Klara and the Sun

Klara and the Sun

• Genre: Fiction; dystopian/science fiction
• Originally Published: 2021
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 6 parts; approx. 307 pages; approx. 10 hours, 16 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Klara, an android, lives in the US in the near future. She serves as an Artificial Friend to Josie, a girl whose intelligence has been “lifted,” as is common for children in her society, but whose health is failing as a result of the procedure.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Serious illness of a child; prejudice based on socio-economic status

Kazuo Ishiguro, Author

• Bio: Born in 1954 in Nagasaki, Japan; raised in Britain after age 5; backpacked across parts of the US and Canada before beginning a program of literature and philosophy at the University of Kent at Canterbury; gradually began writing fiction while becoming interested in social and political issues; early novels well received, then became an international best-selling author with The Remains of the Day; musician, screenplay writer, short fiction writer, and novelist; won the Nobel Prize for Literature (2017)
• Other Works: The Remains of the Day (1989); Never Let Me Go (2005); The Buried Giant (2015)
• Awards: The Booker Prize (longlisted; 2021); named a best book of the year by the New York Times, NPR, the Guardian, the Washington Post, and others

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Fear of Loneliness
• The Importance of Faith and Hope
• The Nature of Learning Through Perception
• Sacrifice as an Expression of Love

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain and develop an understanding of the social and cultural contexts of Klara’s conflict by considering moral and ethical questions connected to today’s artificial intelligence and other technological advancements.
• Analyze short paired texts and other resources to make connections to the text’s themes of The Importance of Faith and Hope, Fear of Loneliness, and Sacrifice as an Expression of Love.
• Plan and construct visual media that illustrate conflicts surrounding artificial intelligence using details from the novel.
• Analyze and evaluate the plot and setting details to draw conclusions in structured essay responses regarding faith and science, the author’s choice of setting, and other topics.