Remains of the day

            In The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro the main character Stevens goes on a long journey to figure him self out. His journey begins when his employer Mr. Farraday tells him to take off for a few days since he has never really gotten a chance to see Great Britain's country side besides what he has seen while on trips with past employers. Stevens accepts Mr.Farraday's proposal and goes on his road trip that Mr.Farraday has offered to pay his gas bill and loan his a car. During his trip Stevens has a lot of time to think about things. He thinks about his life, his father, and what it takes to be a great butler. He wonders if his father could be considered a "great" butler because all of the triumphs he has gone through in his career. This leads to the question of whether he himself could be considered a great butler in his own standards, standards of which were very high. In all his thinking Stevens starts to realized that in his constant pursuit of greatness and perfection he has missed out on what life has to offer and starts to feel a stronge cense of regret in his life. He begins to realize that maybe his life wasn't as great and impressive as it may have seemed to be. .
             Stevens constantly refers to the idea of a "great" butler throughout the novel and what it take to achieve this greatness. He starts by telling of all the great butlers he has come across in his life and tells what made them so great. He starts to realize that his own father had many of the same attributes as the men who had made butler history as being the best of the best. He remembers some of the stories he had heard that proved his fathers greatness. His thoughts of his father soon lead to himself and the similarities they had. He was much like his father in that they were both very dignified men. He thinks about all the things he did in order to stay professional. An example where he remembers that when he was told his father had died instead of dropping what he was doing to go see him he finishes his duties first because he was so worried about letting down his employer.