60 pages • 2 hours read
Kazuo IshiguroA Family Supper
Kazuo IshiguroFiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
“A Family Supper”
- Genre: Fiction; contemporary short story
- Originally Published: 1983
- Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
- Structure/Length: Approx. 9 pages
- Protagonist and Central Conflict: An unnamed, young male protagonist returns to his homeland, Japan, and struggles to communicate with his sister and father while they are all still grieving the recent loss of his mother.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Suicide; death of a parent; familicide
Kazuo Ishiguro, Author
- Bio: Born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954; moved to Britain at age 5; began publishing short stories in small literary magazines; has written 8 novels and had work translated in over 50 languages; has had 2 novels adapted for film; received a knighthood in 2018 for Services to Literature
- Other Works: An Artist of the Floating World (1986); The Remains of the Day (1989); When We Were Orphans (2000); Never Let Me Go (2005)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- Loss and Death
- Gender Roles
- Expectations Versus Reality
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
- Gain an understanding of social and cultural contexts regarding familial conflict and traditional Japanese family structures.
- Analyze the deeper meaning of the text through prompts and activities that connect to or address the text’s themes of Loss and Death, Gender Roles, and Expectations Versus Reality.
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