Previous
Kikuko
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 collapse of the father’s law firm several times, and, like the mother of the family, the violent nature of his passing seems to haunt the family. While talking with the narrator in the backyard, Kikuko reveals that Watanabe murdered himself by stabbing himself in the gut--recalling the way in which Japanese samurai committed acts of honor suicide—and subsequently murdered his wife and two children.
Watanabe Quotes in A Family Supper
The A Family Supper quotes below are all either spoken by Watanabe or refer to Watanabe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Family Supper Quotes
“Those two beautiful little girls. He turned on the gas while they were all asleep. Then he cut his stomach with a meat knife.”
“Yes, Father was just telling me how Watanabe was a man of principle.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Family Supper LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Watanabe Character Timeline in A Family Supper
The timeline below shows where the character Watanabe appears in A Family Supper. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Family Supper
...collapse of his father’s law firm, and his father explains that he considers his partner Watanabe, who was so ashamed about the firm’s collapse that he committed suicide, a “man of...
(full context)
The narrator brings up Watanabe’s suicide, and Kikuko explains that their father did not tell him the full story of...
(full context)
...and his father sit down together in the tea-room. The narrator confronts his father about Watanabe’s suicide, and his father admits that his partner indeed murdered his family before killing himself....
(full context)
