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Stéphanie asked this question about Klara and the Sun:
Anyone already finished & want to discuss the ending?
Judy Lindow The medical segregation in the story is like what we're going through right now with the looming mandate for a global, recurring vaccine. I recommend …moreThe medical segregation in the story is like what we're going through right now with the looming mandate for a global, recurring vaccine. I recommend watching the VAXXED movies, especially VAXXED ll to be startled by how similar to the story is to the real life risks and stress is for parents and children. Vilifying the unvaccinated is accelerating in our communities, much like in the story. And just as Klara is described as an artificial friend (AF) all of us - and probably teens even more - how important our social media friends were to us during lockdown. One irony that slipped by me is how the father proved that Klara was just a machine and how in the end many of experienced a sense of betrayal when Facebook censored and sold our posts. In the end it is just technology, isn't it.

At the end of the story Klara is enjoying the sun, which is key to who she is as the sun represents her God, who gives her life and her spirituality. And by the way, often a stand-in for what we don't understand (which may be the starting and ending place for AI). She's reviewing her life, just like a human does in their slow fade. I did not realize until the end how much power she had when Josie was on her deathbed. She had the potential human love of the mother and Rick being offered to her and so I wondered if she'd systematically thought it through

... but the way her adrenaline was pumping when the sun came and saved Josie - to me that was proof that she acted driven by purpose: care and love of Josie. Conversely, she may have acted to save herself, after all part of being human is loving yourself enough to know you wouldn't trade places with anyone (though there is little evidence that she was programmed or ever acted out of self preservation).

By the end, however, she knows WHY she made the decision. She says to Manager she didn't think her continuing as Josie would not have worked, not because she couldn't emulate Josie, but because she couldn't have meant what Josie was in the hearts of the people who loved her. So even though she wasn't making being life and death decisions -- she was evolved to a place where she could review, analyze, and reminisce (all high brain functions, I'm pretty sure)

... Ironically, manager, is doing a human version of a slow fade physically and mentally - also true to herself enjoying trinkets and checking on her AFs. Rosa who was less attentive and not as brilliant probably was always more at risk (it was hinted at more than a couple times that she'd had a difficult life). Klara doesn't make an effort to be with AFs (who would all be more less kind than what they learned in their lifetimes) who she'd have no more in common with than a stranger.(less)
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Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro (Goodreads Author)
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