In 1982, the British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro published his novel A Pale View of Hills, which tells the story of a Japanese woman named Etsuko who emigrates to England with her daughter Keiko to try to start a new life in another country. The main themes of this literary work are based on issues of memory, trauma from the war experience, and issues of self-identity. In the quote above, Ishiguro describes memory as a delicate and non-universal mechanism: individuals can return to the same memories with different emotional backgrounds and circumstances, allowing for different experiences of memories. This book can be described through the paradigm of Keiko, who exhibited antisocial and introverted behavior that eventually led to suicide.
The proposed quote proves particularly relevant to Etsuko’s eldest daughter, Keiko, as the object of the mother’s memories of her deceased daughter. Forced to live in a foreign country, isolated from society by her own choice, and unable to make true friends, Keiko had a complicated character that was often the cause of an ambiguous relationship with Etsuko (Ishiguro, 1990). Because of the ambiguity in her relationship with her eldest daughter and her suicide, Etsuko has no formalized view of her. Etsuko prefers to withhold information about Keiko’s death from her neighbor because she does not want to revisit these memories. On the other hand, Etsuko fondly remembers her eldest daughter and the time she spent with her at the ropes course. The author has constructed the narrative in such a way that it is not entirely clear whether Keiko’s memories are real or partly or wholly invented by her mother. In particular, the paradoxical nature of the memory causes Etsuko’s subconscious to project a happier reality in which the woman would not experience psychological trauma. However, this reality fails, and Etsuko encounters signs and objects that point to Keiko’s suicide. This pattern shows how unstable memory can be, and how circumstances affect memories, coloring them with unique emotional experiences.
A Pale View of Hills tells the story of regret and the search for self-identity intertwined with a confused memory and the trauma of a mother’s loss of a child. The protagonist’s deep grief causes changes in her memory, resulting in paradoxical and ambiguous memories. Thus, Ishiguro suggests to the reader that one should not look for the truth in the words of Etsuko’s character, as not all of her memories may be real.
Reference
Ishiguro, K. (1990). A pale view of hills. Vintage.