Kazuo Ishiguro
One of the most distinguished
contemporary authors. He was born in Nagasaki in 1954, the year when the Lord
of the Flies came out. The family moved to England, he received a typical
English education, in a school in which he was the only non-English student.
Back then, England was very class conscious and his presence invoked curiosity.
He had the bi-cultural upbringing. That account for his sense of uprootedness. He thought of
himself as of homeless writer. He travelled to the United States and
Canada in 1974, he wrote a journal and he even tried to launch a musical
career, not successfully. He studied English and philosophy at Kent University.
He graduated with BA in 1978, he attended the course in creative writing with
Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter. He earned his MA degree in 1980 at the
University of East Anglia. He worked as a social worker and community worker.
He was very socially conscious. Writing came somewhat later. He helped the
homeless in London and in Scotland. His literary career begins in the 80s. He had
written some short stories before, but in 1981, he has one of his short stories
published in a volume introducing contemporary writers, it was an anthology. At
that point, Faber and Faber, the famous publishing house committed him to write
a novel. From that point on, his literary career begins to flourish, from 1982
with the Pale View of Hills, his first novel about the Japanese born woman
protagonist. She moves to English countryside, remembers the past involving the
nuclear devastation of Nagasaki. The relationship with her two daughters is
also one of the themes of the Novel. In 1986, An Artist of the Floating World
comes out, again it is about the Japanese painter obsessed with the past. The
protagonist is plagued by the guilt caused by his war time experiences. Both
novels received prestigious literary awards. Ishiguro attributes his success
with good timing. So, he demystifies himself as an artist. He was labelled an
Anglo-Japanese writer which was lucrative at the time. The Remains of the Day
came out in 1989 and was something completely different from his previous two
novels. Not only did it take place on the English soil but it also had an
English protagonist. Just like his preceding and succeeding novels, it deals
with personal history with emphasis on moulding one’s history in order to meet
the psychological needs of the character.
The Remains of the Day
The protagonist of the Novel tries
to grow as a character throughout the novel, but he fails in his attempt. Stevens, the protagonist of the novel, is the
head butler of the respectable old English house and estate called Darlington
Hall. His master was Lord Darlington. He remembers the past, before the WWII
and after it. At the beginning of the novel he makes a trip for a first time
after a long period of time of self imposed confinement on the estate. The
motive of the trip is a meeting with a woman who he had been in love with,
which is something he never admitted to himself. Miss Campton, is the former co
worker. The journey is not only physical, but also a mental journey, in which
he has a chance to come to terms with the past, in which he fails. During the
trip, he clearly sees the failure that his life was for the first time, but he
hides it behind the mask, the illusion of that he puts up in order to be able
to carry on with his life. Many critics agree that this novel was a perfection
of Ishiguro’s narrative techniques and a brilliant psychological portrait. He
is not a typical postmodernist writer, we do not have framing, but again, there
are elements of meta-fiction, combined with the interest in the past. Ishiguro
admitted that his literary model were 19th century English and
Russian realist writers. He looks back to realism in much the similar way
Fowles does. Among the modernists, the one who exerted influence on Ishiguro
was E. M. Forster because of his exploration of Englishness. There was also
Henry James, because of his psychological approach. He also discusses this idea
of Englishness
in The Remains of the Day.
What all of Ishiguro’s novels have
in common is the first person narrator. These
narrators are protagonists at the same time, so
we have internal viewpoint. The protagonists usually hide something from
themselves; they are people who do not have courage to be true to themselves.
They are usually very ordinary people, they are not artists or hyper sensitive
characters, they are well adjusted, down to earth conformists, of whom Stevens
is a perfect example. They have simple and limited perspective. They usually do
not see much beyond their own world, they do not dare to cross over to the big
world. They remain caught in their own microcosm. All characters, including Stevens, try to reconstruct the past, usually their
own past, not to make it right, but to make it look better. Nostalgia is
the feeling of regret for the past that has never been. The moment of
remembrance is the very moment of modification when truth is left behind. At
the moment of remembrance, we are instantly altering the past, so remembrance,
again cannot be taken as reliable. What Stevens does is he beautifies his own
past. He rationalises his own mistakes providing comforting explanations in
order to avoid the unpleasant truth. The truth is that he has lead the
meaningless of life, pretending that his life had a meaning. He strived to be an excellent butler, like his father was. He
does this, constructs this lie, to give his life a sense of purpose. Then also,
he explores the psychological mechanisms of repression, which is reflected in
the use of language not to create meaning, but to hide the real meaning, or to
suppress the unpleasant truth. The language serves the purpose of creating and
maintaining illusion. So we delude ourselves through language. That is what
Stevens does. That is the source or irony and sarcasm. We are at the same time irritated by him and we feel sorry for him. Steven
claims to invoke in his memory the truth about the past, while it becomes very
clear to the reader early on that he is trying to conceal from himself and from
the reader the truth, because the truth is shameful, painful, threatening for
his personal integrity and his sense of dignity. The narrator reveals the truth
to the reader unintentionally, unconsciously. We recognise as readers that he
is beating around the bush all the time. He is more interested in the inner
then the outer. History and politics are very much present, but these are not
his primary concerns, which means that he is only interested in history and
politics only as a reflection of his own mind. Here they are a testing ground
for the character’s response. Ishiguro’s main concern is psychology, inner
mechanism of suppression of emotions, the idealisation of oneself,
self-deception, the way in which people protect themselves from the truth about
themselves, mostly through language.
