A Family Supper In “A Family Supper,” there are multiple journeys that take place, both physical and emotional. These journeys include the traditional and modern way of living. With the father being not understanding of the son and daughter, he causes them to physically move away from home to the United States. There is an apparent difference between the generations in the temperament and resentment within “A Family Supper.” Within the text, the author tries to preserve the outlook of traditional Japan. In “A Family Supper,” this is the dad’s outlook on life. Due to how the dad looks at life, he is very misunderstanding of his children perspective. The father’s attitude to the whole concept of the modern way is harsh. It is either his way or the highway. Even the smallest things cannot be accepted by the father. “I’m too old to involve myself in new ventures now. 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 198). This is quote, he talks about his business partner and him and how he is retired and refuses to go back to work. He hates what the world has come to. He mentions later in the text that the children were “swayed by certain influences.” The children in this story have a similar temperament but not for the same reason. They are easy going about the disrespect they received from their father, but it has an effect on them. They (the children) don’t show much of how they feel directly towards their father, but you can tell it is applied. In the story the daughter starts talking about her boyfriend and how he wants to move to American and she is uncertain on if she wants to move in or not. The tone of the father’s response gave the daughter the answer she needed to know how her father felt about it. Although the son’s approach is similar to the fathers, it is not quite the same. For example, the son doesn’t express so much of the non-traditional way of living when you first start reading the passage. The father and son’s first real connect was when they were talking about the battleship toy model. Even though this moment was positive, it changed in a heartbeat to being a battle once again. The situation that the characters face now has become difficult involving the mother’s death. In “A Family Supper,” the ghost or mother is referenced a lot. Right after the moment with the battleship, when the father and son were, for the first time, content with each other, the son mentions how his mother didn’t expect him to live there forever. This now takes us to a new place within the characters. When you think about it, the mother’s death is the main cause of the theme of the text being traditional versus modern. The death caused the father to be more independent by having to live and cook alone. By doing this, the father has a lot of time with his thoughts and doesn’t have any one to backboard his ideas for him. When any question about the modern ways comes up, he doesn’t really take the chance to understand anything about it. He is just so forward minded. The death of the
