Introduction
Klara and the sun by the Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, published in March 2021. The novel is a dystopian science fiction work. Klara, the protagonist, is set somewhere in the USA. Klara, as an artificially intelligent robot and solar-powered, becomes a friend to a young girl named Josie, who’s genetically lifted and is more vulnerable to loneliness, disease, and death. This analysis discusses the fear of loneliness. To support this thesis, the essay will analyze the narrator Klara and the antagonist: Mr. Capaldi, and cloning Josie in Klara with a focus on social issues such as the social ranking system, and how artificial intelligence can master friendship skills and become a friend for a child, so she won’t be alone.
Narrator: Klara
Klara is an artificial intelligence robot that is solar-powered. The novel starts when Klara as an artificial friend was standing behind a store frame glass and Josie, a sickly young 14 years old girl chose Klara to be her friend. This is because artificial intelligence is meant to help children like Josie to avoid loneliness. Josie comes from a wealthy family who could afford to get her a friend. Not only this, but Josie’s family could amend her genetics to achieve higher academic performance. The results would be that Josie ends up in eternal loneliness from private lessons online at home to a lack of social life and an absence of normal school life. Every morning, Klara wakes Josie up to meet her mother before going to work. Klara tries to be a good friend to Josie and she believes that the sun can cure diseases, so she makes sure to watch the sun from the window of Josie and Josie’s room every day and in the evening together with Josie. They watch the sunset together. Klara is smart and she uses her skills to gather information to learn how to better serve Josie. She can understand Josie’s feelings even though Josie doesn’t show them. “Klara reveals the AF’s capacity for feelings” (6)
The novel tells us that Klara can analyze the combinations with remarkable accuracy. When Josie gets sick, Klara begs for the sun to heal Josie, Klara believes in the sun and its powers to heal sick people “a special kind of nourishment from the sun had saved them” (37).
That’s what the novel told us in the beginning when Klara was in the store. While she noticed that the sun heals a beggar man with his dog. Here appears another theme which is that faith stands in contrast with science. Science says that children who are genetically modified are exposed to sickness and can die but Klara proves that the sun is a great source of power that can heal Josie. In the garden next to Josie’s home, there was a machine that generates smoke which blocks the sunlight according to Klara. Klara called this machine ”the Cootings” and it decided to destroy it. To do this, it asks Rick for help “You keep saying it’s important. Important for Josie. So yes, I’d like to help.” (158) The meaning of faith is obvious here. That is, Rick believes in Klara and therefore, he helps Klara.
Thereafter, Josie starts recovering and starts at the university. The novel shows us another fear from Melania the housekeeper in Josie’s home “It remains hard not to believe Melania Housekeeper was opposed from the start to my presence” (51). It can be interpreted that Melania is afraid of losing her job by being replaced with Klara.
Relationship: Josie and Erik
During Josie’s sickness, Rick is a friend and a neighbor for Josie. He comes often to play with Josie. Rick is not from a wealthy family like Klara but rather he is a normal student who is not lifted. Josie and Rick share a love as Klara says. “I can see Rick is afraid Josie might become like the others” (89). Here, Klara tells that Rick is afraid for Josie to be like other students, who are like her because when Rick sometimes meets them at Josie’s home, he feels they are not normal, not like him. Rick and Josie worried about losing each other when they decided to go to different universities. Also, Rick’s mother, Helen, sends a message to Klara to tell Josie a message to persuade Rick to apply to the only university that allows a non-lifted student like Rick to study with talented students like Josie. Here, the novel shows the social classification as well as the fear of losing Rick and Josie’s relationship. Klara tells Rick about how the sun is important for Josie’s health. Klara begs the sun to heal Josie for her love, Rick “Perhaps the Sun may ask, ‘How can, we be sure? What can children know about genuine love?’ But I’ve been observing them carefully, and I’m certain it’s true.” (272). This is during Klara’s supplications for the sun to heal Josie.
Antagonist: Mr. Capaldi and cloning Josie in Klara
Well, Klara integrated with Josie as Josie is sick and Klara will become Josie if Josie dies. However, this is what Josie’s family aimed to do. Chrissy, Josie’s mother asked Klara “to be Josie, just for a little while” (103). Klara imitates Josie and talks exactly as Josie does. Then, Chrissy asked Klara to not say to Josie that she has imitated her. Klara tells Chrissy that she has hope and “Josie will soon become better” (107). Chrissy has a fear of loneliness and losing Josie as she lost Sal, Josie’s sister, before. Therefore, the cloning idea was to avoid Josie’s family’s loneliness if Josie died. Mr. Capaldi is the direct antagonist in the novel. His goals are purely technological and not humanitarian “There’s nothing there. Nothing inside Josie that’s beyond the Klara’s of this world to continue. The second Josie won’t be a copy. She’ll be the same and you’ll have every right to love her just as you love Josie now. It’s not faith you need. Only rationality.” (208) This becomes obvious when he meets Chrissy, Klara, and Paul Josie’s father, to explain that his research is not harmful, an attempt to create an android version of Josie and implant it in Klara.
Theme:
Fear of loneliness
All the characters in the novel work to avoid isolation, fear of loss, and hence, loneliness. Klara has been created to avoid genetically predisposed children like Josie feeling lonely. Klara is loyal in her work with Josie and makes sure Josie does not feel lonely. During the novel, Klara loves Josie.
Chrissy wants Klara to be a clone of Josie’s because she is afraid of losing Josie like she lost her sister and feeling lonely. Rick and Josie are afraid of loneliness and the loss of their love due to their choice to study at different universities. They parted at the end of the novel but kept in love with each other.
The novel leaves the reader wondering if it was the sun that healed Josie. One will never know for certain. The sun is a symbol that was used in ancient civilizations, as a symbol of God. We don’t know if the meaning of the sun here is the god and Klara is praying to the god for healing, and if the power of faith can heal, despite scientific research.
Conclusion
In the end, we find Klara telling the story from the scrap yard where she sits now. It is a sarcastic ending for an artificial friend. Ishiguro softens this with a visit from Klara’s retired manager, who expresses to Klara that she was lucky, lived in a successful home, and successfully fulfilled her mission. The fear of loneliness is clear during the novel and even the meaning of faith and love was Klara’s message during her job with Josie. Despite the widespread technology and the sciences of cloning, there still would be faith and love. Thus, technology can not eliminate it. We live, love, and share life with others regardless of whether they are living creatures or Afs. Klara cannot be Josie, but like Josie who’s lifted can be Klara.
Source: Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the sun, 2021.