Published Online:December 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES051224
Author Name:Bavetra Swaminathan and R Ravi
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:48-56
Time is always an inescapable, integral factor in the lives of human beings. Great works of literature enunciate the value of time in unequivocal terms. Kazuo Ishiguro, a master craftsman, has incorporated time into his narrative so naturally and effectively that it stays interwoven as an inseparable force that traces the moves of the characters, both forward and backward. Action in the novels of Ishiguro happens in the minds of the protagonists, internally, not in outer space. The zigzag pattern of the movement of time in the narration invalidates the distinction between the past and the present, as the present is realized to be an extension of the past and an outcome of it. This paper examines the role of time in the self-realization achieved by Stevens and Miss Kenton, the protagonists of Ishiguro’s novel, The Remains of the Day. The paper scrutinizes how their attitude to issues in the past affects them in the present, giving shape to their future. What is done cannot be undone. Similarly, what is not done in time can never be done at all at any point of time.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s works present the readers with not just a colorful decked picture of human life but on an X-ray of it. The characters of Ishiguro find themselves caught in the web of time. They groan and moan over their helplessness but never give up.