The Complexity of Love and Friendship in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go:An Actantial Analysis

Sammanfattning: The present essay undertakes a structuralist analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go, drawing upon the actantial analysis of plot developed by A. J. Greimas, as developed by Louis Hébert. My central claim is that the plot revolves around the protagonist's contradictory desire to find love with her childhood friend Tommy, while at the same time retaining her friendship with another childhood friend, Ruth. The essay suggests that this contradiction contributes to the complex plot where the characters' actantial functions shift frequently. Furthermore, the essay makes a distinction between two different perspectives, namely Kathy's as protagonist, and Kathy's as narrator. This distinction elucidates how narration in Never Let Me Go affects the plot.