ECOLOGICAL ESTRANGEMENT SHAPED BY THE TRAUMAS OF WAR IN THE REMAINS OF THE DAY BY KAZUO ISHIGURO

ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 158 ECOLOGICAL ESTRANGEMENT SHAPED BY THE TRAUMAS OF WAR IN THE REMAINS OF THE DAY BY KAZUO ISHIGURO Eva Kanwar Assistant Professor Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Jhanjeri https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17283470 Abstract Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains Of The Day is often explored through the themes of history, repression of World War II. The novel serves as a poignant critique of the postwar dangers of hierarchical order and political landscape. However by reading against the grain the novel not only reveals memory fragmentation and traces of lost memory but it also touch down upon the ecological detachmenta fragmented connection between human and environment as a consequence of war. Stevens the protagonist fails to read nature as healing force instead his memories of past has ruptured his ability to connect meaningfully with the natural world. The consequences of WWII are inscribed in silences and absences throughout his journey. Touring the countryside he comes across picturesque sites but they do not carry the connection with human consciousness becoming sites of emotional repression. Despite the beautiful landscapes nature only plays a role as a silent background. The ripples of war results in lossesphysically, psychologically and ecologically. Every character in the novel is a victim of a loss through which a failed attempt to find meaning in life and desire for a better society can be witnessed. The characters no longer see themselves as part of the environment but as alienated beings who fail to derive an intimate relationship with nature. With ecocritical perspective what remains at the end of the day is a world fragmented by war, ideology and alienation. Keywords: Ecocritical perspective, war trauma, alienation, fragmentation Introduction Kazuo Ishiguroa Nobel Prize laureate is a literary shapeshifter who has written his works in multiple genres including historical fiction, literary fiction, science fiction, dystopian fiction. He not just writes in genres – he writes through them to reach deeper concerns. His third novel The Remains Of The Day (1989) is a historical novel in which he harness the fragility of recollection to expose how humans bury their emotions beneath professionalism, nostalgia and dignity. The characters fail to establish any emotional engagement not only with human beings but with the environment. This paper will help define the zeitgeist of the 1930s and 1950s with ecocritical perspective. Kazuo Ishiguro paints a post-war landscape in which Stevens the English Butler could feel the failure of emotions and the fear of emotions. The character fears not only getting engaged with love and to the possibilities of being loved. He is afraid to open up not only with the characters or situations but with the environment around him. Though at the forefront we experience his journey through the West Country but at a deeper level it shows the quiet tragedy of a lost symbiosis where humans no longer see themselves as part of the environment. This unearths how such a relationship has been eroded by war, repression and hierarchical ideologies. “Ecocriticism ask questions about the way in which human thinking is centered on the human subject and how this shapes our perspective on the world and our treatment of it.” (Upstone, Sara.2017) Stevens being a staunch workaholic English Butler is all what he knows, it is all he has ever known, it is his life. It is where he began and it’s where he’ll end. He as a character has become a relic of the past, he has been the flesh and blood of the war era. He was missing out a lot in his life all he had become was a machine. And when he takes up his journey it is clearly evident how ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 159 much disconnected he is within the rigid social structure of his profession. He encounters an exhilarating experience on the first day of his travel. “And yet tonight, in the quiet of this room, I find that what really remains with me from this first day’s travel… that marvelous view encountered this morning of the rolling English countryside.”(19) Abrams idea of environmental criticism is that “it designates the critical writings that explore the relations between literature and the biological and physical environment, conducted with an acute awareness of the damage being wrought on that environment by human activities.” In the novel it is due to this journey that he is able to come in contact with nature and environment all this while as he was disconnected with nature due to his profession. “It has never, of course been my privilege to have seen such things at first hand,…”(19) However his mind is diverted and comes again and again to his repressed memories. He is very well aware of the fact that the journey he has embarked on is a rare opportunity to experience magnificence of the nature. He couldn’t connect his soul with the environment instead he relates it with anxieties of the present. He links the ‘greatness’ of the beautiful landscapes with the ‘greatness’ of a Butler. Stevens poses this question in the novel several times: “…what is a great Butler?” (21) For him a great Butler is not someone who is essentially good at attributes “…such as good accent and command of language, general knowledge on wide-ranging topics…”(23) Rather he sees greatness with ‘dignity’. All he wishes for is to become an ideal emotionless Butler with ‘great dignity’. One who has an ability to suppress feelings and instincts at the cost of loss and destruction happening around. Tracing a culture of rigid social order where humanity is not prized but loyality and professionalism. Unlike Ogata-San in A Pale View of Hills Stevens’ idea of a great Butler stems from disastrous aftermath of the World War I and WW II making him increasingly detached at emotional, ecological and moral levels. In the era of human sponsored disaster repression is the only means of survival where there is no place of feelings. The impact of war on the British society disrupted relationship between people and their environment. Salman Rushdie debunks the myth of English service as something nostalgic in his rereading of The Remains of The Day. To comply and in order to stay relevant to the aristocratic system to which he serves has enabled him to block any form of human consciousness reinforcing fragmented self, fragmented relationships. His journey gives him a chance to dump his dignity and acknowledge