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Quotes
Narrator
The narrator of “A Family Supper,” who remains unnamed, is a young Japanese man who is living in America when he learns that his mother has died by eating a poisonous fish called fugu…
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Father
The narrator’s father, who also remains unnamed throughout the story, is a Japanese man of retirement age. The narrator describes him as stoic, “formidable-looking,” and “proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the…
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Mother
Though the narrator’s mother is not alive during the short story, her presence looms large in the lives of her family members. At the beginning of the story, the narrator explains that his mother died…
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Kikuko
Kikuko is the narrator’s bubbly and energetic younger sister, who returns to her childhood home from university in Osaka for the family supper. Though she is obedient to her father, her behavior at the…
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Watanabe
Like the narrator’s mother, Watanabe is never physically present during the events of the short story. However, the narrator, his father, and his sister discuss the fact that he killed himself after the…
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Minor Characters
Suichi
Kikuko’s boyfriend. While talking with the narrator in the backyard, Kikuko confesses that Suichi is planning on traveling to America, and he wants her to go with him.
Vicki
The narrator’s ex-girlfriend. Though he does not provide many details about the circumstances of their break-up, he says that now that they are separated and that there is “nothing much left for [him] in California,” suggesting that Vicki was the reason he was living there to begin with.
