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A Family Supper : A Visit to a Japanese Home

Seeing the high economic growth of Japan , and using the country 's high tech products that are sold all around the globe , all non-Japanese people have an idea about the culture of the nation . In the international mind , Japan is highly business minded , believes in economic nationalism , and is mainly Buddhist . All Buddhist nations in the world , except for China and Korea , are perfectly peaceful in their foreign relations , which is to say that they practice the theory of nonviolence propounded by the

wisest of people . In to practice nonviolence , any human being must act quite unfeeling or unemotional which is actually quite beneficial in Japanese business too . The phrase `cold and calculating ' is apt in describing the benefits of being unemotional in business . It is this unemotional Japanese culture that comes to the fore in Kazuo Ishiguro 's A Family Supper . The story is an exposition of the Japanese culture in the foreign mind . Given that it does not describe the culture of Japan away from the narrator 's home , it is the story of a Japanese home , which happens to be typically Japanese in the perspective of the non-Japanese reader

The Japanese apparently do not believe in the exhibition of their emotions . If they are extremely worried , upset , or depressed , they prefer to commit suicide rather than to expose themselves to shame by revealing their emotional problems to others . Ishiguro 's story deals with two suicides , one of the narrator 's mother , and the other of his father 's friend , Watanabe . The latter was suffering from business problems , and therefore committed suicide because of the emotional strain that he could not express to others . Business is , of course , all important to the Japanese . In the case of the narrator 's mother , we are told that she consumed the dreadful fugu fish , which everybody knew to be poisonous or highly risky to consume . The mother used to avoid consuming the fugu fish , but on this particular occasion ' writes Ishiguro , she made an exception , having been invited by an old school friend whom she was anxious not to offend (320 . Obviously , the mother wanted to commit suicide . Neither she nor Watanabe were said to use the help of a psychotherapist when they were suffering from emotional problems . In her case , She had many worries . And some disappointments (325 . In the case of Watanabe , we are informed by the narrator 's father , He didn 't wish to live with the disgrace ' of having lost his business (320 . Yet , both the mother and Watanabe feel emotions that are intense enough to call for suicide

It appears strange that a highly business minded society is not positive enough to deal properly with its emotional problems . In other words , the Japanese society that is described through Ishiguro 's story does not always seem to struggle for survival , hoping , praying believing , and expecting better days . Instead , everything seems to be alright for individuals until they...

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