Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
A
Family Supper
(1982)
Kazuo Ishiguro
(November
8, 1954
– )
"A Family Supper" Notes
This short story was first
published in 1982 in the journal Firebird
2 edited by T. J. Binding and is also collected in The
Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories edited by Ray
Bradbury.
434 fugu: a type of
puffer fish known for being highly poisonous and a popular delicacy
442 locusts: an insect
related to the grasshopper
435 Chou En-lai: Zhou Enlai,
the first premier of the People's Republic of China
What the British make of it [British prejudice that the Japanese have a
predilection for suicide] is a bit bizarre. They seem to think the Japanese
are dying to kill themselves. They seem to pick up on aspects of Japanese
culture like that; they seem to find that the most tenable thing about an
otherwise rather contradictory culture. They like kamikaze
and harakiri. I suppose
in that story ["A Family Supper"] I was consciously playing on the
expectations of a Western reader. You can trip the reader up by giving out a
few omens. Once I set the expectation about the fugu fish up I found I could
use that tension and that sense of darkness for my own purposes
Q: Do you feel you're writing in
any particular tradition?
A: I feel that I'm very much of the
Western tradition. And I'm quite often amused when reviewers make a lot of
my being Japanese and try to mention the two or three authors they've
vaguely heard of, comparing me to Mishima or something. It seems highly
inappropriate. I've grown up reading Western fiction: Dostoevsky, Chekhov,
Charlotte Brontë, Dickens.
Q: Are there any influences from the
Japanese side as well?
A: Tanizaki, Kawabata, Ibuse, and a
little Soseki, perhaps. But I'm probably more influenced by Japanese movies.
I see a lot of Japanese films. The visual images of Japan have a great
poignancy for me, particularly in domestic films like those of Ozu and
Naruse, set in the postwar era, the Japan I actually remember.
--Gregory Mason, "
An
Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro," 1986,
Conversations
with Kazuo Ishiguro,
eds. Brian W. Shaffer and Cynthia F. Fong (Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 2008): 4.
But of course memory is this terribly treacherous terrain, the very
ambiguities of memory go to feed self-deception.
|
Study Questions
-
Think
about what you associate with the Japanese, then look
at the following lists of Japan-related things or
qualities, one is brainstormed in class by second year
Thai college students in 2013 and the other consists
of terms from the short story. How differently do the
lists portray the Japanese?
| Thai
Students' Brainstorm |
"A
Family Supper" |
- sushi
- Hiroshima,
Nagasaki
- Mount
Fuji
- anime
- manga
- karaoke
- sakura
- Yaoi
- green
tea
- AKB48
|
- fugu
(434)
- tatami
- tea-room
- strict,
stony, scary parents
- samurai
(435)
- suicide
- honor,
disgrace
- principle
- tea
- formal
(436)
- ghosts
(437)
- harakiri:
"cut his stomach with a meat knife" (438)
- kimono
- kamikaze:
"But in an aeroplane—well—there was always the
final weapon" (440)
- bow:
"We bowed to each other before starting the
meal"
- obediently
(441)
- chopsticks
|
-
What
instances in the story refute the impressions
suggested by the second column list?
-
The
ominous reference to the deadly poisonous fugu sets up
Ishiguro's story in which he claims to be "consciously
playing on the expectations of a Western reader" who
likes to associate the Japanese with certain
characteristics or tendencies. What other trip wires
in "A Family Supper" exploit reader preconceptions?
- How
differently might readers interpret these phrases?
- "You
must be hungry" (434, 440, 441)
- One
side of his face had fallen into shadow. (441)
- "What
is it?," "Fish"; "What is it?," "Just fish"
- "There's
plenty for all of us"
- When
we had finished the meal, my father stretched out his
arms and yawned with an air of satisfaction.
- "Kikuko
tells me Watanabe-San took his whole family with him."
My father lowered his eyes and nodded. (442)
- Why
do you think the first person point of view is apt for
this story?
- What
does the dialog in this short story say about
communication?
