Remains of the day

Tami 5b

“The Remains of the Day”
by

Kazuo Ishiguro
Summary:
Read it on the surface and it is beautiful; look deeper and you will see war, regret, repression, guilt, hope and love. The book “The Remains of the Day” is a fascinating study of a character, and to some extent of history as well. The story is told through the eyes of an english butler named Stevens, whose devotion to duty andneglection of emotions has wiped out his sense of self. The book sets off with Stevens stepping out of the walls of Darlington Hall. For the first time he travels further than his familiar surroundings. This trip means much more than a simple sightseeing, it is a journey through his own memories. Along the way, Stevens begins to reflect on his past and starts questioning himself and the decisionshe has made. Stevens has devoted his entire life to serve of a "great" man, Lord Darlington, during the years between World War I and World War II. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that lord Darlington is a Nazi sympathizer. Blind loyalty prevents Stevens from seeing the truth in his master and turns him into an obedient slave. Two major themes in the book are fascism and conformity. Asthe story unfolds, we learn more and more about Steven’s personality, his attention to detail, his ideas about propriety and responsibility. Duty, loyalty and dignity are values, which have governed his life since arriving at Darlington Hall. How he upheld dignity by serving his employer while his own father lay dying reveals how unemotional he became. "Will you come up and see him?" an employeeasks. "I am very busy just now, the gentlemen downstairs are in need of me. In a little while perhaps." At the end of the trip, Stevens realizes that he had repressed every aspect of his personal feelings, in doing so; he had missed the chance of love, happiness and fulfillment. The time of self-reflection has brought Stevens to think about his complicated relationship with Miss Kenton, a formerstaff member. By reading between the lines, it becomes clear that Stevens was in love with Miss Kenton, but let her marry another man. He now wishes to make up for his lost time, to correct the mistakes of the past. The climax of the novel is their meeting, in which they continue to act “professional”, reserved and elegant.

Conflicts:
Person vs. Self / Dignity vs. feelings We know Stevens feelspain, we know he feels love, and we can read, in between Ishiguro's precisely chosen words, his struggle to express what he feels so deeply. He is constantly torn between his emotions and his “professionalism”. He is forced to suppress all kinds of feelings, which turns him into a passionless monster. Stevens can’t decide whether to do what is “right” or whether to follow his heart and go see hisdying father. Another conflict within himself, Stevens does not manage to fight, is the struggle of having the courage to face the mistakes he had made in

Tami 5b life. Up to the end Stevens can’t admit that he had deeper feelings for Miss Kenton and that it was wrong to let her go. “Upstairs” vs. “Downstairs” One conflict, which was very obvious to me, was the constant fight between the“upstairs” and the “downstairs”. Stevens lives in two different worlds. There is the 'upstairs' world, which involves serving Lord Darlington and all his guests -- a world in which he must let go of his desires and own identity. On the other hand, Stevens also lives in the “downstairs“ world, in which he has to deal with personal feeling, such as the death of his father and his love for Miss Kenton.Upstairs, he wears a mask, while downstairs he takes it off. The conflict begins once Stevens tries to combine those two worlds, an act in which he fails. Person vs. Time What Ishiguro is telling us in “The Remains of the Day” is that you, and only you are responsible for your life. He is also telling us, that if you want, you can change your life. But sometimes it is already to late, you had a...