A Family Supper
Kazuo Ishiguro’s short story, “A Family Supper” details a bizarre, tension-filled family that is reunited after experiencing the death of the mother. In the story, speaker reveals that he left his family in Japan and moved to California; however, he has returned to Japan because of his mother’s death. Considering that the narrator’s mother died by eating the poisonous fugu fish, a sense of peculiarity is reiterated when the narrator’s father feeds his family fish and the story ends without further dialogue. Specifically, the narrator employs vivid imagery, ambiguous dialogue, and foreboding descriptive details to amplify the mystery that the story presents.
The narrator employs eerie visual imagery as he describes the setting to add mystery
to the story. The speaker describes the rooms of his father’s house as “startlingly empty” even though the house is large. The fact that there are many empty rooms in a large house allows the reader to perceive the house as a creepy place. Further, the speaker mentions that “supper was waiting in a dimly lit room” to buttress the mystifying mood of the story. Since the narrator’s father owns the house, these descriptions enhance the mystery of the story because it relates to the loss that the narrator’s father has experienced: loss of his job, his wife’s death, and his co-worker’s suicide. Both the emptiness of the rooms and the divers “shadows” that enclose the rooms relate to how everyone in the speaker’s family is distant from one another; therefore, intensifying the story’s mysteries.
The narrator immediately begins his story by describing the fugu fish: “Fugu is a fish caught off the Pacific shores of Japan.” With this detail, the narrator foreshadows that the fugu fish will with discussed later in the story. As the narrator reveals that the poison fugu fish was the cause of his mother’s death, the reader understands that the fugu fish will possibly have more deleterious effects because the family has not yet had supper as the title suggests. By using descriptive details to foreshadow the harmful effects of the fugu fish, the narrator provides creates a suspenseful ambience. Similarly, foreboding descriptive details are seen as the narrator describes a ghost he saw in the garden: “It was an old woman. She was just standing there, watching me…She was wearing a white kimono.” Because, she narrator previously explains that his mother is dead, the reader assumes that the “old woman” is the ghost of the narrator’s mother. The description of the ghost and the haunting effects of the fish create the eerie aura that the story produces.
Certain aspects of the story are purposely ambiguous; thus, adding to the suspenseful atmosphere that the author creates. For example, the narrator never reveals why he left and moved to California. This can be seen as the narrator’s father states, “I've come to believe now that there were no evil intentions in your mind…'You were swayed by certain -influences. Like so many others.” The reader is then left to wonder why the narrator left; thus, creating room for anticipation. Furthermore, at the end of the story when the father serves the family fish for supper, the narrator does not mention what type of fish is served. The story simply ends with the family “fall[ing] in silence once more” after eating dinner. The ambiguity in this statement gives room for imagination because the family may or may not have eaten the fugu fish and died.
The storyline itself creates a bizarre feeling; however, the visual imagery used to build the eerie setting, the ambiguous dialogue, and the descriptive details that foreshadow certain events, enhance the mysteries of the story. By leaving some parts of the story open to the reader’s interpretation, Ishiguro augments the suspenseful mood of his short story.
The narrator employs eerie visual imagery as he describes the setting to add mystery
to the story. The speaker describes the rooms of his father’s house as “startlingly empty” even though the house is large. The fact that there are many empty rooms in a large house allows the reader to perceive the house as a creepy place. Further, the speaker mentions that “supper was waiting in a dimly lit room” to buttress the mystifying mood of the story. Since the narrator’s father owns the house, these descriptions enhance the mystery of the story because it relates to the loss that the narrator’s father has experienced: loss of his job, his wife’s death, and his co-worker’s suicide. Both the emptiness of the rooms and the divers “shadows” that enclose the rooms relate to how everyone in the speaker’s family is distant from one another; therefore, intensifying the story’s mysteries.
The narrator immediately begins his story by describing the fugu fish: “Fugu is a fish caught off the Pacific shores of Japan.” With this detail, the narrator foreshadows that the fugu fish will with discussed later in the story. As the narrator reveals that the poison fugu fish was the cause of his mother’s death, the reader understands that the fugu fish will possibly have more deleterious effects because the family has not yet had supper as the title suggests. By using descriptive details to foreshadow the harmful effects of the fugu fish, the narrator provides creates a suspenseful ambience. Similarly, foreboding descriptive details are seen as the narrator describes a ghost he saw in the garden: “It was an old woman. She was just standing there, watching me…She was wearing a white kimono.” Because, she narrator previously explains that his mother is dead, the reader assumes that the “old woman” is the ghost of the narrator’s mother. The description of the ghost and the haunting effects of the fish create the eerie aura that the story produces.
Certain aspects of the story are purposely ambiguous; thus, adding to the suspenseful atmosphere that the author creates. For example, the narrator never reveals why he left and moved to California. This can be seen as the narrator’s father states, “I've come to believe now that there were no evil intentions in your mind…'You were swayed by certain -influences. Like so many others.” The reader is then left to wonder why the narrator left; thus, creating room for anticipation. Furthermore, at the end of the story when the father serves the family fish for supper, the narrator does not mention what type of fish is served. The story simply ends with the family “fall[ing] in silence once more” after eating dinner. The ambiguity in this statement gives room for imagination because the family may or may not have eaten the fugu fish and died.
The storyline itself creates a bizarre feeling; however, the visual imagery used to build the eerie setting, the ambiguous dialogue, and the descriptive details that foreshadow certain events, enhance the mysteries of the story. By leaving some parts of the story open to the reader’s interpretation, Ishiguro augments the suspenseful mood of his short story.