Text 1: Critic Park argues that the unreliable narrator in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day is a tragic figure whose self-deception shields him from the catastrophe of a wasted life. The reader's task is to perceive the truths that the butler Stevens cannot allow himself to face.
Text 2: Critic Singh accepts that Stevens deceives himself but questions the "tragic" reading. Stevens, she argues, ultimately does glimpse his losses; the novel ends with quiet acknowledgment, not blindness. To call him merely tragic, Singh contends, is to deny him the partial moral awakening Ishiguro finally grants.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- A
whether The Remains of the Day was written by Ishiguro.
- Bcheck_circle
whether Stevens achieves any awareness of his losses by the novel's end.
- C
whether Stevens is a butler.
- D
whether Stevens engages in self-deception.
Explanation
Both accept self-deception. They disagree on whether Stevens achieves awareness. B captures the dispute.