Never Let Me Go- Blog 1, Part 4

In Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, there is a character quality reversal in Kathy and Ruth. In the beginning of the novel, Ruth is very authoritative and in-charge. It becomes evident that both Kath and Tommy are under her feet. Both are ridiculed repeatedly by Ruth, but they both seem to take it. Kath, on the other hand, is very much a follower. She does everything Ruth tells her to do, and although Ruth makes her angry sometimes she lets it go in order to be on her good side. Later, as Kath becomes a carer, she becomes more of an authoritative person. She has to take care of donors and in particular, Ruth. She becomes Ruth's carer, and for the first time Kath is in charge. "It wasn't simply that we'd ganged up on Ruth: it was the way she'd taken it" (Ishiguro, 223). Kath is so struck by the fact that now she had more of a voice and could speak her mind towards Ruth. The roles had totally reversed. Kath was in charge, and Ruth was the one listening. In the old days, Ruth would have never tolerated not being in charge. In a sense kath still felt guilty, so she did not change her feeling of always doing something to please Ruth.