49 pages 1 hour read

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1989

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Symbols & Motifs

The Journey

The Remains of the Day is structured along Stephen’s journey to meet Miss Kenton. The journey functions as a metaphor for Stevens’s introspection. The journey is a symbolic reminder of his discomfort with the modern world and represents the retrospective interrogation of his past. For example, the further he gets from Darlington Hall, the less comfortable and familiar he feels. This unfamiliarity forces him into his past, taking him out of his comfortable surroundings and exposing him to a new world he does not understand. The symbolic qualities of the journey are emphasized as it progresses: Stevens travels further and further from his comfort zone, exposing himself to increasingly uncomfortable situations. He even travels across Britain in a symbolic fashion, driving from the rich heartland of the English home counties toward the southernmost regions in the west country, leaving behind the rigid class structures of his past and traveling to a place where his accent and his clothes mark him out as one of the upper classes to whom he has dedicated his life’s service. In a physical, mental, geographical, and social sense, Stevens’s journey takes him from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

Related Titles

By Kazuo Ishiguro

Plot Summary

logo

An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro

An Artist of the Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro

Study Guide

logo

A Pale View of Hills

Kazuo Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills

Kazuo Ishiguro

Study Guide

logo

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

Study Guide

logo

The Buried Giant

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Buried Giant

Kazuo Ishiguro

Plot Summary

logo

The Unconsoled

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Unconsoled

Kazuo Ishiguro

Study Guide

logo

When We Were Orphans

Kazuo Ishiguro

When We Were Orphans

Kazuo Ishiguro