Mr. Sun

"And beyond the dead trunks, maybe sixty yards away, was the boat, sitting beached in the marshes under the weak sun."  Never Let Me Go (p. 224)

I'm still not exactly sure why all the donors were so obsessed with the boat.  Is this just an excuse the donors use to escape their homes?  Or, did seeing the boat remind them of their own damaged selves?

In the quote above, the words "weak sun" are purposefully placed together to create a paradox.  A paradox occurs when two seemingly opposite words are placed together for a certain purpose.  When I think of the sun, I never think of it as weak (after all, all it has to do is explode, and we are all dead...).  Since the sun is the center of the universe and the source of all energy on Earth, it is extremely powerful.  Without it, we would not be alive.  However, Ishiguro still describes the sun as "weak."  This paradox serves a purpose to show that it probably was not a very sunny day.  The sun was probably hidden behind the clouds in the sky.  Also, "weak" was an appropriate adjective for the situation.  Both Tommy and Ruth were weak from their donations, but they were still powerful because they still had words.  The paradox not only describes the weather conditions, but it also shows just how tough Tommy and Ruth really are.

I thought it was extremely interesting how Ruth finally apologized.  I truly believe the donations changed her opinion on the world, but more specifically, her friends.  The reader can see that she does not want to die with regret or shame.  Really and truly, Ruth and Kathy were great friends even though they struggled through so many things.  I think the battles made them stronger in the end.