The Alchemist

Never let me go - the swimming pool

The picture was probably taken in the late fifties or early sixties, and shows a big rectangular swimming pool with all these happy people – children, parents – splashing about having a great time. It’s concrete all around the pool, but people have set up deck chairs and sun loungers, and they’ve got large parasols to keep them in the shade. When I first saw this, it took me a while to realise I was looking at what the donors now call ‘the Square’ – the place where you drive in when you first arrive at the centre. Of course, the pool’s filled in now, but the outline’s still there, and they’ve left standing at one end – an example of this unfinished atmosphere – the metal frame for the high diving board. It was only when I saw the photo it occurred to me what the frame was and why it was there, and today, each time I see it, I can’t help picturing a swimmer taking a dive off the top only to crash into the cement.

......

In some ways, I suppose, the Square today isn’t so different to what the pool was back then. It’s the social hub of the place, where donors come out of their rooms for a bit of air and a chat.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go: 20th anniversary edition (pp. 199-200). Faber & Faber. Kindle Edition.

The previous subtle metaphor in the book was probably the clown holding balloons - the clown symbolized Hailsham and the balloons the students. The pool, I think is a much more subtle and nuanced metaphor. When Kingsfield was a holiday camp for "ordinary" families, people would dive from the high diving board into the pool, symbolizing how "ordinary" people are born into a society that accepts them. But when Kingsfield became a recovery center, Kathy imagines a swimmer taking a dive from the same spot, only crash into the cement instead of water. This represents how cloned humans in the story are born into a society that exploits them and die in an extremly violent way - in the final donation they take all the organs. Although the story is about cloned humans, but the metaphor may extend to anyone who is not accepted by society.