Eric Zhao 2025 5 4 https://mustardfox.org/zzhaoe-003C/ zzhaoe-003C /zzhaoe-003C/ on The Remains of the Day musings Eric Zhao202554spoilerwarning The Remains of the Day. Some months after reading this book I encountered a fellow in a bookshop who exclaimed that it was a life wasted. But I don't think this is at all the picture. The life is not over! No, "I gave my best to Lord Darlington. I gave him the very best I had to give, and now—well—I find I do not have a great deal more left to give," he says, speaking in relation to his present service to Mr Farraday; but surely he is also speaking of how, in giving all of himself to that image of a butler, he had little left to give to the others in his life: his father, his friends, and Miss Kenton. At least Darlington "chose a certain path in life," though it "proved to be a misguided one," whereas he "can't even say [he] made [his] own mistakes." He gave his very best, yet it was a giving marked by a passivity which let moments and opportunities slip by. He thought himself to be carrying out the duties of his post in proper dignity, yet now he laments, "Really—one has to ask oneself—what dignity is there in that?"But the man on the bench is unruffled. He responds that his attitude is all wrong, that he ought not to ponder so much on the past, for that should only put him in a deeper rut; but he should face what is ahead of him, to seize the "remains of the day." And it appears that Stevens really takes this to heart. He suddenly thinks back to "bantering," at which point one might suppose that he is only considering business again. But is he not really reflecting on the relational essence of such bantering, the "key to human warmth?" This, he realises, is what he has really lacked all this time. It is, perhaps, not the turning point for which one might hope or expect; instead we read something of a mellow resignation to that post which he has kept all these years---what else can be realistically done?---but with a brighter anticipation for the remaining years, and a newfound hope and will: a broader vision for what this post of his really is. References Context Backlinks Related Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 https://mustardfox.org/ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day/ ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day /ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day/ The Remains of the Day reference 3035/277287298 Contributions