Melissa’s answer to “Anyone already finished & want to discuss the ending?” > Likes and Comments

It was my take (on a literal level anyway) that in Klara's information database's algorithmic efforts to sort and categorize the barn's objects, -- shelves, mugs (maybe jars with nails in them, etc.) -- it defaulted to items to which it had previously encountered and "learned" from...

I found it odd that she was "loaded" with all kinds of data and information about the world -- like a computer being downloaded with encylopedias) -- and is even tasked with tutoring Rick, and yet doesn't understand the basics of how the sun isn't "sleeping," or tired etc, but the earth itself is rotating around it. The AF's obviously have sophisticated programming, so it's also odd and maybe contrary to what you think the "designers" might want t when configuring a lifelike droid, that she can't say "you" but rather says "Josie" or "Rick" when she is talking TO them. Or to just say Melania, not Melania the Housekeeper, or Josie's Mom, not The Mother.

But it's probably meant to remind of us of the human/drone divide and to accentuate the limitations in logic and causality of AI, and of course the sun iplays a huge metaphorical role in the book.

So anyway...I'm too literal! LOL.

I was confused by the Red Shelves in the barn too. And for sure, some of Klara's thinking and language is strange and simplistic. But - and only by the end of the novel - I came to feel Klara's view of the Sun is 1) not meant to show a divide, but a similarity, with so many humans' belief in a benevolent, divine deity which cannot be proved by science, and 2) may even be as or more true than our modern view of the earth circling the sun - which is also true at the same time, but a very limited truth. Like sometimes Klara's "pixelated" boxes are very limited views of our "reality". That hinges on whether you think the Sun really did intervene, because of Klara, and "cure" Josie. What do people think? I was totally surprised, but after finishing the book, I think maybe he (it? He?) did.

I so appreciate your thoughts, Liz...

I had anticipated the barn to be Klara's final storage location because of the comparisons of its interior to the shop. I thought Klara's eventual slow decline would result in her having delusions in the barn and working out her experiences with imagined conversations with Manager, Rosa, and Rex. Also thought Sal's bereavement doll might be a piece of this conclusion as well.

This is one of many burning questions left in me after finishing this book. The Barn. Didn't Rick's mother say at one point she thought she saw Sal being led by the hand out in the field...AFTER Sal had supposedly died? This is why I too kept thinking that the barn held more secrets than it eventually ended up holding.

The mother had Capaldi make a 'grief doll' of Sal, which is what Rick's mother saw.

when Klara goes to McBain's Barn the first time, I thought she was malfunctioning and seeing items from her past (like the red shelves). I wondered if the malfunction was due to the splintered nature of the sun... if the sun provided nourishment, it could be that a very low level sun could trigger an energy drain??
but then, when Klara went back to the barn at the end, and she STILL saw the red shelves, I questioned my initial interpretation. I still don't get what's happening in there except it is a storage place for broken things (Melania Housekeeper's blender)

My take on it is there was red shelving in the barn that was the same as shelving in the shop and perhaps sold by the shop.

I like that Chris.