- Compare
the father's comments about the future with those of his
children's. How does the father speak about future hopes
or plans? How does the narrator and Kikuko speak about
what they plan to do with their lives? What kind of word
or language does each character use in expressing future
prospects or expectations?
|
Review Sheet
Characters
Narrator – "At the
time of my mother's death, I was living in California" 434
Father – "a
formidable-looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows"
434; "particularly proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the family"
435;
Mother – "my mother
died through eating one [fugu]" 434
Kikuko – the
narrator's sister; "'due to complete her studies next spring'" 442; is
attending university in Osaka 436; "'I've been dying for a smoke for the
last half-hour'" 436; "'I've got a boyfriend now'" 436
Watanabe – the
father's partner at their firm; "'We were partners for seventeen years. A
man of principle and honour.'" 435; "'After the firm's collapse, Watanabe
killed himself'" 435; "'He took his whole family with him. His wife and his
two little girls'" 438
Suichi – Kikuko's
boyfriend 437
Vicki – the
narrator's ex-girlfriend 437
Setting
Place
Japan
–
Tokyo
Kamakura district – 434
house
tea-room – "the tea-room looked out over the garden" 435
garden –
well –
Time
autumn – "When we
finally arrived, it was nearing the end of a sunny autumn day" 434;
Vocabulary
allusion
irony
narrative, narration
realism
style
Charater, Characterization
foil
personality
direct presentation of character
indirect presentation of character
show v. tell
consistency in character behavior
motivation
plausibility of character: is the character credible? convincing?
flat character
round character, multidimensional character
static character
developing character
direct methods of revealing character:
- characterization through the use of names
- characterization through physical appearance
- characterization through editorial comments by the author, interrupts
narrative to provide information
- characterization through dialog: what is said, who says it, under what
circumstances, who is listening, how the conversation flows, how the
speaker speaks (ex. tone, stress, dialect, diction/word choice)
- characterization through action
Plot
beginning, middle, end
scene
chance, coincidence
double plot
subplot, underplot
deus ex machina
disclosure, discovery
story
conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, clash of actions, clash of
ideas, clash of desires, clash of wills
- man v. self
- man v. man
- man v. society
- man v. nature
protagonist
antagonist
suspense
mystery
dilemma
surprise
ending
- happy ending
- unhappy ending
- indeterminate ending
artistic unity
time sequence
exposition
complication
rising action, falling action
crisis
climax
anti-climax
conclusion
resolution
denouement
flashback, retrospect
foreshadowing
Point of View
first person
second person
third person
- objective
- limited omniscient
- omniscient
narrator
voice
Sample Student
Responses to Kazuo Ishiguro's "A Family Supper"
Study Question:
Response 1:
|
|
Student Name
2202234
Introduction to the Study of English Literature
Acharn Sorn
Nangsue
June 21, 2010
Reading
Response 1
Title
Text.
|
|
| Kazuo Ishiguro |
- Graham Swift, "Kazuo
Ishiguro," Bomb
29 (1989 interview)
- Susannah Hunnewell, "Kazuo
Ishiguro," The Art of Fiction No. 196, The
Paris Review 184 (2008 interview)
- Karen Grigsby Bates, Kazuo
Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go, NPR (2005 interview,
audio clip 5:51 min.; with link to extended interview,
audio clip 11:32 min.)
- Kazuo
Ishiguro, British Council (biography, critical
perspective, bibliography, awards)
|
Reference
Ishiguro,
Kazuo. "A Family Supper." The Penguin
Book of Modern British Short Stories. Ed. Malcolm Bradbury.
London: Penguin, 1987. 434–42. Print.
Further Reading
Ishiguro,
Kazuo. Never Let Me Go.
London: Faber and Faber, 2005. Print.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Nocturnes: Five
Stories of Music and Nightfall. New York: Knopf, 2009. Print.
Ishiguro,
Kazuo. The Remains of the Day.
1989. London: Faber and Faber, 1999. Print.
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