Kazuo Ishiguro A Family Supper

Imagine going over to a friend’s house, who has prepared a wonderful meal for you. When you look at what your friend has prepared you realize that it is a special delicacy and if not handled correctly it could kill you once ingested. Do you partake in the meal and risk dying, or do you offend your friend and not eat the meal? In Kazuo Ishiguro’s “A Family Supper” the mother partakes in a fish delicacy that ultimately lead to her death. By making fish a deadly force, Ishiguro’s “A family Supper” challenges the bonds of family as being one again. Throughout the story the reader can tell that the fish and family are reoccurring themes that are both very important. In the very first sentences of the story the reader sees these themes taking action the son tells the reader the role that fish has had in his life saying “The fish has held a special significance for me ever since my mother died through eating one”. When the fish delicacy is prepared it had to be done very carefully or it could become poisoned. “The poison resides in the sexual glands of the fish, inside two fragile bags. When preparing the fish, these bags must be removed with caution, for any clumsiness will result in the poison leaking into the veins”. Sadly, one can not tell whether or not the preparation was carried out correctly until consumed, by then it is to late for the consumer. The narrators mother died this way, she went to an old friends house whom she used to attend school with, and by not trying to offend her friend she ate the fish anyways. The reader learns of the father as appearing pushy in some ways to keep his children close by and to keep them home with him. The reader first experiences this …show more content…

The fish is known to be deadly and to kill anyone who consumes it. The fish was a perfect way for the father to be able to make his family one again without any one knowing what he was doing, it’s the perfect disguise to look like an