The Sun is Also a Star

The Sun is Also a Star

by

Nicola Yoon

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Themes and Colors
Immigration and the American Dream Theme Icon
Passion vs. Reason Theme Icon
Interconnectedness and Destiny Theme Icon
Isolation vs. Connection Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sun is Also a Star, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Immigration and the American Dream

The Sun is Also a Star follows seventeen-year-olds Natasha and Daniel through their whirlwind, one-day romance in New York City. Both are immigrants: Daniel is a second-generation Korean American who very comfortably inhabits the gray area between being fully Korean and fully American, while Natasha's family illegally immigrated to the US from Jamaica when she was eight years old. Unlike Daniel, however, Natasha considers herself fully American. Through the differing experiences of Natasha, Daniel, and…

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Passion vs. Reason

Natasha and Daniel represent two ends of a personality spectrum: Natasha is rational, scientific, and logical to a fault, while Daniel is a hopeless romantic and a poet. By exploring how Natasha and Daniel use what they learned from each other over the course of their one day together in New York to add more meaning and fulfillment to their lives, the novel suggests that passion and reason don't have to be enemies, as Natasha…

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Interconnectedness and Destiny

The Sun Is Also a Star begins by explaining that according to famed scientist Carl Sagan, in order to make an apple pie from scratch, one must invent the entire universe and the entirety of human history—he defines "scratch" as the absence of everything. By beginning the novel in this way, Yoon asserts that everything, from humans to their history, is intrinsically connected. Per Sagan's example, the existence today of apple pies hinges on everything…

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Isolation vs. Connection

In part because The Sun Is Also a Star offers vignettes into the lives of seemingly minor characters that somehow influence the lives of Daniel and Natasha, the novel makes the claim that all humans are, in many ways, however small, connected to one another. Though The Sun Is Also a Star espouses a cosmic sense of connection, this is ultimately shown to be very different from actual human connection in the form of…

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