A Family Supper Themes

Heritage and Tradition

“A Family Supper” follows an unnamed narrator returning to his native Japan from the United States two years after learning of his mother’s death. Though the story is not clearly set during a particular period of time, readers can assume that the story is set in the modern day due to the presence of modern technology and language familiar to 21st-century readers. This modern setting creates a clear tension between the progressive sensibilities of the…

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Gender Roles and Expectations

Though “A Family Supper” has a relatively uneventful plot, the story is rife with instances of cultural and societal expectations. One of the most prevalent of these is the pressure to adhere to traditional gender roles, which exert their influence on every member of the narrator’s family. The narrator’s father not only embodies the prototypical hard-working, stoic, and self-sacrificing Japanese father, but he also attempts to propagate traditional gender roles through his role as…

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Gender Roles and Expectations Theme Icon

Grief, Absence, and Presence

“A Family Supper” centers around the death of the protagonist’s mother, and so it is clear from the start that grief is one Ishiguro’s primary thematic concerns. The consequences of the mother’s passing—as well as the circumstances that led up to that unexpected event—are present on every page. By highlighting both literal and figurative forms of absence in a brief depiction of an uncomfortable family dinner, Ishiguro demonstrates the way in which grief fixates…

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