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Rick
Melania Housekeeper is a housekeeper who lives with the Mother, Josie, and eventually Klara. English is not her first language, and she often speaks bluntly in ways that surprise Klara. Melania Housekeeper is especially wary around Klara at first, perhaps because she senses that a robot like Klara could soon make her own housekeeping job obsolete. Nevertheless, Melania Housekeeper learns to work with Klara, in part because she cares deeply about Josie and is even willing to contradict the Mother to help Josie, such as when she asks Klara to keep a close eye on the mysterious portrait-maker Mr. Capaldi. Melania Housekeeper shows the complicated relationship that household workers have with the people who employ them, providing a comparison with Klara, who is also a sort of domestic worker but who isn’t human.
Melania Housekeeper Quotes in Klara and the Sun
The Klara and the Sun quotes below are all either spoken by Melania Housekeeper or refer to Melania Housekeeper. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part Two Quotes
The kitchen was especially difficult to navigate because so many of its elements would change their relationships to one another moment by moment. I now appreciated how in the store—surely out of consideration for us—Manager had carefully kept all the items, even smaller ones like the bracelets or the silver earrings box, in their correct places.
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Part Five Quotes
The Sun was illuminating her, and the entire bed, in a ferocious half-disc of orange, and the Mother, standing closest to the bed, was having to raise her hands to her face.
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Get the entire Klara and the Sun LitChart as a printable PDF.
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Melania Housekeeper Character Timeline in Klara and the Sun
The timeline below shows where the character Melania Housekeeper appears in Klara and the Sun. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part Two
Klara believes at first that Melania Housekeeper is like Manager, and that she will teach Klara what to do, but Melania Housekeeper...
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...does remotely in the kitchen, on a device called an “oblong”). After getting permission from Melania Housekeeper , Klara and Josie go outside.
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Outside, Melania Housekeeper takes Josie’s arm to help her walk, but eventually Josie persuades her to let go...
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Melania Housekeeper calls for Josie to come back. Before leaving, Josie makes Rick promise to come to...
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...but Josie pleads that Klara’s looking forward to it. The Mother surprises everyone by ordering Melania Housekeeper to take Josie out of the car so that Klara and the Mother can go...
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Part Three
...of going down to the kitchen for breakfast, the Mother has coffee in Josie’s bedroom. Melania Housekeeper is bothered by Klara’s hovering around, so she sends Klara outside. As she walks, she...
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A doctor visits Josie often, as does Rick. Josie stops taking remote school lessons. Melania Housekeeper makes Klara chaperone when Rick is there. During Rick’s visits, he and Josie often play...
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Two days later, Klara is a little surprised when Melania Housekeeper tells Klara that the Mother won’t allow her (Melania) to come to the city with...
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Part Five
In Josie’s room, Melania Housekeeper wants to close the blinds to let Josie sleep, but Klara insists that they need...
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Part Six
Rick asks about Melania Housekeeper , and Klara mentions she was trying to get accepted by a community in California....
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...Josie leaves for college are hectic, particularly because the new housekeeper is less orderly than Melania Housekeeper was. At one point, Josie invites Klara to come to her bedroom. Josie says she’s...
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