Summary
Klara gets used to her new home. It is not that easy at first, and she has to learn how to navigate new physical spaces, deal with the skeptical and even hostile Melania Housekeeper, and learn to be in a place without any other AFs.
One ritual Klara learns is important is Josie joining the Mother’s quick coffee in the morning, and if she does not for some reason, Josie is often lonely later in the day. They talk about a variety of things, including Josie’s drawing and the fact that she does not like the tutors on her “oblong.”
The bedroom rear window has a clear view across the fields and that is where the Sun sets at the end of the day. There is a dark, box-like shape out at the furthest end of the field, which Josie explains is Mr. McBain’s rundown barn. Klara asks a lot of questions about this place where the Sun exits, and Josie talks about going there with Rick when she was a kid. Klara asks who Rick is, and Josie explains he is her best friend. She cares for him a lot but he is always worrying about their “plan” and how things will get in the way.
Klara finally meets Rick one day. Josie had decided to take her outside because Klara could not comprehend exactly how the house was laid out. First she has to do her tutorial, which is annoying her. She tells Klara to get Melania to accompany them outside, to which the woman gruffly complies.
Outside the Sun is bright and nourishing, the wind mild and pleasant. They see a boy coming towards them. He seems to be flying a group of mechanical birds. Klara can also see a smaller house she’d never been able to visualize behind the hill. It is smaller and less impressive than Josie’s.
They approach Rick, and the two children start talking about the machine birds and a gathering that is coming up that Rick said he might attend but that Josie wishes he would officially commit to. He says she won’t be alone because she has her AF now, even though she said she’d never get one, and Josie excitedly introduces the two of them. Klara realizes Rick is important to Josie so she decides she will observe him carefully. Melania calls for Josie, and she takes Klara, calling back that Rick needs to come Tuesday at lunch. He reluctantly agrees.
That evening, Josie asks her mother if she must host the interaction meeting and her mother says yes, that these kids are her peer group and she needs to get used to interacting with them, especially for college. Josie insists on having Rick there and her mother agrees, seeming to have affection for the boy. Josie then asks if she thinks the other kids will be rude to him, and the Mother says she does not think so and if they are, then it’s only showing how behind they are.
After the Mother leaves, Josie explains that Klara will be there too because the AF of the house is usually at the meetings, especially if they are new. She warns Klara these types of things “stink, and that’s the truth” (66).
The morning of the interaction meeting dawns, and Josie is very anxious. Klara begins to hear young people’s voices and those of their accompanying female adults. Josie and Klara go downstairs. The front door is open and letting in fresh air. The children are in the Open Plan (the living room) while the adults congregate in the foyer and chatter about the teachers the kids learn from on the oblongs. Rick arrives, and the adults hush and look at him while Josie welcomes him in. A few adults make polite conversation with him and ask about his mother.
As Josie leads him away, some of the women remark that he is bright and it’s a shame that he “missed out.” One asks why his mother did not go ahead with “it” but when the Mother’s smile vanishes, the other woman becomes abashed and apologetic. Others gather around the Mother and try to comfort her, saying Josie is going to be fine. Klara does not quite follow what is going on. The Mother encourages her to go in with Josie and the other kids.
Inside the Open Plan, the Sun is pouring down his nourishment. Young people are everywhere, moving around, sitting down, chatting. Someone notices Klara and says she is cute. Others whisper about Rick, and one long-armed girl says they should be nice to him, and offers him a bonbon. He takes it, and suddenly it seems like everyone is looking at him. The girls engage in conversation about movies with Rick, which eventually starts to irritate him in its passive-aggressiveness, and he says he likes horrible, scary movies. The vibe becomes more uncomfortable, and Josie changes the subject to Klara. A couple girls look at her. Rick walks away.
A boy called Danny calls for Josie to send Klara over to him. Josie tells Klara to go, and the tone of her voice surprises Klara, since it was like the one she used with Melania Housekeeper, not with Klara. Klara does not move but Josie tells her to go again. When she gets to the boys, Danny holds her tightly to inspect her. Josie tells him to let go and another boy, Scrub, asks Danny to throw Klara over so he can see her. Scrub laughs that he can throw his B3 and she lands on her feet every time.
The long-armed girl comes over and takes Klara’s wrist and asks her to sing, then give her a greeting. When Klara refuses to say anything, the girl becomes annoyed. Someone says Josie should have gotten a B3, and Josie replies, “Now I’m starting to think I should have” (78). The girls continue to ask things of Klara but she does not respond. The boys want to throw her but Rick intervenes. He calls out Danny for having a pet object in his pocket that helps calm him in these situations. Danny is embarrassed.
