One of the secondary concepts expressed in Never Let Me Go that I find most interesting is the idea of using the ability to create art of any sort as a measure of someone’s soul. The children are encouraged to create- paintings, poetry, anything. The children put a lot of store in it because the adults around them do, to the extent that they ridicule a child who doesn’t create.

The children, of course, don’t realize why the teachers and administrators want them to create art. The overheard conversations that speak volumes to the reader float over the narrator’s head.