Language

When analysing a short story, particular attention should be given to the language employed by the author. The short story “A Family Supper” by Kazuo Ishiguro has a simple language. At times, especially when the father speaks, the language becomes overly-simplified, as in the following example:

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In what follows, we will focus on:

• Imagery
• Similes and comparisons
• Repetition
• Symbols

Imagery

In the text, imagery is created with the help of adjectives and adverbs which create epithets. One instance in which imagery is used is when part of the setting – the garden – is depicted: “We were following a narrow path that wound through the shrubs and finished by the old well.” (p. 200, ll. 5-6)

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Symbols

The well and the ghostly-like appearance of the woman from the vegetable store are important symbols in the novel. First, the well symbolises a place which the narrator feared when he was a boy. His imagination tells him that the woman who takes a shortcut through their garden is a ghost, so this is why the boy eventually makes his sister obsessed with the place. The ghost is an important symbol because it symbolises the narrator’s mother; the association between her photograph and the image that obsessed and haunted the boy as a child further enhances this symbol.

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