60 pages • 2 hours read
A Family Supper
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Themes
Loss and Death
The opening of the story details the narrator’s mother’s death, and how she was poisoned while eating fugu two years prior. From the beginning of the story, Ishiguro makes it clear that death and grief will be primary thematic elements. From the onset, Ishiguro suggests that the titular family is dysfunctional, struggling with open lines of communication and feelings of loss and regret. Regarding his mother, the narrator reveals that he “did not learn of the circumstances surrounding her death until [he] returned to Tokyo two years later” (1). The narrator’s absence from his mother’s funeral is made worse by his father’s refusal to tell him about the circumstances surrounding her death. Both men punish each other with yet another form of loss, the former by refusing to be physically present, and the latter by keeping intimate knowledge about Mother’s passing secret. The three main characters of “A Family Supper” struggle to talk about death and grief. The conversations between the narrator and his father are stilted, “punctuated by long pauses” full of silence (1). Despite the shared loss of Mother, the narrator only offers condolences for his father’s failed business, telling him, “I’m sorry to hear about the firm” (2).
Much of the short story is composed of intimate conversations between the family members. Without much added exposition or detail, Ishiguro forces the reader to pay close attention not only to what is being said, but also to what the characters refuse to say. The narrator’s condolences about his father’s firm reveal his discomfort with speaking about the death of his mother, how her passing may have impacted them both. He can only speak around their shared loss by displacing his feelings onto something else. He echoes this when he asks Kikuko: “Is Father very upset about his firm collapsing?” (4). Neither Kikuko nor the narrator can read their father very well. Father is extremely stoic, formidable, and stern. Kikuko sounds resigned when she answers, “Don’t know. You can never tell with Father” (4). Father’s emotional stonewalling reflects the awkward silences that fill the text. Though they are all struggling with the death of Mother, the losses that they have suffered go beyond her passing. In the breakdown of their familial relationships, they have also begun to lose each other.
Gender Roles
Traditional gender roles often follow the male-female binary and insist that men need to be masculine while women need to be feminine. Different traits and jobs are viewed as more masculine and others more feminine; masculine archetypes tend to emphasize the importance of physical strength, while traditional feminine archetypes emphasize beauty or a nurturing nature. The investment in traditional gender roles is often also connected to sexist patriarchal leanings, or the belief that men are inherently more suited to leading, and women for following. The West, with its own long history of sexism and misogyny, often chastises other countries for their investment in traditional gender roles and backwards view of women.
The first sign that Ishiguro offers the reader about the prevalence of traditional gender roles is when the narrator remembers an incident as a child when his father “struck [him] several times around the head for ‘chattering like an old woman’” (1). The narrator was punished for having a conversation, for speaking openly rather than maintaining the image of peak male stoicism and silence. Later in the story, Kikuko praises Father’s cooking skills, and he glares at her “coldly,” before saying, “[h]ardly a skill I’m proud of” and demanding that she prepare supper (5). Through these interactions, it becomes clear that the narrator’s father has clearly defined ideas on how men and women should behave, and what duties they should be responsible for.
The narrator’s father orders Kikuko around throughout the entirety of the story. He does not do the same with the narrator. When Father excuses himself to make supper, he tells the narrator “Kikuko will look after you,” even though she is older (2). After the two siblings make their way inside, their father orders Kikuko to “come here and help” with dinner (5). After such commands, Kikuko often freezes, as if contemplating resistance. The narrator explains: “For some moments my sister did not move. Then she stepped forward and took an apron hanging from a drawer” (5). Kikuko is not surprised by Father’s demands of her, but she does seem to consider him and his motives every time. Ishiguro does not detail the reasoning behind Kikuko’s silence and readers must hypothesize as to why she goes quiet after every order.
One reason for Kikuko’s silence could be her acknowledgement of isolation. By ordering Kikuko away, Father places her beyond the bond between the narrator and himself. With Kikuko out of the way, the men in the family converse about the past and the future without her input. Another reason for Kikuko’s silence, and the way she stares at Father after being ordered about, could be her newfound understanding of her mother. Raised to be a “good girl,” Kikuko knows what is expected of an obedient daughter (5). Despite this, she may not have understood the loneliness that comes from being seen and treated as less than in her own home. At the end of the story, the two men wait for Kikuko to return with a pot of tea. Father is convinced that everything will be better when Kikuko moves back in with him, where he will likely continue to order her around. Their father hardly discusses and considers Kikuko’s wishes. Hints in the story suggest that while Kikuko does wish to get away from her father, she also does not wish to go to America with her boyfriend, to trade the whims of one man for another. From what few details Ishiguro provides, Kikuko appears to want to stay in Osaka with her friends, away from situations where she is repeatedly treated as inferior.
Expectations Versus Reality
“A Family Supper” repeatedly subverts everything that a reader might expect to see in the text. While the title suggests a happy family reunion, the short story depicts anything but. Ishiguro sets up readers’ expectations before ultimately undermining them. By doing this, Ishiguro keeps his audience in a state of uncertainty. The tone becomes almost insidious, as readers grow increasingly suspicious of the narrative’s events. An example of reality undermining expectation is in the character of Watanabe. The narrator’s father first introduces Watanabe as “[a] fine man. A man of principle” (2). Readers may expect to learn more about his exemplary character or his previous success at the firm. The narrator’s father omits the fact that Watanabe murdered his entire family after the firm’s closure. Kikuko eventually tells the narrator about how the man “turned on the gas while they were all asleep. Then he cut his stomach with a meat knife” (4). She is the only person in the text who condemns him for his actions. She does not attempt to make excuses for what he has done.
Conversely, the narrator’s father blames the world around them for the downfall of their firm—and thus, Watanabe’s fate. Father tells the narrator: “Business these days has become so different. Dealing with foreigners. Doing things their way. I don’t understand how we’ve come to this. Neither did Watanabe” (2). This moment betrays Father’s self-centeredness; his inability to accept responsibility for the firm’s failure, and his unwillingness to blame Watanabe for murdering his wife and children. The narrator expects his father to defend Watanabe’s actions. He is surprised when he asks his father: “You think what he did—it was a mistake?” (9). Father answers in the affirmative, but Ishiguro has already built an unstable foundation beneath the readers’ feet. Tension builds throughout the story and as readers learn about Watanabe’s fate, Ishiguro prompts them to wonder if the narrator’s father intends to kill his family in the same way. The story ends ambiguously, and readers are once again left to grapple with their theories.
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By Kazuo Ishiguro
