Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Family Supper, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Heritage and Tradition
Gender Roles and Expectations
Grief, Absence, and Presence
Summary
Analysis
The narrator, a young Japanese man who has been living in America, describes the way in which fugu, a fish popularized in Japan after World War II, has a “special significance” to him because it killed his mother. The narrator explains that he did not know about the “circumstances surrounding [his mother’s] death” until two years after the fact, when he returned to Japan to visit his father and sister. When his father picks him up from the airport, he finally begins to provide the narrator with these details. During the car ride, the narrator learns that his mother did not regularly eat fugu, which is fatal if prepared improperly, but she ate it on that particular occasion because she did not want to offend a friend who was serving it to her for dinner. The narrator adds that given what he knows about fugu, his mother’s death must have been “hideously painful.”
The beginning of the short story establishes the fact that the narrator’s family is not candid with one another about difficult topics, and that the narrator’s return to Japan will highlight the ways in which he has become both geographically and emotionally distant from his family. The revelation that it has taken two years for the narrator to learn what really happened to his mother serves as particularly clear evidence of the lack of open communication in his family. The opening passages of the book also demonstrate that the short story takes place at some point after World War II, at a time in which young Japanese citizens can more easily relocate to the U.S. This timeline informs many of the cultural and intergenerational conflicts present in the narrative to come.
Themes
The narrator describes his father as a stoic man who is difficult to converse with. After they arrive home, the narrator mentions the 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 principle.” The narrator’s father then expresses his hope that the narrator’s visit to Japan will not be a short one, and says that he is prepared to welcome him back despite his actions. He also adds that the narrator’s mother was also “always ready to welcome [him] back—upset as she was by [his] behavior.” The narrator responds that he is unsure what his plans are.
These first pieces of dialogue indicate several interrelated sources of tension that grow more intense throughout the short story. Here, the narrator illustrates that his father is an older Japanese man with traditional values. These values are associated with conventional masculinity (his “stoicism” reflects that he is not willing to openly show emotion), and a commitment to both hard work and self-sacrifice. In this moment, it appears that his father’s assessment of Watanabe’s suicide is perhaps a statement of approval, given that he sees Watanabe as a “principled” man even after he takes his life due to a career-related failure. Though the father suggests that he and his late wife were disappointed in the narrator’s failure to adhere to their values, his attempt to encourage his son to return home is the first indication in the story that he is lonely, and that he perhaps regrets the way in which his stringent standards may have alienated the narrator.
Themes
The narrator and his father are greeted by the narrator’s younger sister Kikuko, a college student who has returned from Osaka to join them for the “family supper.” Though Kikuko is quiet and submissive around her father, she becomes bubbly and high-spirited when he leaves the siblings alone in order to finish preparing dinner. In the backyard of their childhood home, Kikuko pulls out a cigarette and begins smoking, indicating that she has waited to smoke until the two were outside because their father does not approve of the habit. She tells her brother that she has a boyfriend now and that they are considering hitchhiking through America, even though Kikuko is not yet certain she wants to live in America.
The arrival of Kikuko emphasizes the way in which the narrator’s father exercises a large degree of control over the siblings’ behavior, even though they have both reached adulthood and have moved away from home. Kikuko’s change in attitude, however, as well as her smoking habit and interest in hitchhiking, attests to the fact that the siblings are not entirely submissive to their father’s expectations. Kikuko’s articulation of her future plans also indicates that, like her brother, she is not certain about what she plans to do next, suggesting that they are both at an age---and even part of a generation—that has more options than their parents did, making decisions about the future difficult to set in stone.
Themes
The siblings discuss the well in the backyard, and the fact that they used to believe that a ghost haunted it. They remember how their mother used to tell them that “the woman from the vegetable garden” was the ghost. Kikuko tells the narrator that their mother “never blamed [him],” and that their mother thought that she and the siblings’ father had done a better job raising Kikuko than they did raising him. Kikuko then asks her brother about Vicki, his ex-girlfriend. He replies that “That’s all finished with,” and that he is not sure if he will return to California.
Here, the presence of the well invokes the presence of the narrator’s mother (or motivates her family members to confront memories associated with her life and death). Through this conversation about the childhood ghost, Kikuko is able to bring up her mother’s belief that she had failed the narrator as a parent, and that he had not turned out as “good” as his sister as a result. The tragedy of the mother’s regret, which was also addressed earlier in the conversation between the narrator and his father, is one of the sources of emotional tension that seems to grow as the narrative continues. Kikuko’s reference to Vicki functions as an attempt to change the subject to a less painful topic, but her brother’s vague response reveals that this subject is also painful. His response also suggests the possibility that Vicki was the reason he moved to America or stayed in California for as long as he did.
Themes
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The narrator brings up Watanabe’s suicide, and Kikuko explains that their father did not tell him the full story of the incident. In fact, Watanabe murdered his wife and two daughters and subsequently disemboweled himself with a knife. Without responding directly to this news, the narrator tells Kikuko that he sees the ghost, and describes her as an old woman in a white kimono. Kikuko thinks he is trying to scare her.
Kikuko’s statement coincides with what readers already know about the narrator’s father: he tends to avoid confronting difficult topics. In the same way that the narrator did not learn the real details of his mother’s death until years after she died, he learns that his father was not forthright about the real details of the Watanabe’s suicide. It is likely for this reason that he does not seem to be surprised by the fact that the suicide was much more violent than he was initially led to believe. However, the narrator does not seem to condone Watanabe’s actions, as his father does, which indicates he’s not willing to prioritize masculine ideals in the way his father might want him to. Additionally, the narrator’s ghost sighting serves as yet another attempt to divert the difficult conversation about the murder-suicide. Kikuko does not appear to take the sighting seriously, which suggests that she considers herself too grown-up to believe in the ghosts of her childhood, or too modern to believe in the cultural spirits that members of older Japanese generations continue to honor.