An adult named Sara intervenes and says Rick shouldn’t be here, but the Mother calls her back, and says the children are supposed to work things out themselves. The kids decide to go outside, and file out. Only Rick and Klara are left. Klara thanks Rick for intervening and he acknowledges that he saw Klara was uncomfortable. She says she was, but it has been interesting to observe everyone. She asks if Rick wants to go outside and reconcile, but he declines and murmurs that it’s a gathering for “lifted kids.” He also says that Josie told him to come but does not want to be with him, and he feels stupid because he knew she would change even though she promised she would not. Klara remembers Manager’s words about children and their promises, and Josie’s comment about getting a B3.
She tries to console Rick that Josie is not like the others, and those kids are perhaps not so unkind, simply fearing loneliness. She asks about “the plan,” and Rick simply says it’s something they started when they were young, before they realized what would get in the way. He worries that without it, Josie will become like the others.
Klara sees the interaction meeting as something that was full of insights for her. She sees how Josie can change and wonders how often she will do it. She wonders about the B3 comment, and if Josie will be angry with her. But Josie does not seem angry at all. Klara sees that the “changes” are part of Josie and she will need to be prepared for them. Sometimes, she realizes, “people often felt the need to prepare a side of themselves to display to passers-by—as they might in a store window—and that such a display needn’t be taken so seriously once the moment had passed” (85).
But there is one event that comes up not long after that creates a real coldness between Josie and Klara, and that is the trip to Morgan’s Falls. Josie had not been feeling well as of late, and the Mother says that if she is better by the weekend they can go to Morgan’s Falls, and Klara can come too. Josie tells Klara what a special place this is, and shows her old photos of their trips. Klara notices another girl, and Josie tells her it was her sister Sal, who died of a different sickness when Josie was younger. She did not know Sal well.
Josie gets stronger every day and is excited to go on the trip. Two days before, Klara and the Mother are talking and the Mother admits she is fond of Klara and likes having her here, especially as Josie is calmer and more cheerful with her around. She adds that Klara is doing well, and asks if she is happy. Klara says yes, and the Mother then wonders if it even makes sense to ask an AF that.
Sunday morning arrives. Klara realizes now that she had already started to pick up on the signs that something was not right days before. As they get everything loaded into the car, the Mother looks at Josie and tells her bluntly that she can tell Josie is sick again. Josie says she is not and begs to go, but the Mother insists they cannot. She orders Melania Housekeeper, who is also coming with Josie’s medical supplies, to get out and take Josie inside. Josie is anguished, and apologizes to Klara because she knew she wanted to go. To everyone’s surprise, the Mother says she will take Klara anyway, as she very much wanted to go. Josie is quiet, and then apologizes to her mother for always being sick. She tells Klara she will love the waterfall, and goes inside.
Klara has to get used to being in a car, which she does while the Mother muses on how Josie has to get better and how children never think their parents have feelings when they obviously do. She tells Klara at one point that she envies her for having no feelings. Klara says she has some, such as sadness that Josie isn’t here, and the Mother apologizes for being rude.
As they drive, the Mother mentions various things, such as how Josie’s father used to work at a cutting-edge refrigeration plant they pass, and how they’re not together anymore but they get on fine. When Klara asks for clarification about the job, the Mother says he was “substituted” like everyone else, even though he was brilliant. But everyone is better off now, she adds.
They arrive at the falls and begin their hike. Early on, Klara espies a bull in a field and is terrified by its physical presence, by the strangeness of this creature being able to stand in the Sun with its wish to destroy, rather than being buried in the earth. The Mother says it can’t touch her, and encourages her along.
They reach the falls, which are beautiful, and the Mother takes out her coffee. The Mother asks if Klara is glad to be here, as her face does not have its usual smile, and Klara says yes, but she is regretful Josie is not here. The Mother agrees, and asks what Josie told Klara about the place. When Klara mentions Sal and offers that she is sad Sal passed away, the Mother says yes, sad is an understatement, but when Klara then wonders why Sal passed, the Mother becomes upset and tells her it is an absurd question and none of her business. A moment later, though, she softens and says she misses Josie and wants Klara to be Josie. She asks Klara to imitate how Josie sits, and how she would speak. Klara is reluctant but assents, and they have a conversation with “Josie” telling her mother she will be fine and not to worry. But when Klara-as-Josie says there is special help coming, and it’s something no one has ever thought of before, the Mother says enough and shuts it down.
They drive home, and Klara is allowed to sit in the front so she can see better. This time she espies gentle, kind sheep instead of the cruel bull. The Mother tells her she is glad Klara came, and how she made it less lonely. She asks Klara not to say anything about pretending to be Josie at the falls because Josie might take it the wrong way. The Mother then asks about the “special help” Klara mentioned, and if it is merely hope or something else. Klara says it is hope, but a real one, and that she believes Josie will become better. The Mother is silent, and finally says she is an intelligent AF and maybe she can see something they cannot, so it is best to be hopeful.
