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2 Literature Review
Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story from the perspective of an English butler. And Stevens, who experiences the changes of history, is only a spectator and victim although he is desperate to be involved in those international affairs. Many scholars analyze the image of Stevens from different perspectives such as imperial adherents, career pursuit and the contradiction of Stevens’s mind.
According to Ding Shuhan, Stevens, as an imperial adherent, not only shares the glory and participates in the political system but also experiences the vanishing of the empire and its sorrow. As a responsible butler, he integrates his profession with self-dignity closely and enforces high standards about himself, aiming to be the top one in butler career field (Ding, 2003).
According to Zhang Xiaofang, Stevens’s human nature is from the perspective of professionalism as an English butler which ruins his personal life and belief. By analyzing Stevens’s insistence upon extreme professionalism, the scholar endeavors to reveal the tragedy of his life (Zhang, 2013).
Gu Shunruo’s study reveals Stevens’s contradiction in his mind. On the one hand, Stevens tries to get outside the prison of the past era and get used to the current reality. On the other hand, he is trapped in the memory of the glorious Darlington Hall, unwilling to wake up. So, the old times become a barrier in his way to find self-consciousness (Gu, 2009).
Stevens, who abandons all emotional warmth, is devoted to serve his lord for more than thirty years and what he cares is only his career. The identity of a butler and the image of English gentleman play an important role in his stubborn pursuit. Scholars have done many researches on Stevens but there is not a summary and extension of the reasons about Stevens’s choices. So, this paper will prove the inevitability of Stevens’s choices not to be a good son and a good lover.
3 Influence of Imperialist Culture
The British imperialist culture has great influence on shaping Stevens’s superiority and profession. Born in that era, Stevens is well indoctrinated with imperialism and elitism culture and as a butler, he is taught to pay attention to his manners of occupation and pursues to be great. And these factors play a decisive role in his choice.
3.1 Imperialist Superiority
With the promotion of Industrial Revolution, Great Britain became the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world in the late19th century. It advocates free trade around the world and seeks claims on overseas territory, and later grows to be a colonial empire. At the very beginning of the novel, Kazuo Ishiguro starts the prologue with the year of 1956 in which Stevens decides to take a trip. And from Stevens’s remarks: “‘Miss Kenton’ is properly speaking ‘Mrs Benn’ and has been for twenty years” (Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989, p. 34). We can know that the background of Stevens’s acquaintance with Miss Kenton is before the World War Two when Stevens also serves as a butler to Lord Darlington. From the perspective of history, Britain is a colonial empire before 1939 which occupies most of the settlements. British settlers keep enlarging their colonies and regard it as an honor, usually holding superior attitudes. “…bringing to the dark places of the earth—the abode of barbarism and cruelty—the torch of culture and progress…We hold these countries because it is the genius of our race to colonize, to trade and to govern” (Mangan, 1998, p. 102). Colonists use such excuse to have the colonies under control and think they are for the colonies’ good. Thus it becomes the empire on which the sun never sets. So, it is no wonder that Stevens establishes a sense of racial superiority. Edward Said defines the term imperialism as “the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory” (Said, 1993, p. 8). For British imperialism, it means a sense of superiority over other races. The imperialist culture stresses the political and economic order, centering on the superior.