Why Is Never Let Me Go By Kazuo Ishiguro So Sad?

Eleanor Sutton was in love with Harrison Luther since she was 20 years old. She married him when she turned 22. Five years into their marriage, they had yet to have a child together. Harrison kept protecting Eleanor from his family while enduring the pressure they kept inflicting on him. At that time, everyone claimed that Eleanor was Harrison's weak spot. But everything changed once news of Harrison having an illegitimate child was leaked. He kneeled in the downpour for the whole day afterward as a form of punishment. Then, he explained to Eleanor that it was just an accident, and that he vowed to love her and her only. So, Eleanor accepted the outcome of the illegitimate child being kept in the family, while the mistress was exiled far, far away. But despite Harrison's promise, his mistress, Winona Birch, still ended up moving into Eleanor's home, where she'd be cared for during her pregnancy. Harrison began skipping meetings for her sake, and he'd also ditch Eleanor just so he could go on strolls with Winona. In fact, he'd even abandon Eleanor halfway during their dates in order to be with Winona. The first time Eleanor brought up divorce, Harrison slit his wrists in the bathroom. He left a suicide note, claiming that he'd rather die than not being able to grow old with Eleanor. When divorce was brought up the second time, Harrison hurriedly pleaded to Eleanor to not leave him. But after multiple conflicts, his attitude toward her became wishy-washy. After their 100th argument, Eleanor ran away from their home. Harrison no longer went after her, thinking that she'd eventually return to his side. But she died in that rainy night. When Eleanor opens her eyes again, she finds out that she has returned to the day Harrison's illegitimate child is exposed. This time, she dials a number. "I shall accept the offer of becoming a war correspondent." Her editor reminds her that she won't be able to get in touch with the outside world once she embarks on this journey, and that she needs Harrison's permission in order to accept the offer. Eleanor merely replies, "I'll divorce Harrison soon. I'll depart on time in a week." She wants to make sure that Harrison will never be able to find her anymore.

Anthony Seymour couldn't wrap his mind around it. He was the one who'd saved them. And yet, in the end, they kept pushing him away. They toyed with him using false confessions, treated him as someone else's stand-in, and left him gravely injured. He never got so much as a scrap of the good fortune he deserved. Instead, after one emotional wound too many, he developed a disorder that stripped away his ability to feel, and little by little, he lost all attachment to the world. Then, one day, Anthony made a decision. He would end his life, and when he did, he'd use his own organs to save seven others. That would be his final goodbye to the world. From that day on, he began searching for strangers who needed help, using death as his purpose and his method of choosing who to save. But once word got out, the very women who'd once hurt him came flooding back, begging him through tears not to die. Anthony, who'd already lost every last one of his emotions, only found it puzzling. After everything that had happened, he wondered—what were they even crying for?

On the night of the Moon Hunt, I was chasing a silver-tailed fox through the forest when the horse beneath me suddenly lost control and threw me down the slope. Right when I was about to fall off the cliff, Xavier Long—the Alpha heir—shifted into his wolf form and pulled me back to safety. However, in the process, his foreleg was slashed by silver thorns, the injury cutting deep into the bone. Because of that wound, when my stepsister, Winnie Sullivan, was later attacked by rogue wolves in the Moon Rite Forest, he couldn’t reach her in time. She died beneath the wolves’ claws. Not long after, the elders of the Frostmoon Pack arranged a mating bond between Xavier and me. He accepted the arrangement calmly. At the time, I thought that even if we weren’t fated to be mates, what we had was no less meaningful. However, I was wrong. When I became pregnant with our first child, Xavier poisoned me with wolfsbane. As I lay dying, he looked at me with indifference and said, “If you hadn’t been wearing Winnie’s pale moon-white cloak that day, I would never have mistaken you for her in the forest, and she wouldn’t have died. If I had another chance, I’d rather watch you die beneath those werewolves than save you again.” Only then did I realize that in Xavier’s heart, he had always considered my stepsister his true mate. He had even once gone to the Alpha to ask for permission to mark her. Then, when I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day of the Moon Hunt.

The day my exam results came in, I called out toward the living room the way I always used to. "Mom, Dad, I got a perfect score! I can go to a university in Kingsgate and be with Gary and Callum!" Silence was the only answer. On the couch sat four little plush dolls. They were Dad, Mom, my brother Gary Sheridan, and Callum Ward, the boy I had grown up with. Their round, stitched eyes stared back at me the way they had on countless other nights, keeping me company in silence. That was when I remembered. A year ago, my sister, Blythe Sheridan, had gotten sick. They said it was my fault, that my grades had been too good, that the pressure had nearly driven her to kill herself. That was why I became the person the family needed to hide, and they sent me to this rented room. The first night after I moved in, the drunkard next door pounded on my door by mistake. I hid under the blankets, too terrified to make a sound, too scared to even cry. All I could do was call my parents, my brother, and Callum over and over again. However, the only thing that I got was the cold, flat tone of a busy signal.

To save my husband, I drank until my stomach bled. Despite making it to the hospital, no one would treat me—all because he, a prominent surgeon, forbade anyone from attending to his own wife. In a previous life, he had saved me, a deed that fate cruelly repaid: the same day he saved me, his beloved, Lily Evans, tragically died during surgery. Consumed by regret, he lamented, "If I hadn't saved you, she might still be alive." On my birthday, in a twisted celebration, he intoxicated both me and our daughter. In a horrifying turn, he used his surgical skills to ruthlessly stab us both. As I lay bleeding, I begged for our daughter's life, pleading with him to spare her, his biological child. He coldly justified his brutality by claiming that being tied to me caused him to miss his chance with his true love. Fueled by a desperate need to protect my daughter, I fought him ferociously. He inflicted thirty-eight merciless wounds on me before turning his murderous intent towards our child. As I faced death, my last sight was of him, his decision clear as he once again chose his lost love over his living family.

On the day the SAT scores were released, the police showed up at my front door. They said I had murdered three of the top students in my class. The evidence was conclusive. However, on the day it happened, I had been sitting alone at home, drowning in regret over my poor exam performance. "Worthless girl! Useless burden! How did this family end up with a monster like you?!" My grandmother screamed at me, hurling insults as her fists and kicks rained down. The only thing that could have proven my innocence—the security camera—had been unplugged by her the night before. She said the camera gave off radiation and claimed that we installed it to harm her. In an instant, I became the disgrace of everyone around me. After I was convicted, my parents couldn’t bear the blow. They both took their own lives. As for me? Under the crushing weight of public outrage and endless condemnation, I spiraled into depression and died. Even at the very end, I never understood why every piece of evidence pointed straight at me. Then I opened my eyes again and found myself back on the night before the scores were released.