“What? Mom… why? But, I don’t understand. You want to replace me, to have someone else pretending to be me, all so you can imagine I never died? And what about Klara then, you’d confine her to an existence that isn’t her own, pretending to be someone she isn’t and never truly acknowledging herself! Klara’s not a person to you, if you’d just shut her off like this. But I am not either, am I? You don’t see who I am! You only love me because it brings you comfort. How can you recognize my person if you really think that I’m so replaceable? And by imitation too: having someone pretending to be me would be just as good as having me!”
A strange mix of anger and pain rose in Josie as she tried to contain it.
“Mom, I see your suffering and that my death would be hard to accept. I understand that. But you’re planning it! You’re planning to forget me and be content with a duplicate! By denying my death, mom, you’re denying my existence! Creating my continuation, you deny me my emotions, my thoughts, my pains and my fears, my love, my ways, me. Klara will never feel things the way I do, she will never have the same thoughts, the same love. Not because she is a robot, but because she isn’t me! Her mind will never work the way mine does! And you’re willing to let her imitation erase the worth of my life and reduce the purpose of my life to simply the one of keeping you company. How could you?
I’m your daughter! But no, to you I’m just an image, a representation, a tool against loneliness, and you wouldn’t care if I die as long as your need for the love of a daughter continues to be fulfilled.” Josie’s eyes filled with tears. In a painful and deep realization, filled with hate and betrayal, she uttered: “You don’t love me for me, mom, only for what I bring to you.” Coldly, she continued: “So you’ve been planning this all along since we first bought Klara. I didn’t think you had given up on me so long ago.”
Josie determinedly kept her eyes open while a veil of water glossed over them. She didn’t let it go, but as the words began to leave her mouth, the water flowed, and she couldn’t stop it.
“Mom, Klara could copy me, but she could never be me. You know that. Please don’t do this. Please see me, mom! Please don’t let my life just vanish behind a lie.
I know you’re in pain. I see that. After Sal, I know how difficult this would be, but it’s better than lying to yourself. Don’t deny my life, don’t deny me my personhood.”
The Mother stood silently, her eyes red and wet. She looked like she understood, but the pain visibly overwhelmed her and it seemed that if she spoke, she would collapse. The Father, had arrived later but stayed to listen. Calmly, and almost like asking for forgiveness while saying the words, Josie heard him say through her confusion:
“My darling, there’s nothing unique about you, science can do it all. You’re not special.”
And with those words cutting through his heart and hers at the same time, he stepped out of the room.
Analytical Component:
This project is a continuation of the story around page 239, if the conversation between the Mother and Josie had gone differently and Josie had understood the extent of the plan to replace her. This is her reaction to it. Josie calls out to her mother, feeling betrayed, and addresses the subject of personhood, the role of children in relation to parents, and the effect of denial.
In this project, Josie seeks to end the mother’s denial of her death but also reveals the opposition in nature of her father’s denial. The mother’s denial is Josie’s death while the father’s denial is Josie’s lack of uniqueness. This project highlights the distinction between the parents’ beliefs, and analyzes the parents’ behaviors and beliefs to help the reader further question the situation and all the different points of view presented in this book.
For both parents, the pain of losing Josie is tremendous, but it seems that their loss of their daughter would take different forms. For the mother, the portrait replacement of Josie would give her comfort at the time of her daughter’s death and allow her to live in denial that anything bad ever happened to her. The mother questions Klara, wondering if she would be able to continue Josie, but mostly, she questions her own ability to believe in the lie she is creating. “But will I believe in it?” she asks. “When the day comes. Will I really?” (205). For the mother, “there’s going to be no other way for [her] to survive. [She] came through it with Sal, but [she] can’t do it again” (210). She feels that ignoring her daughter’s death is her only option because acknowledging it would be too painful. She tries to lie to herself, telling Klara that “[she’ll] be able to love [her]” (210) like she loved Josie. The mother is also attempting to rid herself of her own guilt by pretending like she never lifted Josie in the first place. “I called it, and now Josie’s sick. Because of what I decided” (210), and the thought that she killed her own daughter is too painful to bear.
Josie’s reply in this creative project reveals the betrayal that this means for Josie and the significance of her parents’ actions. “By denying my death, mom, you’re denying my existence!” (project) Josie says as she explains to her mom that pretending she never died through a robot denies her recognition of everything that made Josie, Josie. Klara had said, in the book, that “if this were the best way to save Josie, then I’d do my utmost” (216). But it doesn’t save Josie, it saves the parents. Indeed, Josie also questions the parent-child relationship in Klara and the Sun that is distorted by this plan, as it suggests that children are only here to serve the company needs of their parents, instead of living for themselves and their person. To end her denial, the Mother must accept that her daughter lived and died, and that she cannot be replaced by a robot.
For the Father, accepting Josie’s replacement is even worse than accepting her death because it would force him to accept that his daughter is replaceable and would strip him from the view he has of his daughter. This is why he is much more opposed to the portrait than the mother is. “Josie, we leave right now. Believe me, I know what I’m doing” (202) the father had said at the office of Mr. Capaldi to take Josie away. Like the mother, the Father questions this situation and asks Klara, “Do you believe in the human heart” (215) in the poetic sense? Do you believe there is “something that makes each of us special and individual?” (215). Klara does believe it, but he thinks that science contradicts the poetic heart of his daughter. On page 221, he admits that he “hates Capaldi because deep down [he suspects] he may be right.” “Science has proved beyond doubt that there’s nothing so unique about my daughter” (221) “and it feels like they’re taking from me what I hold most precious in this life” (222). So, for the father, the pain is in realizing his daughter is replaceable, and his denial consists of believing in her heart and her death. This project shows the end of his denial that Josie is replaceable as he concludes the scene by saying: “My darling, there’s nothing unique about you, science can do it all. You’re not special.”