Ishiguro is not postmodernist
overtly, as much as the form is concerned, but
his concern for the use of language for the purpose of constructing one’s life,
makes him a postmodernist writer. Ishiguro shows how language is used by
the character to fictionalise his own past, which is exactly what Stevens does.
He is rewriting his own past, recreating himself in a more favourable light. We
all do that, suggests Ishiguro. Again we have the distinction between art and
life blurred in a new way. We are all artists. Language is not used to
construct reality. He points to that. It is not there as a meaningful tool of
creating reality or truth, it is only there to create somebody’s version of
reality. Unlike other postmodernists, Ishiguro does not experiment with form,
his novels do not contain inter-textuality, framing, etc. they are not meta
fictions, they do not discuss the nature of fiction, they are not concerned
with the art of writing of fiction. On the contrary, he tries to hide the elements
that could be experimental. Formally, he is quite unlike postmodernists, but
his themes are postmodernist. Ishiguro did not believe that the nature of
fiction was one of the burning issues of the late 20th century. In
this sense, he is not postmodernist, which makes him totally opposite from
Barnes. However, his novels are experimental, in this quiet way.
The central theme deals with
psychological methods of suppression of feelings. Stevens suppresses his
feelings and uses psychological mechanisms of defence to keep unpleasant
memories at bay, to keep unacceptable desires at bay. That is the goal that is
why people repress contents they do not want to face. Stevens represses
knowledge about the past to protect himself from the painful memory of political
flirtation of Lord Darlington with fascism and Nazism and the fact that he,
Stevens accepted it passively. Silence is acceptance. He was a collaborator of
Nazis indirectly. He never condemn Lord Darlington’s behaviour. The fact that
he does not defend Lord Darlington shows that he knows very well right from
wrong. He poses here very unpleasant question of personal responsibility.
Throughout history, many people resorted to this type of repression. He is very
well aware of how wrong it was what Lord Darlington did. Stevens is coward. This aspect dealt
with political repression.
Second thing he repn ressed was his
sexual desire. Just as he is unable to admit to himself that he was in a way
collaborating with the Nazis, another thing that he was in love with Miss
Kenton and that he wanted to sleep with her. He cannot admit this, because he
thinks sex was something dirty. He was brought up to think this way. What he
keeps at distance are his sexual attraction with Miss Kenton, his
disappointment with her engagement. He pretends to miss her only for professional reasons.
He masks his romantic and sexual interest in her as professional interest. Even
when he makes his trip, he does not admit his true motive. The reason is
completely different, but he persists in lying to himself. His view of right or
wrong political affiliation makes Stevens completely identify with his master. As if he
does not have to think with his brain, and whatever Lord Darlington is doing,
with whom he identified himself, is right. The incident occurs on the estate
and Lord Darlington want two of his Jewish servants dismissed. This causes
serous confrontation between Stevens and Miss Kenton. She is a person who is
politically conscious, whereas Stevens is a coward, like unfortunately millions
of people. Majority of people would act in the way in which Stevens acted,
rather then in a way in which Miss Kenton acted. It is easier for him to
identify with Lord Darlington.
There is also a trauma over his father’s death,
but despite being devastated, he keeps on working and he pretends to be OK. He wanted to
‘live up with the ideals of his profession’. He is not indifferent, but with
tremendous effort of will, he convinces himself he should be indifferent, so he
carries on with his work. There is also this element of competition between
father and son, another Freudian theme. On very rare occasions, Stevens does
tell the truth. That is a minor illustration of his ability to tell the truth.
When his car stops out of gas, he refuses to look at his shoes, which serves as
a symbol of his entire behaviour. He always chooses to look aside, rather then
confronting with the issues he has. Likewise, he is unable to comfort Miss Kenton when her aunt dies. He does not know
how to do it. He cannot face sadness and grief, he is person who has never grown
up entirely. Indirectly, if he managed to comfort Miss Kenton after her loss,
he would then also have to acknowledge his own loss, which he is not prepared
to do.
He also has problem coming to terms
with his own sexuality. He is embarrassed with Faraday’s joke about his lady
friend. He permanently describes his relationship with Miss Kenton, whom he
always addresses with her family name, as strictly professional. He hates flowers,
which are a symbol of nature, that is a symbolical way of suggesting how he
resents any natural
impulse. He is embarrassed in each of his encounters with attractive
women, so he is completely
repressed in every way. The culmination is when he rejects Miss Kenton’s open
sexual invitation in the pantry. She plays the reversed gender role,
playing the role of seducer, to try to get somewhere with him. When she finds
him reading the love story, which he explains by his ambition to learn better
English. Stevens convinces himself that he is not interested, because it is
easier for him. He is afraid and that is a typical reaction for someone who is
afraid. He resents adventure and risk. There is also a scene with the couple
who eloped and resigned only to get married, which he resented explaining that
it was irresponsible act.
