‘A Family Supper’ RecapTuesday 5th October 2021

Learning Purposes

• To revisit ‘A Family Supper’ and develop written responses.

• To consider the key settings, character and themes in ‘Invisible Mass of the Back Row’ by Claudette Williams.

• To explore how the writer’s use of language affects the reader.

Reflection on previous learning:• What are evaluative/critical words and why is it

important to use them in your writing?• What do you think the reason is for the fish being served

at the meal in ‘A Family Supper?’ What impact does this have on the reader?

Future learning:• To understand the requirements of the AQA

English Literature GCSE.• To practice key exam skills: reading and

understanding texts, analysis, understanding context of texts and developing vocabulary/written expression.

Starter Activity - Event Reordering• They return to the house to eat; the father has cooked fish.

• He discovers that his mother’s death, two years ago, was caused by eating fugu.

• A young man returns to the family home in Kamakura, Japan, after living in California for a number of years.

• The father’s business has collapsed and he tells his son that his business partner killed his own family and committed suicide out of shame.

• Father and son have a strained conversation with many silences.

• The story ends with the son admitting that he does not know if he will return to America or stay with his father.

• Kikuko, the sister, arrives. Sister and brother go into the garden where they discuss her future plans, their mother and the narrator’s memory of seeing a ghost in the garden.

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Re-visit the end of the story (lines 213-the end)

Add to your annotations.

• The description of the fish cooked by the father

• The father’s behaviour during dinner

• Mention of Watanabe at the dinner table

• The conclusion to the story

Characters, Settings and Themes

The meal at the end of the story begins with little conversation, darkness and formal politeness. It is clearly not a happy occasion to welcome home the son. The large pot that has been left unopened at the centre of the table contains ‘just fish’.

The conclusion to the storyWhat is the reason for fish being served at the meal?

1. It’s a reminded of the mother’s death and is the father’s attempt to provoke guilt in his children

2. Shows it is a popular meal in Japan

3. Is a memorial to his wife – a statement that he misses her

4. Attempts to shock the narrator into a realisation that he has effectively killed his mother by neglect

5. Aims to imply that the father may be serving fugu to do what Mr Watanabe did – kill himself and his family

Which reason do you think is the most plausible (believable)?

Narrative Perspective

• The readers experience the narrative through the narrator’s observations (first person).

• The narrator observes: he does not make any judgements and he very rarely says what his own feelings are.

• This can make it difficult for the reader, who has to fill in the gaps where information about a character’s feelings and judgements would normally be expected.

TASK: Find examples of what the narrator has observed in the story.• Why do you think Ishiguro chose to present him in this way?• How is he presented as an outsider?

Presentation of character: The Mother

• The narrator’s mother is a minor character – she is dead for the duration of the story, yet she is an almost constant presence for the reader. What do we learn about this character?

The Mother

Lost her children

Never ate fugu

Didn’t want to offend Took

chance

A form of

suicide?

Took more care over

Kikuko

Tried to reassure her children

about the ghost

Blames herself for failure to

bring up son well

Presentation of character: The Mother

• After learning that the mother dies from eating poisoned fugu, the reader has to wonder why she ate it.

• The reason of not wanting to offend an old school friend seems odd, especially as she has always refused to eat it in the past.

• The writer also indicates the breakdown in the family’s relationships by stating the narrator did not learn about the mother’s death for two years.

Presentation of character: The Father

“The father is essentially an unsympathetic character in the story”

Find evidence both for and against the statement above

Consider some of the following words:

Dutiful Xenophobic Honourable Domineering

Ethical Vengeful Caring Dangerous

Isolated Selfish Pitiable Cruel

Key motif: Silence

A motif is an idea or image that recurs during a piece of literature

A key motif in this story, like in ‘Korea’ is silence

Find quotes that relate to silence and analyse them – what insights do we get from them?

Exam Style Question

How does Ishiguro present ‘belonging’ in ‘A Family Supper’?

Write about:

• Some of the ideas about belonging that are presented in the story.

• How the Ishiguro presents these ideas by the way he writes.

Why is Black History Month important?

A continued engagement with history is vital as it helps give context for the present.

Learning about others can help you learn more about yourself.

UK mission statement: "Dig deeper, look closer, think bigger".

‘there is no higher cause than honouring our struggle and ancestors by remembering’.

This is the world we made together.It’s important to recognise the things that make us both unique and alike and to celebrate diversity.

Diversity fuels our innovation and helps create more vibrant and engaging workplaces.

New Text - ‘Invisible Mass of the Back Row’Claudette Williams

Claudette Williams

• Spent the first 10 years of her life in Jamaica, mostly living with her Aunt Salna

• In 1965 she moved to London to join her father, who had moved in 1957, and mother, who had moved in 1960

• “My school experience reinforced colourism. It taught me that it was the fair skinned children who received praise and the teacher’s attention, and the Black children who were relegated to the back of the classroom”

Christopher Columbus – Spanish explorer

• Landed on an island in the Bahamas in 1492, before visiting Cuba and other places, before establishing a colony on Haiti, where he planted sugar cane

• On his return voyage he brought men, women and children with him to show them off – they all died within 6 months

• He required people to work on sugar plantations, and transported some people from Africa, as well as enslaving natives in Haiti. The people were controlled with guns, dogs, rape and torture

• Almost everyone he discovered on the island died, due to him bringing western diseases to which the natives had no immunity

Lines 1-40 – annotate for the following

1. What do the questions about Columbus show about the Inspector?

2. How is the setting of the classroom presented by Williams?

3. How does the narrator, Hortense, feel when interrogated?

4. How does Hortense know she has made a mistake? How do others react?

5. How does she react to her teacher? How is her teacher presented?

6. How is an ‘us and them’ mentality conveyed?

41-78

• How do we see an adversarial relationship between Hortense and Lorna?

• Re-read line 51. Why might this be the case?

• How is Teacher Edwards presented as a sympathetic character?

• What is Hortense and her uncle’s view of racial issues?

Lines 41-78 – annotate for the following

Lines 79-125 annotate for the following

1. Is there anything other than just race that causes disputes?

2. How do the lunch time staff differ from the first teacher and Inspector?

3. How does Walker create a very vivid scene in lines 98-102?

4. To what effect does Walker use dialogue at the bottom of p54? How is the lunchtime scene presented positively?

5. How do we see the narrator craves change in the classroom?

Lines 126-167 annotate for the following

1. How does the narrator feel about going to England on p55? Read the whole section

2. What does the reference to the story of Cousy add to the prospect of leaving?

Lines 168-213 annotate for the following

1. How does she feel immediately before going?

2. How is there a sense of distance between Hortense and her parents?

3. What is the effect of the poem from lines 187-197?

4. What are her first impressions of England on p57?

5. How does she feel alienated through her language?

Lines 214-end annotate for the following

1. Why is she put in second bottom set? How does she feel in this class?

2. How do the students show awareness of history? Why does Columbus still “haunt” the narrator?

3. How is a sense of pride in heritage conveyed?

4. Why is Columbus a key part of the curriculum a this school too?

5. How does she react to their ideas on Columbus? Why do you think she reacts like this?

Comparing settings and characters

Create a table comparing the classrooms and teachers in Jamaica and England

Jamaica England

Key theme: Power

How do the following possess power?

• The Teachers and Inspectors in Jamaica

• The other school staff

• Hortense’s relatives

• The Students at the end of the story