The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day: Style 1 key example

Key Examples in The Remains of the Day

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

The style Ishiguro employs in The Remains of the Day is largely dictated by the voice and character of his first-person narrator, Stevens. English butlers as buttoned-up and formal as Stevens are often humorous side characters in other stories, but in this novel, Ishiguro gives Stevens a rich inner world. Stevens's dialogue and his narration are often stylistically similar: he speaks the perfectly correct British English of the upper class, complete with multi-syllable words and exacting politeness. He often refers to himself in the generalized third person (i.e., "one has to" or "one should").