There is the character called Reginald Cardinal who
tries to talk to Stevens and to explain that Lord Darlington was used by the
Nazis as a pawn. Stevens does not want to hear that and acknowledge this truth.
He simply rejects to see anything that is going on. He is furious with Reginald
for his attempt
to confront him with the truth about Lord Darlington. Ishiguro shows
parallels between English and Japanese cultures, both of which are very
repressive, very authoritarian, very prone to be manipulated. He even claimed
they were easy targets of skilful political manipulators. Authoritarian
education creates obedient citizens, which can make them very vulnerable to
manipulation of totalitarian rules, who then become father substitutes. It
worked on the Balkans with Milosevic Tudjman and Izetbegović, all three of whom
were fathers of the nation. Reflections of all of these ideas are found here,
for Stevens, Lord Darlington is this father substitute. Stevens also totally
identifies with his upper class father substitute and symbolically and even
physically abandons his own father. He comes to indirectly support Nazism,
because he is completely naïve person and a coward. He fakes responsibility to
avoid thinking with his own head. He wants to become a gentleman like Lord
Darlington, he dresses above his class, which makes him a tragicomic character.
Stevens masks his repression as
professionalism, which is his excuse for everything. He is obsessed with
professional dignity, with being a perfect butler, is an excuse for himself for
being politically and sexually disengaged. He avoids every kind of
responsibility. He is furious about the decision of the housekeeper and the
under butler to get married and leave profession. The reason he is upset is
that they dared to do what he does not. He masks his disappointment with Miss
Kenton’s seeing someone as a purely professional disappointment. He says her
marriage would be a professional loss. When she surprises him in the pantry,
revealing her interest in him, he tries to reassert their ‘professional
relation in a more proper manner’. So the language he uses, very formal, stiff
and artificial, is a reflection of himself.
He exempts him from political
responsibility claiming that as a butler, it was not his job to think. He
believed he needed to agree with views of his master. There are very disturbing
conclusions here that make us seriously question democracy. In the early 30s
Stevens has to fire two Jewish maids, under the excuse of just following
orders. There is even a suggestion of homo erotic connection between Brehman,
German aristocrat and Lord Darlington.
This is Ishiguro’s very subtle
criticism of stiffness and conventionality of British and also of Japanese
societies. As a result, these societies produced characters much like Stevens
is, cowards who are easy targets of authoritarian manipulators.
Unintentionally and ironically, his
words reveal just the things he is trying to hide. He only accomplishes to
speak of himself through what he says of others. He says Lord Darlington’s life
was a ‘sad waste’ and that the life of Miss Kenton was pervaded by the ‘sense
of waste’, which suggests it is Stevens’s life that was wasted. This is the
strategy most of us resort to. When he speaks of Miss Kenton’s nostalgia about
the past, it is his nostalgia. He also suggests that Miss Kenton regrets the
decision she made in the past, and it turns out he regrets his own decision.
His obsession with the
clothes, suggest he wants to hide his true self. He has later inherited Lord
Darlington’s clothes. So symbolically, he becomes Lord Darlington. He also was
to be mistaken for a gentleman, but in the moment of crisis, he does not deny
his own identity.
The significance of the Journey
Journey is his first attempt ever to
break out from the prison house in which he voluntarily confined himself. The journey is both
physical and psychological. In the struggle between his desire to
cast off this mask and his desire to keep it as something familiar, he succumbs
to the latter. So, he does not really change. The chance is only offered for a
brief moment of time and he is to frightened of the new to embrace it. He fails
in breaking free emotionally and physically. The political activist he meets
during the journey makes no impact on Stevens. He also fails to overcome his
sexual repression, when he finally meets Miss Kenton. This final encounter
turns out to be a disappointment, while Stevens is even strongly as before,
trying to keep up this pretence. In the end he sits on a bench next to a
retired butler. He concludes that he has given everything to Darlington, then
he masks his tears as fatigue, so he is back to the old pattern of behaviour.
He finally ironically tries to learn to banter, which is not part of his personality,
which means he never truly changes. That does not mark any kind of
transformation, he does so just because his new employer would like him to.
There is no development. It could not be taken as a sing of true, profound
change. This might be a criticism of the entire culture of suppression.
The concept of Englishness
Ishiguro claims that this novel
reworks certain stereotypes and myths about England. He uses a lot of clichés
that people usually have about the English. Whether he reinforces or subverts
them is difficult to decide. Stevens’ politeness is only politeness on the
surface and it masks destructive political passivity. The myth of merry old
England is harmless nostalgia for the times that have never been, so Ishiguro
subverts them.
Historical personages appear in the
novel, who are at the same level with Stevens and other character, so again
there is a postmodernist element in the novel which is not exactly true
postmodernist work.
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