Journey - unreliable narration Flashcards
When Stevens feels a need to erase some part of himself
his shift from ‘I’ to ‘one’ is unfailing, indicating a kind of dual identity or sensibility.
This is evident when he speaks about his father: ‘I realise that if one looks at the matter objectively, one has to concede that my father lacked various attributes one may normally expect in a great butler.’
Signals that Ishiguro makes to the implied reader
The word ‘professional’ is a flag to the reader. Events lead us to understand how Stevens has truncated his life to fit a professional mold, so that popping up in uncalled for places, becomes wither a disguise for emotional motives, or a defence for his strangely unemotional behaviour.
Stevens’ defensive tone and the use of ‘you’
His reasoning with the implied reader, justifying himself: ‘you will agree’, ‘I should say’, ‘Let me make perfectly clear’ etc. almost forcing the reader to support his defence as he himself doesn’t believe it. Seems to voice S’s own unexpressed and perhaps even repressed uncertainties about his values and his career.
His repetition of the pronoun ‘you’, automatically signals yet another moment of defensiveness. This silent interlocutor is a defence to his life decisions and the values he has chosen to live by.
Stevens’ digressions
‘However, let me return to my original thread..’
‘But I see I am becoming preoccupied with these memories and this is perhaps a little foolish of me.’
When he discusses things that really matter, like his relationship with Miss Kenton or his father, he diverts away from allowing himself to progress to a realisation. Two steps forward, one step back.
These analepses show his relative emotions towards his past.
Stevens’ digression to dignity
His introduction of the subject into what is ostensibly a travel narrative is forced and bizarre enough to suggest quite clearly that Ish is speaking to us over S’s voice, asking us to question the motive of the digression.
Strange he spends 6 pages on landscape and 15 on suggest an unnatural preoccupation with dignity.
His example of his father’s restraint during the visit of the general whose incompetence killed S’s brother indicates a denial of personal feelings so extreme as to be disturbing - especially as a model for conducting one’s life. - Red herring to the reader if this is what S is aspiring to be.
“Small laughs”
‘I gave a laugh’
indicates a degree of discomfort
‘These aporias (inability to make a decision) obscure the dichotomy between the knowing and judging implied author at the benighted, unobservant narrator of the more traditional definitions of UN.’ - Kathleen Wall
Crying
Replaces his grievance or loss with a sense of triumph over his emotions. (Father’s death)
Mr Cardinal and Lord Darlington
‘unwell’ / looks as if he is ‘crying’, but its just ‘the strains of a hard day.’
When Kenton announces that she is leaving Darlington, Mr Cardinal notes that he looks ‘unwell’. Again, Stevens claims that he is merely a little tired and manages to transmute this grief into triumph.
Naturalization
The reader is expected to apply our knowledge to the historical events to which Stevens refers.
‘to use our knowledge of history to evaluate accurately the effectiveness of Darlington’s career allows us to recognise that if S has based his values on service in a ‘distinguished household’ then he has built on sand.
Unreliability with Kenton
When he cannot successfully repress his loss, he projects it onto Miss Kenton. His sense that she is behind the door weeping actually reflects not some intuition on his part, but a projection of this grief at loss of her to Mr Benn. Yet he has built around a second rank of defence by originally attaching this intuition to the death of MK’s aunt rather than to her announcement of her engagement.
(convenient that he can’t remember if it is before or after death of her announcement to leave)
Verbal ticks
‘purely professional reasons… I feel I must explain’
verbal ticks regarding his ‘professionalism’ with MK indicate his defensiveness.
The ‘professional’ purpose of their cocoa meetings is a quintessential red herring, loudly signaled by his suspect verbal habits.
“These were, let me day, overwhelmingly professional in tone”
Implied author’s use of narration 1
Steven believes that his silver polishing had an international impact. Lord Halifax had been uneasy about the meeting with von Ribbentrop, but LD later reports to S that ‘LH was jolly impressed with the silver the other night. Put him into quite different frame of mind altogether.’
‘came to push the polishing of silver to the position of central importance it still by and large maintains today.’
Goes onto defending LD in rebut accusations that LD was anti-Semetic.
‘But I drift’ back to silver.
In an absolute non-sequitor, however, he finds himself discussing how great butlers should choose moral employers.
‘the privilege of practicing one’s profession at the very fulcrum of great affairs.’
Implied author’s use of narration 2
‘We cannot have Jews on the staff here at Darlington Hall.’
‘my every instinct opposed the idea of their dismissal. Nevertheless, my duty in this instance was quite clear…’
‘to dismiss Ruth and Sarah on these grounds would be simply - wrong?’
‘Surely I don’t have to remind you that our professional duty is no to our own foibles and sentiments, but to the wishes of our employer.’
