Klara and the Sun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Part 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 6 Summary

Josie grows stronger and healthier. Years go by, and Josie begins the college application process. Rick buys a used car and names it “the Wreck” (286). He visits often as Josie is recovering but much less frequently by the time she is preparing for college. Melania no longer works at the house and now lives in California. In the last conversation between Rick and Klara, Rick asks about the sun on the morning Josie began her recovery. He also asks about Klara’s deal in the barn, but she still keeps her secret: “I don’t dare speak about this matter, even today. It was such a special favor, and if I speak about it to anyone, even just to Rick, my fear is that the help Josie received will be taken back” (287). Klara is concerned that Rick and Josie are headed for different futures. However, Rick assures her that the love her secret deal was based on is still true, and that they will still be connected, even if they end up apart.

Other young women start visiting the house. There isn’t as much space in Josie’s room, so Klara stays in the Utility Room, a small storage space with a high window. Josie finds Klara in the Utility Room and makes a platform of trunks and boxes, giving Klara a chance to watch the sun through the window.

Mr. Capaldi comes to the house one day to talk to Klara. He proposes a project wherein he would take Klara apart for scientific research, supposedly to counteract superstition and prejudice against AFs. Chrissy is present and gets upset with Mr. Capaldi, telling him, “Klara deserves better. She deserves her slow fade” (294). Chrissy stops Mr. Capaldi before he can finish his proposal and makes him leave.

On the last day before Josie leaves for college, she confides in Klara about her anxiety about school. She hopes that Rick will be there to say goodbye, but he is away. Josie says goodbye to Klara, and Chrissy drives her away.

For the rest of her days, Klara sits peacefully in “the Yard,” a large garbage dump. She spends her time observing the broken machines around her and going through her memories of her time with Josie, which begin to blend together. One day, she is visited by the manager of the store, and they have a reflective conversation. Klara tells Manager that she was treated well by the family she worked for, and that she “gave good service and prevented Josie from becoming lonely” (300). Manager, who is retired, tells Klara that Rosa didn’t have a good experience with her family. Klara tries to explain that she doesn’t believe she could have ever truly become Josie, but Manager doesn’t seem to understand. Manager leaves, and Klara notices her limp.

Part 6 Analysis

While the rest of the novel takes place in a short span of time, Part 6 summarizes several years, from Josie’s growing up and leaving for college to Klara’s “slow fade” in a junkyard. As with any miracle of faith, Josie’s recovery and whether it is connected with the sun are never explained.

The different trajectories that Rick and Josie feared as children come true: Josie is headed for college, and Rick buys a beater car and gets involved in personal projects. Their growing apart is sad, but they come to terms with it, and Rick tells Klara that their love will continue to exist despite their physical distance. Again, Rick’s decency and emotional maturity demonstrate the importance of love and humanity in the face of impersonal, dystopian systems.

Mr. Capaldi comes to propose dissecting Klara for research, but Chrissy stops him and sends him away. This action is redemptive for Chrissy, who had initially been prepared to harvest Klara’s AI brain for the model of Josie. Chrissy loves Josie but comes to love Klara as well. She defends her from Mr. Capaldi, whose reasoning, like when he was building Josie’s portrait, is cold and deceptive. At first, Chrissy dismissed Klara’s feelings, but in Part 6 she tells Mr. Capaldi that Klara “deserves better” (294), affirming her emotional capacity and proving her love.

In the novel’s final scene, Klara is approached by Manager, who sometimes wanders the junkyard “to collect little souvenirs” (301). Their conversation reflects on some of the novel’s important themes. Now old and lonely, Manager is particularly happy to see Klara, who tells her that she hopes she prevented Josie from feeling loneliness. Klara herself, while capable of love and fear, never feels loneliness—when the “kind yardman” offers to move her closer to some other AFs, she tells him she is “content with [her] special spot” (299). Finally, Josie tells the manager that she never would have been able to fully replace Josie, because the “special” quality of her soul existed not within her, but between her and those who loved her. We can read this as Ishiguro’s answer to the question of the human heart and soul—love and humanity do not exist alone, they are relational by definition, making them impossible to isolate.