Family Supper Term Paper

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Family Supper

The short story "A Faimily Supper" by Kazuo Ishiguro is not a simple piece of literature about a family gathering for a meal. A young Japanese man has returned home to Tokyo after spending years in California with a girl, though that relationship has now failed. He learns the cause of his mother's death two years earlier: posioning from a fugu fish. His father's business has recently collasped into ruin, and the father's business partner commited suicide. They are joined for dinner by Kikuko, the sister, who studies at a university. A fourth additoinal family member, the now dead mother, also appears in the story as a spectre. The brother and sister reminise about the sighting of a ghost in the garden when they had been children, while the father guides his son through the house of empty rooms, reminiscing about the life that once was there before mother's death. Ishiguro builds an intricitely suspenseful story in this situation by use of several means. Ishiguro's writing style and techniques, contrasting of American and Japanese cultures, and use of untraditional foreshadowing create a compelling and effective piece of literature.

The writing style of the story is such that to an American readers are likely to visualize the story in the style of Anime, the Japanese animation techique which is characterized by ambiguity and prevailance of Japanese cultural references which are otherwise largely unknown to Westerners.

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Anime makes large use of "stock characters" stereotypes such as the giggling and sexually promiscuous school girl, the disillusioned and somewhat villainous old business man, and the silent kimono-clad ghostly woman in white. These characters were all key to Ishiguro's story. Additionally, Ishiguro uses techniques such as repition to enhance the story. The father, for example, says to his son "You must be hungry" repeatedly throughout the story. This repeition focuses on the importance of hunger and food in the story, as well as providing a continuing theme.

Ishiguro takes advantage of the contrasting cultures of the American and Japanese elements in his story. The particular forms of honor and principle within Japanese culture are prevailant. For example, "My mother had always refused to eat fugu, but on this particular occasion she had made an exception, having been invited by an old schoolfriend whom she was anxious not to offend." The importance of appearance to schoolmates is vital in Japanese culture, where school bullying of the outcasts in school is dangerous and sometimes even lethal if appearances are not properly upheld. The parents very much represent Japense culture, while the children of the family symbolize the American infiltration of those….....

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