his repressed sufferings, to create a sense of proximity with nature. “It has been my privilege to see the best of England over the years, sir, within these very walls.” (5) The walls serve here as a symbol encapsulating sense of denial, detachment and cultural rigidity. He has built psychological walls to avoid even minute emotional vulnerability. At the hands of which he has to undergo disappointment and regret. He is recalling his past days spent with Miss Kenton at Darlington Hall working together solely through as professional duty. He regrets focusing entirely on his duties and denying any space for personal connection. He is in a hope that she would come back to Darlington Hall as he assumes she is in an unhappy marriage. But all what remains at the end of the day is regret, regret of avoiding companionship, love. She rejects his confession and asserts the necessity of accepting reality. She explicitly tells Stevens that he “…mustn’t go on thinking” about life they might have had together and life would have been completely different altogether. “…at that moment, my heart was breaking. Before long, however, I turned to her and said with a smile…it is too late to turn back the clock.” (162) Her reply is not angry but deeply sad and resigned. She knows the sadness of the lost possibility the need to find meaning in life and desire for a better society. But she chose to focus on the present leaving behind the pointless thoughts about the possibilities of past. It’s due to Stevens’ lifelong repression of emotion and rigid adherence to an outdated ideal of “dignity” ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 160 prevented him from seizing happiness when it was possible. Stevens’ confession comes decades too late. Miss Kenton has moved on, made choices, and built a life. The consequences of his late confessions can be traced in lives of both the characters. Miss Kenton’s marriage has been failing and unhappy. Stevens feels incomplete, loosing his love, career and life as his realization is poignant but ultimately futile. Her rejection leaves him utterly alone. He has no family, no close friends and his professional world is diminished. The future stretches before him as a bleak landscape of solitude and regret. He even fears to confess his love for Miss Kenton, because for him confessing love meant fragility which he saw as a betrayal to his professional identity. Displaying emotions was undignified and a symbol of weakness for him. Love and emotions threatened his entire identity. When he finally speaks on the pier, it’s not hope but surrender to his hollow and estranged life. Rejection for Stevens is the devastating moment when he is forced to fully inhabit the ecological estrangement shaped by the unprocessed traumas of war. “…at that moment, my heart was breaking.”(162) His rigid code of dignity, initially a pre-war ideal, became a psychological bunker shielding him from the cognitive and emotional fallout of the war’s moral chaos and collapse of the world. To which Zuzana Foniokova calls Butler’s dignity as suspicious dignity. It was the loss of his own capacity for making connection, love and meaningful life.“Kristen Lasheau Teston (2013) claims that Stevens divides his memories into episodes, he does so not to make sense or critique these memories, but rather to avoid their significance.” For the first time, Stevens truly confronts the magnitude of what he lost in lifenot just romantic love, but companionship, understanding, warmth and the potential for a fulfilling personal life. It’s a form of internal ecological collapse he walls off. Even at the death of his father when Miss Kenton gives him the sad news of passing away of his father. “…Mr Stevens, I’m very sorry. Your father passed away about four minutes ago.”(79) “…Will you come up and see him?”(80) He gives an emotionless reply “…I’m very busy just now, Miss Kenton. In a little while perhaps.”(80) This incident of the novel is one of the most powerful illustrations of disconnection from life’s emotional and ecological rhythms. His father suffered from a stroke while Stevens was busy in his duty downstairs during a conference. While his personal tragedy was unfolding he was busy attending and serving his guests. Stevens recalls this day from the flashback of the conference of 1923. Which he sees that particular day as “…turning point in my professional development.” (77) His only concern was to display a degree of dignity. He even sees this day as “…whenever I recall that evening today, I find I do so with a large sense of triumph.”(77) Stevens takes pride and a sense of triumph in not seeing his father when his health was deteriorating ultimately causing death. This reveals Stevens’ mindset that as a Butler displaying any sense of grief or sadness would compromise his ‘dignity’. He explicitly prioritises serving champagne to the influential guests over attending to his father’s death in the middle of his service. Stevens’ immediate reaction is described as a momentary pause, followed by a request for Miss Kenton to ensure the body is marked by physical stiffness and a profound lack of visible emotion; he notes the “very small” appearance of the corpse but describes his own actions only in terms of ensuring dignity and decorumclosing the eyes, straightening the collar. The narration offers no insight into grief, loss, or personal sorrow, presenting his behavior as demonstration of unwavering professionalism and his specific interpretation of “dignity”, which necessitates the complete suppression of personal feeling in service of his role. The scene concludes with Stevens immediately, resuming his duties, ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 161 effectively severing the moment of death from any personal emotional response within his narrated account. Ecocriticism, through concepts like environmental unconsciousness, pastoral denial and the expanded scope of the “environment”, offers a powerful lens to interpret Stevens’ detachment during his father’s death. It reveals this moment not merely as personal failure, but as a critical instance of a systematic ecological estrangement fostered by his ideology, his environment and his class position, insulating him from the interconnected biological, emotional and political realities of existence. His inability to connect with his dying father is emblematic of his inability to connect with the living, changing world beyond his walls. Lawrence Buell, a foundational figure in eco criticism, explores the pervasive modern condition of environmental unconsciousnessa state where individuals operate with minimal awareness of their