Klara and the Sun

by

Kazuo Ishiguro

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Themes and Colors
The Meaning of Love Theme Icon
Costs and Benefits of Progress Theme Icon
Faith and Hope Theme Icon
Environmentalism Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Klara and the Sun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Faith and Hope Theme Icon

One of the unusual aspects of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun is that the most spiritual character is a robot. Although human characters occasionally say things like “Oh my God,” there’s nothing to suggest that any of them are particularly religious. By contrast, while Klara also has no traditional concepts of any god or religion, she treats the Sun as if it’s a personal god with the power to intervene in her life as well as human lives. When her human, Josie, gets very sick, Klara directly asks the Sun for help. She goes down to McBain’s barn (which is like a church or other place of worship) and forms a request to the Sun in her mind (which is like praying).

On the one hand, the book could be interpreted as a critique of faith, since Klara’s whole religion is based on a misunderstanding (because she is solar powered, she believes humans also get “nourishment” from the Sun). But faith in Klara and the Sun is more complicated than that, and other aspects of it are portrayed positively. For example, Rick, who has an aptitude for engineering and rational thinking, supports Klara’s rituals, even though he believes her actions are ultimately “AF superstition.” When Josie does seem to make a miraculous recovery, it begins on a morning when the Sun shines brightly in her room. Even Rick admits that it really does seem as if Klara’s “superstitions” have a certain kind of power, even if he doesn’t necessarily believe the same things as Klara. Ultimately, Klara and the Sun demonstrates that perhaps the most important aspect of faith is how it gives individuals the hope to keep trying.

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Faith and Hope ThemeTracker

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Faith and Hope Quotes in Klara and the Sun

Below you will find the important quotes in Klara and the Sun related to the theme of Faith and Hope.
Part One Quotes

The next morning, the grid went up and it was a most splendid day. The Sun was pouring his nourishment onto the street and into the buildings, and when I looked over to the spot where Beggar Man and the dog had died, I saw they weren’t dead at all—that a special kind of nourishment from the Sun had saved them.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Beggar Man
Related Symbols: The Sun
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
Part Two Quotes

“Okay, Josie. So tell me how you’ll get well.”

“There’s special help coming. Something no one’s thought of yet. Then I’ll be well again.”

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), The Mother (speaker), Josie
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
Part Three Quotes

“These folks surrounding her. Am I to assume they’re aliens? It almost looks like instead of a head, they have, well, a giant eyeball. I’m sorry if I have this all wrong.”

Related Characters: Rick (speaker), Klara, Josie, The Mother, Mr. Capaldi
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:

“Please make Josie better. Just as you did Beggar Man.”

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Josie, Rick, Beggar Man, Mr. McBain
Related Symbols: The Cootings Machine, The Sun
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

“Don’t want to die, Mom. I don’t want that.”

“It’s okay. Okay.” The Mother’s voice was soft, at just the same level mine had been.

“I don’t want that, Mom.”

“I know. I know. It’s okay.”

Related Characters: Josie (speaker), The Mother (speaker), Klara
Page Number: 177
Explanation and Analysis:
Part Four Quotes

I turned the corner of the L and saw Josie there, suspended in the air. She wasn’t very high—her feet were at the height of my shoulders—but because she was leaning forward, arms outstretched, fingers spread, she seemed to be frozen in the act of falling. Little beams illuminated her from various angles, forbidding her any refuge. Her face was very like that of the real Josie, but because there was at the eyes no kind smile, the upward curve of her lips gave her an expression I’d never seen before. The face looked disappointed and afraid.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Josie, The Mother, The Father, Mr. Capaldi
Page Number: 201
Explanation and Analysis:

“You know, Klara. I don’t even know what this is about. But I want what’s best for Josie. Exactly the same as you. So I’m willing to grasp at any chance that comes our way.”

I turned to him with a smile and nodded. “Yes,” I said. “Then let’s try.”

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), The Father (speaker), Josie
Related Symbols: The Cootings Machine, The Sun
Page Number: 224
Explanation and Analysis:

Its body was a different shade of yellow, its dimensions a little greater—and its ability to create Pollution more than a match for the first Cootings Machine.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Cootings Machine, The Sun
Page Number: 258
Explanation and Analysis:
Part Five Quotes

“You must tell me if the love between Rick and Josie is genuine, if it’s a true and lasting one. I must know this. Because if the answer is yes, then I’ll have something to bargain with, regardless of what occurred in the city. So please think carefully Rick, and tell me the truth.”

“I don’t need to think. Josie and I grew up together and we’re part of each other. And we’ve got our plan. So of course our love’s genuine and forever. And it won’t make any difference to us who’s been lifted and who hasn’t. That’s your answer, Klara, and there won’t be any other.”

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Rick (speaker), Josie
Page Number: 266
Explanation and Analysis:

But I’m remembering how delighted you were on that day Coffee Cup Lady and Raincoat Man found each other again. You were so delighted and couldn’t help showing it. So I know just how much it matters to you that people who love one another are brought together, even after many years.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Josie, Rick, Beggar Man, Coffee Cup Lady and Raincoat Man
Related Symbols: The Sun
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

“And there was more. On this question of being lifted. She wants you to know she wouldn’t wish it any other way. If she had the power to do it again, and this time it was up to her, she says she’d do exactly what you did and you’ll always be the best mother she could have.”

Related Characters: Rick (speaker), Klara, Josie, The Mother, Miss Helen, Vance
Page Number: 277
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Josie, The Mother, Rick, Melania Housekeeper
Page Number: 279
Explanation and Analysis:
Part Six Quotes

“But now we’re no longer kids, we have to wish each other the best and go our different ways. It couldn’t have worked out, me going to college, trying to compete with all those lifted kids. I’ve got my own plans now, and that’s how it should be. But that was no lie, Klara. And in a funny way, it still isn’t a lie now.”

Related Characters: Rick (speaker), Klara, Josie
Related Symbols: The Sun
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:

Around the same time, a kind yardman stopped in front of me and told me there were three AFs on the South Side, and two in the Ring. If I wished, he said, he could transport me to one or the other of these areas. But I told him I was content with my special spot, and he nodded and went on his way.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker)
Page Number: 299
Explanation and Analysis:

When she was mid-distance, she stopped and turned, and I thought she might look back one last time at me. But she was gazing at the far distance, in the direction of the construction crane on the horizon. Then she continued to walk away.

Related Characters: Klara (speaker), Manager
Related Symbols: The Sun, The Cootings Machine
Page Number: 303
Explanation and Analysis: