Ishiguro utilizes the state of orphanhood as the most powerful symbol in the novel (which echoes in the title). Losing one’s parents represents the loss of security, sense of safety, and stability that should characterize the process of growing up for children. Furthermore, becoming an orphan places the child in a separate category from other children with families, which the person never seems to grow out of. Ishiguro utilizes the loss of Christopher's parents when he was nine as a catalyst for a sequence of changes that Banks finds necessary to fit in with the other children. He tries very hard to copy the mannerisms of others, feeling insecure in his own skin. He creates a set of false memories to help him form a stronger sense of self because he lacks the support and instruction he would have received from his parents. Finally, he chooses to become a detective so he can solve the mystery of his parents’ disappearance. His orphanhood is thus the prime mover of his motivations and a defining trait of a character without the safe anchor of an ordinary family.

Ishiguro uses this symbol similarly in the characters of Sarah Hemmings and Banks’s protégée Jennifer.