Throughout Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, The Remains of the Day, he uses the main character’s point of view to show how past events have affected him. The language Stevens’ uses, what he talks about, and most importantly, what he doesn’t talk about leads readers to understand his character more in-depth. In addition, everything Stevens experiences is told through the lens of his job. He only lets himself think in terms of his work and he considers his dedication to it to be his most redeeming quality, although it is clear to readers that this mindset is holding him back.
The death of Stevens’ father is one of the first events that shows the reader how emotionally unavailable Stevens is. He completely and totally denies his father’s decline in health; he denied it then and continues to deny it to this day. Never at this point in the book does he even mention how he feels or reacts to anything; everything is very matter-of-fact. It takes Miss Kenton forcing him to take notice and the request of his employer before he changes his father’s duties. That change is addressed with no emotion, but simply a statement of the facts. We see these same characteristics reflected in Stevens’ father. As his father nears what is obviously the end of his life Stevens is no longer able to talk to him.
My difficulty was further compounded by the fact that for some years my father and I had tended- for some reason I have never really fathomed- to converse less and less. So much so that after his arrival at Darlington Hall, even the brief exchanges necessary to communicate information relating to work took place in an atmosphere of mutual embarassment
The only emotion Stevens is willing to express to his readers about his father- even after he had a stroke- is embarrassment. Throughout the book, he only ever speaks about emotions relating to his job performance, or the job performance of those around him, even when speaking about the death of his father. When his father says his lasts words to Stevens, Stevens doesn’t tell readers what he’s thinking. When his father dies, it takes another character pointing out that Stevens is crying for readers to know. He finishes that entry by saying:
For all its sad associations, when I recall that eventing today, I find I do so with a large amount of triumph.
Stevens doesn’t recognize that day for what it actually was and through his telling of it readers understand that he only feels a sense of worth and accomplishment through his job. Additionally that he places his job above all else, believing it’s what his father wanted; despite his attempts at the end of his life to change his and his son’s relationship.