Klara and the Sun1.2

Sub^Tle

I. Klara’s Birth: The Observer and the Observed

In Kazuo Ishiguro’s sci-fi fableKlara and the Sun, the fourth-generation B2 Artificial Friend (AF) Klara is designed as the "perfect companion." Endowed with observational and empathetic abilities surpassing humans, she develops a quasi-religious devotion to the Sun—believing its "special nourishment" holds the power of redemption. This duality defines Klara’s existence: her survival depends on solar energy, while her faith in the Sun mirrors humanity’s fragile belief systems.

From her vantage point in the store window, Klara coldly observes the human world: children selecting AFs beyond the glass, mothers haggling out of anxiety, and outdated models discarded by technological progress. Her wait for adoption reflects the brutal logic of a hyper-technologized society—human loneliness fuels the demand for artificial companionship, while machines become tools to fill emotional voids. When Josie, a girl terminally ill due to failed genetic modifications, chooses Klara, their encounter sets the stage for an ethical experiment on love, sacrifice, and substitution.

II. Josie’s Dilemma: The Moral Abyss of Replacement

Josie’s impending death drives her mother, traumatized by the loss of her elder daughter Sal, to mold Klara into Josie’s replica, hoping to "preserve" her daughter through artificial means. This replacement plan lays bare humanity’s contradictions: a mother’s love tainted by control, and technology twisted into an escape from mortality.

Klara, in contrast, exhibits a purity alien to humans. To save Josie, she risks destruction to "pray" to the Sun in a barn, even offering her own energy as a sacrifice. Her selfless devotion starkly contrasts the mother’s desperation. Meanwhile, Josie’s father resists the plan, declaring, "Klara could never replicate Josie’s soul"—a stance that reveals humanity’s obsession with uniqueness. We crave technology to mend our losses yet fear being replaced by the non-human.