Themes
The siblings go inside to see if supper is ready. Kikuko comments that their father has become “quite a chef” as he cooks dinner, a remark that appears to bother him. Leaving Kikuko to finish the supper, the narrator’s father takes the narrator on a tour of the home, which now has many empty rooms. He comments that the house is “too large for a man to live in alone.” He then shows his son a model battleship that he has been working on, and notes that he could have been “a more attentive father” to his children. He also briefly mentions his belief that the narrator’s mother committed suicide due to “many worries. And some disappointments,” before quickly changing the subject back to the model battleship.
These moments call attention to the way in which the narrator’s father’s life has substantially changed shape since his wife passed away and his children left home. Not only has he been obligated to take up the gendered domestic tasks that his wife used to perform—a situation that he appears to resent—but he has also had to adjust to living alone in a large home without much personal fulfillment. His conversation with the narrator during the house tour implies that the emptiness of his new life has begun to teach him that his priorities were misguided in the past, and that he should have been a more caring father. This moment of vulnerability leads to another, in which he confesses that his wife likely killed herself due to her own sadness and regret. However, the family’s pattern of redirecting emotional topics continues here when the father suddenly begins talking about the model battleship again.
Themes
When the family sits down to dinner, the narrator’s father wonders aloud if the narrator regrets leaving America, but the narrator replies that he only regrets it “a little,” claiming that he has only left behind “some empty rooms.” The narrator sees a photo on the wall of an old woman in a white kimono who matches the description of the ghost in the backyard. His father expresses his surprise that the narrator does not recognize the woman as his mother. The narrator, clearly ashamed, justifies his confusion by saying that she looks much older than how he remembered her, and that the photograph is difficult to see in the dimly-lit dining room.
Here again, the narrator’s father tries to gauge whether or not the narrator will move back home to Japan—and perhaps back to his childhood home. The narrator’s comment illustrates that though it was his decision to move to America, his life there has not brought him happiness. The “empty rooms” he mentions recall the conversation the narrator and his father had about his father’s lonely life in his now-empty home, and indicates that the narrator has perhaps inherited his father’s stereotypically masculine tendency to alienate those close to him. This alienation also appears in the moment with the photograph. The narrator has been so estranged from his mother in recent years that he does not recognize her. The way in which the narrator’s mother is described in the same manner as the garden ghost demonstrates that her death still haunts him, but that he is more capable of recognizing her as an ethereal ghost than as his mother in the flesh, a fact he is clearly ashamed of.
Themes
The narrator asks his father what kind of fish they are eating for dinner, and he responds: “Just fish.” The family eats in silence, though they all seem to find the dinner delicious. When the narrator asks if there is enough fish for seconds, his father emphasizes that there is “plenty for all of us.” They all help themselves to more fish.
The father’s reluctance to provide any details about the fish he has prepared underscores the discomfort the family experiences when confronting the death of the mother. Because she died eating fish, the circumstances of her death haunt the dinner table, but none of her family members wants to address the palpable awkwardness of that reminder. However, the painful silence here shifts when the narrator asks for more fish, symbolizing that he is willing to confront the messiness of the pain they are experiencing. When the whole family joins in, sharing the fish together, it is as if they are moving toward a less avoidant and more communal relationship to their debilitating grief.
Themes
After dinner, the father asks Kikuko to go make a pot of tea. The narrator 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. He says that he believes Watanabe had “weakened judgment” when he committed the act, and that it was “of course” a mistake. With respect to the incident, he concludes that “There are other things besides work,” and the narrator agrees.
Though it is clear that the father intends to initiate an important conversation by inviting his son to the tea-room, he does not invite Kikuko, a decision that reflects his faith in traditional gender roles. He assigns Kikuko to a domestic task rather than encouraging her to participate in the discussion. During the conversation itself, it becomes clear that despite the father’s respect for Watanabe, he does not, in fact, approve of his partner’s violent actions. This shift opens the door for a more nuanced understanding of masculinity than the one implied by traditional gender roles, one that the narrator might be more comfortable embodying. The father’s conclusion about the nature of work also provides further evidence of that he has truly been working to reevaluate his priorities in the wake of his partner’s death, his wife’s apparent suicide, and the departure of his children.
Themes
The narrator and his father sit in silence for a long moment, and the narrator notes that the well is no longer visible in the darkness. His father again asks if he plans to stay in Japan, emphasizing that he is very welcome to move back home. The narrator replies once more that he is not sure. His father says that he has “no doubt” that the narrator will return to America, especially given that “this house is so dreary now.” The story ends with the father expressing his belief that Kikuko will return home in the spring, and that “things will improve then.” The narrator replies that he is sure they will.
The disappearance of the well during this particular silence, which is a quite comfortable silence compared with others in the story, indicates that the haunting presence of the narrator’s mother has subsided, and that the family is poised to move forward in their relationships with one another. However, Ishiguro does not provide an entirely hopeful ending. The narrator claims that he has not decided what he will do next, but he does nothing to dispute his father’s claim about the dreariness of the house. And though he agrees that things “will improve” if Kikuko returns home, his earlier conversation with his sister showed that she was unlikely to do so, making the narrator’s agreement appear more like an attempt to comfort his father than a reflection of his genuine thoughts.
Themes
