His life is focused on being a “great butler” which, for him, means embodying the character trait that he calls “dignity.” And, as his ruminations in the pages of this novel show, he is not really ever himself even when he is alone.Ĭertainly, he is unwilling to let himself experience his feelings or, for the most part, even recognize their existence. Stevens, the son of a butler, is a man who has taken on the role of the butler to such an extent that, as he relates, he is never off-duty unless he is alone. His solution is that he will work even harder at learning the skill of bantering. “I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.” On the second to the last page of this 1989 novel, Stevens, an English butler who, during an auto trip through the countryside, is musing about events in his life, decides that he needs to stop thinking so much about his past.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is a sad, bleak book about a man who finds near the end of his life that he has wasted it.
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