Never Let Me Go: 6

" 'But it's also something of a lost corner.' A lost corner. That's what she called it, and that was what started it. Because at Hailsham, we had our own 'Lost Corner' up on the thrid floor, where the lost property was kept; if you lost or found anything, that's where you went." "Norfolk was England's 'lost corner,' where all the lost property found in the country ended up" (66-67).

The above quote demonstrates the literary term of connotation. Miss Emily told the students that Norfolk was a lost corner, so they immediately assumed it served the same purpose as the "lost corner" of Hailsham where the lost property was kept. They associated the term "lost corner" with lost property because that is what they grew up knowing it to be. They did not explore the literal meaning or try to discover what Miss Emily had meant because they knew what their "lost corner" was and assumed that a lost corner was a lost corner. The purpose of this demonstration of connotation is for the author to show that the students at Hailsham are living in their own world. They have a "lost corner" just as the real world does. They truly see or at least are under the impression that they are there own little world similar yet separate from the outside. The connotation of the "lost corner" also shows that the students are a bit naive and sheltered from the outside because they are not exposed to other interpretations of words and phrases. It is effective because it reiterates the fact that they are not like the rest of the world, in fact, they are like their own little corner of the world.