how frail she was (pg. 222).

Her breathing was getting quite laboured, and as we walked together, she'd now and then lurch into me (pg. 223).

In addition, Ishiguro employs some depressing diction on page 224:

The pale sky looked vast and you could see it reflected every so often in the patches of water breaking up the land. Not so long ago, the woods must have extended further, because you could see here and there ghostly dead trunks poking out of the soil, most of them broken off only a few feet up. And beyond the dead trunks, maybe sixty yards away, was the boat, sitting beached in the marshes under the weak sun.

If that isn't setting the mood, I don't know what is!

I think this book is going to end on a sad note, probably with Ruth dying and maybe even Tommy dying. However, I think the overall tone will remain a bit . . . hopeful? That's not exactly the word I'm looking for, but it's the best my brain is coming up with right now. What I mean is, while Kathy will be sad that her friend/s has/have died, she won't let it get her down too much. She will grieve, but she will be okay in the end.

Until next time,
Alysse