What did you make of Klara's personification of the Sun, particularly in her final plea to save Josie? Have you ever experienced nature and other nonhuman entities in a similar way?

What did you make of Klara's personification of the Sun, particularly in her final plea to save Josie?

She observes in the layers of glass "that in fact there existed a different version of the Sun's face on each of the glass surfaces . . . Although his face on the outermost glass was forbidding and aloof, and the one immediately behind it was, if anything, even more unfriendly, the two beyond that were softer and kinder" (273).

Have you ever experienced nature and other nonhuman entities in a similar way? What value does this have in our ability to experience compassion for each other?

I thought she was treating the sun as if it were a deity. I thought of it as an example of how artificial intelligence might develop some of the same social structures that we have. But I also saw it as an example of Klara's misunderstanding of the physical world.

Klara is built to serve and under the circumstances of dire illness she uses all her observations of the world in her attempts to heal Josie. She generalizes her own need for the sun's energy to a solution for what ails Josie. Klara's inferences from the world she observes are limited by her programming. Josie and her mother have no idea of Klara's capacity for learning and make no attempt to explain the larger physical world to her.

What an amazing concept, that Klara has a religion and worships a higher power! It is implied that the other
artificial friends also need the sun, but Klara goes further in her trust and hope. Obviously, many if not most primitive cultures also worshipped the sun. I really did not expect Klara’s sacrifice and prayers for Josie to be successful,so what a wonderful ending when her faith is fulfilled!

It seemed early on in the book that the Sun was a god (or deity/higher power) to Klara. Her behavior was absolutely worshipful, starting in Part One, in the store. I thought at one point that Klara felt since the sun was her "power", then the same would apply to Josie--but Klara actually prayed to the Sun, in the barn, for Josie's health; went on a quest to find the enemy of her deity; and finally made a sacrifice to her deity. Very religious allegories there.

The prior posts all make very good points. Because the AFs depended on solar energy, it seems logical that the sun would become a critical and obsessive element for the AFs well being. This is observed early in the book when they vie for best sunlight. Klara seems to have been programmed with extra observational skills and the ability to draw conclusions from the observations that led to the concept of a deity. It seems to me this would have been a highly unusual concept for an AF unless she was programmed with the ability to imagine a deity.

I have definitely felt religious experiences in nature. While these are typical human experiences, the idea that an AF would share this trait leads me to really think about where the experience originates. The fact that Josie was healed leads to deep thought in itself.

It’s interesting because I kind of feel the same way about the sun! It’s so healing especially after a dark winter. It goes along with my love of the beach and the ocean

I agree with all the comments regarding Klara's belief that the sun is, if not her creator, her caretaker. She relies on the sun for power (i.e., life). Her firm belief that the sun can heal Josie leads me to think that Ishiguro is relating his own observation that all societies will have faith in an all powerful deity of some kind and form a philosophy or religion. Josie prays for help from the sun and even bargains with it to help Josie, promising to get rid of "pollution".

Klara perceives the Sun as a life source. Not only to her but to everyone and everything around her. The problem then arises when Josie's life is diminishing as a charge for electronics does. Klara wrestles with the idea that the Sun may not be aware of Josie's condition or maybe the Sun has deliberately withheld life-saving power. Her solution is to start with a humble "prayer" requesting healing then it develops into Klara destroying the Cootings Machine that blocks the Sun with pollution. Earning the desired outcome. As we all try to do with God or any superiors in our life.

Klara's steadfast faith in the Sun is much like the religious belief of a child. It is pure and imaginative, undiminished by the doubts or interpretations of others. She is the ironic embodiment of spirituality in a world that casts her as less than human.

Nature often returns me to that part of myself that recognizes something greater, something more wonderful and more terrifying, than the familiar routines that structure my day. Even within my smaller world, however, I can feel a friendship with the tree outside my window or steep in the constancy of the moon's luminous presence.