“Family Supper” by Ishiguro: Eastern and Western Family Attitudes Cultural Differences

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

A Family the Last supper is an intriguing story where the author takes us through the life his family has gone through in ancient Japan. The “Family Supper” title is derived from a local delicacy in traditional Japan known as Fugu, which is a type of fish. According to the author, his mother is dead from this delicacy’s poisoning and his father is contemplating suicide to escape from an empty unproductive life. This he intends to do by offering his remaining family a dinner, “A Family Supper” made from the Fugu fish that is intended to poison and kill them and probably bring their misery to an end (Carla 2). This paper seeks to discuss the cultural differences between eastern and Western family attitudes as illustrated in Ishiguro’s “Family Supper”.

Main body

According to Carla (3), Ishiguro has just come back from California to rejoin his family in Tokyo, Japan. The cultural differences as evidenced by the author are major between the eastern and western family attitudes. We see Ishiguro’s father as a rigid man out of his response when asked by his son if he wishes to return to business. He says, and I quote, “business these days has become so different. Dealing with foreigners. Doing things their way. I don’t understand how we’ve come to this.” (Ishiguro 1). Ishiguro’s father is portrayed as a hardworking man who cannot cope with the possibility of not providing for his family. This is occasioned by the fact that the firm he has been working for has just collapsed and this devastates him. We are taken through how he cannot live with the disgrace of being unable to provide for his family. This is why he decides to take his dependant’s lives together with his in the “Family Supper” as an escape from these tribulations.

This is in total cultural contrast when compared to the attitudes of western families where they strive to salvage their name and regain their honor in society. It is unthinkable that a man is willing to sacrifice himself and the life of his family members just because he is unable to deal with failure. The author’s father is also portrayed as a tough disciplinarian who is very involved in the lives of his children and plays a great role in their upbringing. According to the author, he has been struck several times by his father for “chattering like an old woman” as he expected him to be a man from an early age and be in his best behavior. The Japanese people are well known for their martial arts and the writer describes his father as “the proud of the pure samurai blood that ran in the family” (Ishiguro 1-2).

This is a huge variance in culture when the eastern families are compared to western families where this is lacking. Fathers protect their families but differently due to the varying beliefs and the general way of life. As portrayed by Ishiguro in his book “A Family Supper”, the Japanese people’s culture is viewed as strong and undiluted up to date as compared to western cultural attitudes. For instance, the author portrays the Japanese people’s deep discipline, respect, and strictness that makes the children fear their father. We note that the author and his sister do not talk much in his presence but open up in his absence. This depicts a typical Japanese family setting and this contrasts sharply with the culture of the western communities where there are clear communication lines between the children and their parents (2).

Another eminent cultural difference between the eastern and western families is the place of the woman in the society. As indicated by the writer, women in the traditional Japanese setting are not supposed to be heard but only seen. This role is brought out by his sister who is too afraid of the father and shows total submission to whatever the father says. The men are portrayed as gods who rule the dynasty and have power over what happens in the lives of their children. They have the power to decide who lives and who dies according to the circumstances in this story. Ishiguro has had the opportunity to live in America and the freedoms that come with the western countries are unlimited. He is used to progression and this results in a culture clash when he returns to Tokyo Japan.

Another cultural difference that surfaces in this story is the perception, in the sense that the author and his sister ask no questions. They seem helpless on issues that concern them and their father singly runs the show. They do not even question the death of their mother and take things literally as explained by their father. This shows a lack of power and a lot of highhandedness and control from their father and this is quite different as compared to the liberation that rules the lives of the western families. The way they accept their mother’s death so calmly is another cultural difference between eastern and western families. In western families, mourning takes center stage whereas no emotions are shown in this context. Everyone takes the demise news calmly and continues with their lives as if nothing major took place.

Conclusion

Cultural differences between eastern and western family attitudes continue to surface even in the modern world. As evidenced in this paper, the Japanese people are to date tied to some of their culture that collides with the attitudes exercised by western families. Watching “The Last Samurai” sheds more light on the justification of killing non-performers or people who have made mistakes in society to redeem them and make them honorable.

Works Cited

Carla, Moraes. Analyzing “A Family Supper”. Contos E Encontros. 2007. Web.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. A Family Supper. 2005. Web.

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“Family Supper” by Ishiguro: Eastern and Western Family Attitudes Cultural Differences

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