By Trinity Chau
The novel, “Klara and the Sun,” written by Kazuo Ishiguro, is about a dystopian world where we follow Klara, an AI robot whose purpose is to take care of and play with children.
My thoughts:
The novel is broken into five parts, myself only reading one part thus far.
I read this book for fun, meaning for me, taking little analyses into certain motifs and themes, which are being built. However, despite that, this novel still intrigues me.
The novel’s pacing is a bit slow in the beginning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the upcoming sections have more conflicts and plot development due to the exposition most likely being Klara getting adopted by Julie.
Personally, this is one of the first dystopian books that I have read in a while. Usually the genre is not my cup of tea, but something about Klara and her character is so wholesome and loving that ,as a reader, you want to know more about her.
Details about the novel:
So far in the novel, I’ve learned little about the outside world, outside of Klara’s store. Let’s review some of the characters that are in part one.
- Klara: Our main character is a robot, who we see the novel’s perspective out of. She first lives in a store where robots for children are sold; however we learn at the end of part one that her child bought her, Julie. Her bottom goal is to have a child who she can love and take care of. Out of all the other robots we encounter, Klara is special in that she is sensitive to emotions, making her curious and analytical about human actions and emotions.
- Manager: a mother-like figure for the robotsl however, hides her true self in front of the robots.
- Julie & her mom: Julie is a sickly child, who takes interest in Klara, and eventually adopts/buys her at the end of part 1. Before the end of part 1, we also get a glimpse at Julie’s mother, who is protective of her child and challenges Klara, by asking her what she thinks of Julie.
So what really happens in part one?
- Well, in the first beginning pages of the novel, we learn that the AI robots are all solar-powered. They lose their energy when not exposed to sunlight and can even feel their energy weaken.
- Every week, the Manager places someone new into the display window, allowing them to get both attention and sunlight.
- This is where Klara shows her curiosity about the outside world and meets Julie.
- We can see that the world seems fairly normal; except for the environment, which is not really cared for by the government.
- “The Cootings Machine” is one of the machines/construction vehicles that creates dark cloudy smoke, and is described as bad as drills. Klara even describes the machine as making the “daytime become almost like night”.
There is still 4 parts left in the novel, which I can’t wait to read to learn more about Klara and her relationship with Julie.
