A Family Supper

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Throughout the story, the narrator and his father struggle to communicate with one another.

• What underlying conflict fuels the difficulty in their communication? (topic sentence)
• Identify and explain three passages in which the narrator and his father struggle to communicate.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how the communication between these two characters develops the theme of Loss and Death.

2. Consider the significance of Gender Roles within the story.

• How do gender roles impact the characters’ relationships with one another? (topic sentence)
• Identify three passages in which characters reject stereotypical gender expectations.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, state what is suggested about gender roles when a character or characters reject stereotypes.

3. Analyze Kazuo Ishiguro’s use of suspense in this story.

• What is the main focus of the suspense throughout the plot? (topic sentence)
• Identify three passages that create tension as the narrator speaks with his sister and father before, during, and after their supper together.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, state how the suspense in the story helps build the theme of Expectations Versus Reality.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. Analyze the various ways in which the narrator’s mother is a figurative and literal ghost in the short story. How does the mother’s character haunt the living characters? How does her role in the story develop the theme of Loss and Death, and what message is created through Ishiguro’s inclusion of her character? As you compose your essay, incorporate three quoted passages from the story that strengthen your points. Cite your quotations in the format preferred by your teacher.

2. Throughout the short story, the motif of darkness and light affects the mood and tone. Analyze moments when darkness and light are mentioned. Which characters are seen more in the dark or light? How is the house affected by darkness? What do darkness and light usually symbolize in literature? How does the use of darkness and light impact the theme of Expectations Versus Reality in the story? As you compose your essay, incorporate three quoted passages that support your ideas. Cite your quotations in the format preferred by your teacher.

3. Consider the story’s overall structure, beginning with the description of the fugu and culminating in the family supper. What does the fugu come to symbolize by the end of the story, and how does it relate to Expectations Versus Reality? As you compose your essay, incorporate three quoted passages that support your points. Cite your quotations in the format preferred by your teacher.