Unpacking the Cultural Artifact

The novel 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro is analyzed rhetorically. The story revolves around Steven, a butler who has spent his career serving a British gentleman in early 1900s. After leaving his job, he starts to reflect on his past life and decisions. The novel explores the themes of regret, missed opportunities, and the importance of being open to change. It highlights human nature's tendency to cling to rigid beliefs and be afraid of changes, which can lead to regret and unhappiness. Ultimately, the novel suggests that accepting truth and taking right decisions on time are key to happiness.

CREATIVE WRITING
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The cultural artifact can be considered as a piece which is created by the humans and gives
information on the culture of the creator and the users. The books or novels can be considered as
an excellent instance of the artifacts as they contain lots of information on the culture of the
creator or the audience. Therefore, in this research, The Remains of the Day, from Kazuo
Ishiguro, is analyzed rhetorically.
The remains of the day, tells the story of Steven, who is a butler and has spent long years in his
career to serve a British gentleman at early 1900s (Bakshi, 2017). After doing the service for
several years, Stevens got leave for short period and get the scope to move away from the
workplace. During the leave, the original employer of Steven passes away and the Darlington
Hall, which was the workplace of Steven, was bought by an American. After the incident, Steven
starts revisiting the past days of his career. He starts remembering the previous days when he
was at the service of Mr. Darlington. Steven examines himself through the different facets of a
great butler and also attempts to provide himself with a rank. Steven also tries to find out the
hints of love in his life.
The author, focused on addressing the international audience. The novel shows how the thoughts
of an individual, who is apparently satisfied with his life and career, contradict with each other
after an incident that changes his life (Cox, 2015). Often the individuals shape their decisions
and the activities with the help of their ideas and beliefs. However, while taking a decision on the
basis of the ideas and beliefs, the individuals often do not focus on validating those. In other
words, often the individuals continue doing what they believe. They neither give importance on
validating their ideas nor focus on accepting any new thought. Sticking to one single concept
only leads to wrong decisions and it costs the individual, who is taking the decision a lot.
Therefore, when an individual, who has led the life on basis of his own decision only, encounters
some new ideas, which are contradictory to the existing beliefs, goes through the episodes of
confusion and emotional turbulences. The author, in the novel, has portrayed the emotional
turbulences, the confusion of an individual, who has spent a smooth life shaped by his own
beliefs. When the life of the person starts to change, he finds out that he has not used a long time
in his life properly.
The confusion in the mind of the lead character is reflected in the novel in various ways. The
central character, Steven, focused on making himself as a great butler throughout the best years
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of his career. As per the beliefs hold by Steven, he has took the decisions and managed him to
become a ‘great’ butler. Death of Steven’s boss was a life changing event for him. After this
incident, the person became compelled to change his job. By the time, the new ideas and the
beliefs of the person have created new confusion and contradiction. While recalling the past life,
the butler comes to understand that he might have wasted a huge portion of the best career days.
From the novel, it is apparent that the person is not actually leading a happy and satisfied life.
Rather, the person has pretended to live a happy life for a long time. The person has given the
most importance on his job over anything else. He has neglected the personal responsibilities as
well for the job. Later the individual, after leaving the job realizes that giving the most
importance on the profession of a butler was possibly a mistake. Taking that particular decision
regarding the career actually prevented the person from being happy in the life.
The happiness of an individual depends to a significant extent on the work, fulfillment of the
wishes and utilization of the opportunities (Baumann, 2017). The life is uncertain. So, an
individual always needs to remain open to the new ideas and adjust to the new situations for
utilizing all the opportunities in life and flourish. Sticking to the same concept and beliefs
throughout the life is not the suitable way for obtaining happiness. When an individual refuses to
face the new situations and adjust with it, he starts to lose all the new opportunities for making
progress in the life. In other words, not altering an individual on basis of the situation is harmful
to flourish in life. As a result, the person confines himself to one situation and loses the chances
to be happy. In this novel, Steven has never tried to review his own decisions and take ideas from
others. As he gave importance on depending upon own thoughts only, identifying whether his
decisions are right or wrong became difficult for the person. The novel showed that the person
has judged the situation around him in the wrong way and so, suffered in the end.
Taking the right decision on time is another key to happiness. If an individual takes the right
decisions on time, he becomes able to utilize all the opportunities (Massumi, 2015). Taking the
right decisions on time also makes an individual able to cope with the uncertainties in file easily.
When an individual is open to the changes, he actually spends the life in a smoother manner. On
the contrary, the refusal to change decisions as per the situation makes the life of an individual
difficult. The same thing has happened to Steven also. He has spent several years in doing the
job of a butler and serving his boss with more efficiency. The life of Steven was centered on
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doing his works only. So, his life became quite difficult when he lost the opportunities to get
involved to the same work with the same boss. As Steven had not looked for any other
opportunity in life, he failed to make any progress as well. The lack of progress in career also
added to the unhappiness of Steven’s life.
Accepting the truth helps an individual to take the right decision. When an individual realizes the
truth around him , he easily identifies the changes required for making the situation better. On
the contrary, refusing the truth prevents an individual to take the right actions on time. In case of
Steven, non- acceptance of the true situation has made his life more difficult.
The novel reveals some unique features of the human nature which are observed in all cultures.
Firstly, the novel states about the presence of rigid conceptions and beliefs among the people.
Lack of openness to the new ideas often creates difficulty in the lives of people as it prevents
them to change them as per the situation (Mukasa & Warburton, 2018). Sticking to the old ideas
is quite common across the cultures. Although the lack of flexibility causes several issues in the
society, still the people prefer using their old concept for years. The novel has shown the people
are sometimes afraid of the changes. Accepting the changes can be initially difficult, but in long
term, acting as per the situation gives better results. In this case also, the main character was not
much interested to make the changes in his life and because of it, he suffered a lot later. Getting
confused while encountering the new ideas, is another unique feature of the human beings. The
individuals of any culture can get confused when it comes to accept a new way of thinking,
especially when the new thoughts contradict with the older views. In this case also, the lead
character got confused when he started to see the situations in a different way and so, realized
that some of the decisions in his life were wrong. Regretting over the past acts is another
distinctive nature of the human beings which are common to all the cultures. The happiness of an
individual depends significantly on his own tasks; the novel clearly depicts the idea. The fact that
the a person is responsible for own happiness is true among all cultures and it is conveyed
through the novel. The author gave importance on creating the novel for the international
audience. So, it was necessary to develop the novel in such way so that the worldwide readers
can relate to it. By putting the cultural features which are true for people from any background.
In the novel , by putting the unique features of human nature, the author has made it suitable for
the global readers.
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References:
Bakshi, A. (2017). Remains of the Day. In Topographies of Memories (pp. 173-206). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Baumann, M. (2017). Memory in Kazuo Ishiguro's" The Remains of the Day".
Cox, K. (2015). No Way to Disengage: Themes of Engagement in The Remains of the Day and
The Quiet American. IU South Bend Undergraduate Research Journal, 14(1), 132-138.
Massumi, B. (2015). The remains of the day. In Emotions, Politics and War (pp. 39-55).
Routledge.
Mukasa, S., & Warburton, T. (2018). The Collective Use of Forms of Language as Cultural
Artefacts to Represent Public Understanding in Case-Studies. Electronic Journal of Business
Research Methods, 16(1).
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