`A Family Supper` by Kazuo Ishiguro-character analysis on father

The character of the Father depicted in the story A Family Supper ' by Kazuo Ishiguro is introduced to a reader exclusively through the narrator 's viewpoint . Nevertheless , making the of his father the responsibility of the narrator was the best author 's decision , as looking at this protagonist through his children 's eyes reveals different sides of his character . Thus , the main father 's traits are severity , pride and loneliness

The first impression a readers may get about this character is not so pleasant one . My father was a formidable - looking man

with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows ' or My father 's face looked stony and forbidding in the half-light . Even the of his appearance drops a hint that he would not be that much compliant or easy-going . Usually fathers are stricter towards their children (as compared to mothers , thus not much love or tenderness may be expected from them , but the author 's choice of such an appearance for his character is to lay stress on his disposition . So , the conclusion an attentive reader comes to is simple : the father is a sullen , harsh and unfriendly old man

Nevertheless , there is certain kind of pride : I think now in retrospect that he much resembled Chou En - lai , although he would not have cherished such a comparison , being particularly proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the family . The father disapproves of everything that comes into discrepancy with his believes . He as though opposes two cultures : Western and Eastern . The first one is what the father disapproves of : 'You were swayed by certain - influences . Like many others Business these days has become so different . Dealing with foreigners . Doing things their way . I don 't understand how we 've come to this ' So , a character who has his inflexible principles is depicted . It is not stubbornness , but those good old times orientation . A man is unable to adjust to the new changing world , but at the same time he preserves some kind of sublime dignity inherent to older generation

Nevertheless , that is only the first impression . Further some other facts come to light . The father lives by himself : his son , the narrator lives in America , California his daughter is studying at the University of Osaka his wife died two years before as a result of eating a poisonous fugu fish . This solitude comes straightforward when the house the father lives in is described : 'This house is too large for a man to live in alone ' my father said 'I don 't have much use for most of these rooms now . This loneliness also is felt easily when going a bit more attentively into the father 's actions and words , and it is not only physical loneliness of a widower living separately from his children

Though the father is too reserved to state it openly , he , probably regrets that he did not manage to become really close to his children 'That seems...