Back at home Klara finds Josie sketching, an expression on her face that Klara hadn’t seen before. She recalls the B3 comment, and eventually says she is sorry if she did something to upset Josie. Josie replies that of course she did not, and that Klara is her AF so they must be good friends. But there is “no smile in her voice” (108).
Analysis
In the second section of the novel, Klara gets used to her new surroundings (she has to perceptually orient herself around objects and terrain) and her new “family.” She assumes Melania Housekeeper will be like Manager, but instead Melania finds her “frequent presence in her vicinity both puzzling and irritating” (51). The Mother is often cold to Klara, and Rick too is wary of her when they first meet. And while Josie is more of a known entity to Klara, she still has to figure out why Josie behaves as she does in certain situations.
At the interaction meeting, for example, when Josie orders Klara to say hello to a couple boys, Klara was “surprised at Josie’s voice. It was like the one she sometimes used when talking to Melania Housekeeper, but not like any voice she’d used before to me” (76). After the meeting she has to accept that “changes” were part of who Josie was, and that “this wasn’t a trait particular to Josie, that people often felt the need to present a side of themselves to display to passers-by” (85). When Klara accompanies the Mother to Morgan’s Falls instead of Josie, Josie’s “changes” come back to her, as Klara thinks Josie now has an “expression I’d never seen before,” (109). This confuses her because Josie said she was fine, but the tone was similar to when, at the meeting, Josie laughed and said wryly that maybe she should have gotten a B3 instead of Klara. Klara’s powers of observation will thus need to be continually honed.
Klara’s actual role in the household is a curious one. Is she an equal? A servant? A guest? Many critics compare her to Ishiguro’s brilliant creation of the butler Stevens in The Remains of the Day, as she is just as “repressed and service-oriented” as the diligent, loyal butler who ignored all signs his employer was a Nazi sympathizer. Anita Fellicelli notes that while “Ishiguro’s narration in several of his books can sometimes feel a little stiff or oddly earnest, this peculiar, endearing quality of his prose works beautifully in a novel told from the perspective of a robot who is there to make a lonely person feel less so, but is nevertheless, merely a robot, with the sense of purpose, but limited consciousness that entails. Klara has a restricted emotional range — there are many incidents that she could feel rage, grief, or happiness about — yet nevertheless feels a tremendous sense of obligation and mission, like Stevens.”
Critic Lindsay Bartowski also sees Klara’s role as akin to a servant, which allows Ishiguro to comment on class and labor: “Klara may appear to readers as the perfect servant. She is the solution to the historical servant problem—the difficulty of finding good help these days—and the solution to the ethical complications and social discomforts that have long shaped service relationships. In this sense, Klara might, at last, embody an ideal long sought after by housewives, mistresses, and other sorts of employers, even slave owners: she is an entirely selfless, empty vessel that exists absolutely and only for the family that she serves. Klara is the invention of a society that demands its workers become lovable and perform love, however artificial or inauthentic, and then discards them when they’ve exhausted their social utility. A vision of a rather dystopian future, it’s also an apt description of the pandemic present which has seen the recognition of many working people as ‘essential,’ yet disposable.” Indeed, Klara herself will be disposable, as she is left in a scrap yard after Josie goes off to college.
But before that happens, Klara remains committed to her job as Josie’s companion. She clearly has an affection for the girl even beyond the fact that she has to be pleasant and helpful because it is her job to be so. Interestingly, though, given what the potential plans for her are, Klara indicates a latent desire to be not just a human being (not actually, but to be viewed equally to a human being) but especially a daughter, a “receiver of maternal love,” as Yiqun Xiao notes. He says that “Klara’s desire for maternal love is also indicated by her sensitivity to even the most trivial change in Chrissie’s attitude toward her. One of these changes concerns the affectionate sobriquet ‘honey,’ which Chrissie has used exclusively for Josie and which signifies maternal love… Klara may be touched by Chrissie addressing her as ‘honey,’ but she misses a sinister premise: all of Chrissie’s signs of maternal love toward Klara appear only when Josie, the actual daughter, is absent. They show not her love for Klara but her love of a daughter. The same policy applies to the affectionate name ‘honey’ as well: none of the three further instances in which the mother calls Klara ‘honey’ occur in Josie’s presence.” Klara may think that sitting in the front seat, being called "honey," and receiving the Mother’s confidences makes her akin to a daughter, but sadly, this is not the case.