fundamental dependence on, and impact within system. This unconsciousness, Buell argues, stems from industrialized societies that obscure the ecological consequences of human actions. Buell’s framework reveals Stevens’ existence in The Remains of the Day as a profound case study in environmental consciousness and estrangement. His repression of personal ecologydenying grief during his father’s death, suppressing physical needs and emotional desire reflects his external estrangement, reflecting Buell’s insight that alienation from non-human world is often intertwined with alienation from one’s own body and emotions. Reading Stevens as a Freudian melancholic allows to understand that the inability to take the loss results in not even acknowledging the loss. Stevens’ unwavering focus on his professional duties constitutes a willful disavowal of the concept ecological estrangement as a culturally built concept. The novel’s power lies in revealing ecological estrangement in its raw form, inner repression and outer ecological indifference stem from the same roota refusal to acknowledge our connection with the natural world. Stevens’ Darlington Hall is not just a workplace it’s a philosophical cage. His endless professional duties has made him ecologically estranged, it’s a systematic disconnection from the natural world. Mr. Farraday’s insistence to Stevens to take a break, get out the house for a few days. “ … Why don’t you take the car and drive off somewhere for a few days? You look like you could make good use of a break…I really think you should take a break…”(4 ) Initially Stevens did not take Mr Farraday’s suggestion seriously also reveals he is chained to a system. His productivity depends on ignoring the world beyond the window. Stevens lacks the capacity for ecological reciprocity. Finally when he embarks on a sixday motoring trip through the West Country, his holiday is disturbed by the painful recollections of his friendship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. His journey reveals not the rejuvenation but the depth of his alienationnature cannot heal a man who perceives it as a scenery rather than kinship. He has outsourced enough of his life, he has forgot how to do living part with the natural environment. Mr Farraday urging Stevens to go on a trip mirrors what ecocritical Lawrence Buell believes, spending time in nature can wake up a deep-down sense that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves and our duties. But Stevens shows why this doesn’t always work. Even driving through beautiful countryside, he stays locked inside in his own head. Psychologically he was disconnected with his environment and instead of going closer to nature he returns back bantering and committing to his profession. It represents his struggle with emotional connection, humanity and missed opportunities in life. Bantering becomes his way of recommitting to that mask, a whole system - a small, controlled outlet that hides, rather than heals, his regret. This very professionalism that has defined and diminished his life has made ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 162 him devoid of emotions. It is a surprise to see that for him bantering is the key to human warmth “…if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.”(166) Scherzinger’s article reads Stevens as a luminal figure belonging to the aristrocatic world.A clear dichotomy can be seen by the end of the novel when Stevens is sitting on his bench he sees a bunch of people laughing and chatting. He assumed at first that they were a group of friends or acquaintances out together to enjoy the evening. But as he heard them it became evident that they were not friends but strangers who had just happened upon one another. They were laughing together merrily. It feels unusual to Stevens seeing them falling into conversation with each other that how people can build such warmth among themselves so swiftly. For a person like him it was weird that humans can share such bond, they can laugh and be friends. It showcases a proper contrast to how his life has been, how his relationships with people has been with his father and the women he loved. What remains to him is a hollow life and relics of unlived life. His final vow to banter better “…I will begin practicing with renewed effort.”(166) is not resilience but surrender a desperate clinging to the role that devoured his soul. Conclusion The impact of the spirit of the age on Steven’s life parallels Britain’s cultural stoicism. The novel interrogates how individuals become complicit in history through passivity. Stevens’ late realization that Lord Darlington was a pawn at the hands of the Nazis reveals the era’s ethical, moral and ecological failures. Ishiguro suggests that the spirit of the age blinded well meaning people to catastrophe, leaving only the remains of regret. The era vanished all the fondness in relationships resulting in isolation and alienation of the individual. Stevens’ unwavering loyality to Darlington epitomizes the rigid class hierarchy of pre-war Britain. His definition of dignity as emotional repression and blind professionalism mirrors the era’s social conditioning, where service class identities were built on subservience to authority. The novel engages with the spirit of the age during the World War era, capturing the ideological tensions, social transformations and moral ambiguities that defined the period. The countryside could have offered him a chance to reflect honestly on his feelings and the life he has missed, but instead but instead it remains just a trip. By the end of his trip, rather than letting nature inspire and connect or embrace his regrets, he chooses to focus on learning how to banter so that he can continue serving his new employer. In his article The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell’s idea of how war not only induces estrangement but also diminishes connection at both individual and societal level correctly reflects Stevens’ ambiguity. In this way, Stevens shows that he is unable to draw meaning from the natural world and he remains trapped in the narrow identity of his profession. Even when he pauses to admire a view he quickly turns to change his inner world. He refuses to let nature help him accept his mistakes or his loneliness. In the end, his failure to connect with people especially Miss Kenton and it show much he has lost by clinging to duty. Stevens remains the same man trapped in duty afraid of emotions –all estranged emotionally and ecologically. References Abrams, M. H., and Geoffrey G. Harpham. 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