"You could only look out by standing on a chair and holding open the pane, and then you only got a view down onto the dense shrubbery." - Metaphor for the fact that the Kathy and Tommy had to physically search for the truth, the other students could see anything because they did not realise there was a window they could look out of/did not want to know/it was too difficult("the only window had frosted glass and was really high up"... no-one wanted to make it easy for them to find out)? Foreshadows that when Kathy and tommy are to take action they will still not perhaps understand everything as it is too "dense", they have been living in such an enclosed environment.
"The way the sun came in through the frosted glass so that even in early summer, it felt like autumn light." Ishiguro seems to keep putting in these subliminal hints as to the inevitable ending; no matter how much they want to be together, they are "tinged with sadness" as even though they hope for a 'deferral' they know deep down, like the reader, their ending has already been written, much like the "star cross'd lovers". Ishiguro gives such a small and improbable hope that makes the reader want it more - if we know it ends well we want be bothered.
The idea of asking for a deferral is a "shameful secret" for them, adding to the improbability and the semi-subconcious realisation that it is false. This added to kathy's quote "it was just like detective stuff" keeps the feeling of innocence within the characters, they are still in a 'playground' way of thinking, they haven't been taught to deal with this situation properly they have only their child instincts. This is supported by her language: "like" "stuff" and "bit scary" etc.
"the road was completely straight... the setting sun was falling all the way down to the end" more foreshadowed inevitability.
"Tommy, afterwards, said he thought she was about to burst into song, and... there'd be this big stage set", continuation of earlier references to the student's lives being like a piece that has been scripted for them, they never really have this total grip on reality.
The revelation with Madame and Miss Emily in chapters 21 and 22 is quite different from the rest of the novel, as the reader seems much more to be finding out the information with Kathy as she relives it instead of saying things like 'i'll come back to that bit later' for which Ishiguro states that she is 'in the know'. After the repeated description of darkness and narrowness (are they to lose their identity because of this new information?), the reader and Kathy and Tommy are illuminated to the outside world's perceptions, however they cannot fully comprehend - "What was this Morningdale scandal you keep mentioning, Miss Emily?" - and their future still has a dark ending. The difference for the reader is perhaps Ishiguro's technique of suddenly bringing you out into the open to seeing the wider implications after being so caught up in the intricacies of their relationships, it is difficult to adjust so suddenly and so the readers sympathies remain with the students.
Perhaps Ishiguro's overall references to how the students think their donations are far in the future but soon realise they have run out of time is a magnification of how all human life acts?
Finally, I would just like to comment that the image of the balloons being cut-off is obviously a very important point bout identity, and shows how Kathy perhaps feels that the factors that make up her identity are reduced merely to that one thing hailsham, and without it she shall become lost. She also then clings on to Tommy as she fears she will blow away in the wind, identity is extremely important to her as she clambers to find one; similar to Offred who's identity is slowly taken away from her as she loses her job, her money, her child, her spouse etc. however Kathy never had this kind of identity in the first place and seeks one rather than having one unwillingly forced upon her...
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