“The Sun Is Also A Star” portrays intricate themes relating to the American Dream, fate, and love. The story shows the lives of Natasha and Daniel, two people in vastly different worlds, and tells their stories through their eyes. It dives into multiple foreign perspectives to show how other people’s choices affect Daniel and Natasha’s lives.
Themes
“The Sun Is Also A Star” explores many themes. From the unseen hand of fate to the pain of rejection, the novel dives into intricate aspects of human reasoning, and it shows how a single act can change someone’s present and future.
Fate
Since the dawn of human civilization, scholars and philosophers have argued about fate’s role in human history. Many belief systems inculcated fate into their mythologies and recognized something beyond human control that shapes everyone’s destiny.
The story of “The Sun Is Also A Star“ beautifully portrays fate in the modern world. It shows how minute interactions between people alter outcomes. In the novel, Natasha and Daniel meet by mere coincidence, and their entire time together happens only because of the intricate alteration of events.
Though Daniel and Natasha’s story portrayed the intricacies of fate, the best portrayal of cause and event happened to Irene, the conductor, the BMW driver, and the waitress. Though their lives were disconnected, their minute interactions with others completely altered their destinies.
The train conductor was a divorced man who found his way after watching a show without sound. If his train had not abruptly stopped, he would not have made a speech that would stick to Daniel Bae.
Irene was a lonely woman who wanted to commit suicide. She had planned everything and written a note. However, Natasha’s voicemail changed her life and set her on the road to becoming a flight attendant, a job that gave her the happiness she sought.
The white BMW driver was a man suffering from the grief of his daughter, who died two years earlier. Though his existence seemed negligent, he ultimately influenced Daniel and Natasha’s lives. His almost hitting Natasha led to her and Daniel becoming close. He also hit Attorney Fitzgerald, the immigration lawyer helping Natasha; this action influenced Natasha’s stay in the US, as Jeremy had to get treated.
Another surprising discovery occurred when Daniel realized he and Natasha talked to Jeremy Fitzgerald.
Love and Reality
Humans have always dreamed of love and written beautiful romance stories of princesses and princes. Many tales have shown how love conquers all. However, “The Sun Is Also A Star” shows love through the lens of reality.
Though love is a feeling that brings butterflies and makes one feel unstoppable, it does not always win in the short term. Natasha and Daniel’s story portrayed just that. They fell for each other and went on a wild adventure involving dates and karaoke.
However, in the end, they were reminded that wishes were nothing more than wishes. Natasha had to move back to Jamaica and eventually lost contact with the boy for whom she had fallen head over heels.
Culture
Culture is a primary theme in “The Sun Is Also A Star.” Daniel and Natasha were from different worlds, and though they came from families of immigrants, their cultures shaped their personalities.
Daniel was born a second-generation Korean-American and had to live up to the expectation of entering a prestigious university like his brother, Charlie, who got into Harvard.
Though he wanted to be a poet, his family was reluctant to support him as they believed Yale was the best place for him; this led to Daniel facing moral dilemmas involving his future.
Natasha, on the other hand, was born into a Jamaican family. Her family moved into the United States illegally, and when her father got arrested for a DUI, immigration services ordered them to leave the country.
Natasha’s struggles with immigration services made her lose all faith in the existence of destiny. She became a data-driven person and saw the world in black and white.
The American Dream
“The Sun Is Also A Star” shows characters struggling to live the American Dream. Natasha fought with the USCIS to remain in New York City so she could live the American Dream. She wanted to have a happy life free of pain and turmoil. However, she realized the American Dream was far from her.
Daniel, on the other hand, fought against the American Dream. As his parents came from Korea, they wanted him to be successful and live a happy life as a doctor. However, he chose to be a poet and followed his heart instead of a dream many, like Natasha, wished for.
Key Moments
- Daniel’s brother, Charlie, is advised to withdraw from Harvard as he is underperforming. Meanwhile, Natasha packs her things as her family is about to leave the United States. The government discovered they were illegally residing in New York after her father’s DUI arrest.
- Determined to fight the verdict, she begs Irene, a woman at the UCIS office, to help. Natasha eventually gets an appointment with Lester Barnes, who gives her the contact of an immigration lawyer, Attorney Jeremy Fitzgerald. Unknown to anyone, Irene saw herself as irrelevant and planned on making a crucial decision.
- Daniel prepares for his admission interview. His train breaks down on the way. He later sees a beautiful black girl leaving the train and follows into a store. Meanwhile, Natasha enters a music store and meets her ex-boyfriend, Rob. She talks to a boy in a suit and red tie and leaves the store. Daniel and Natasha meet in the store even though he is not supposed to be there.
- Daniel exits the store and saves Natasha from an accident. He then goes on a date with her. He saves her from the white BMW driver, a man driven by grief.
- Natasha tells Daniel not to fall in love with her but asks for a day. He then escorts her to Attorney Jeremy’s office building. On reaching the Attorney’s office, Natasha learns Jeremy had an accident, and the meeting moves further into the day. She meets Daniel waiting for her in the lobby. Unknown to her and Daniel, the white BMW driver hit Attorney Jeremy.
- Natasha follows Daniel to his family’s saloon and meets his father and brother, Charlie. At the saloon, Daniel’s father acts racially insensitive to Natasha.
- Daniel takes Natasha to a Korean restaurant and later a karaoke, where he kisses her. She eventually tells him about her deportation, and they fight. Daniel returns to his family’s saloon and fights his brother. At the Korean restaurant, Daniel and his date meet a waitress who is sad due to her son marrying a white woman and her husband forbidding her from meeting her grandchildren.
- Natasha returns to Attorney Fitzgerald’s office, and he tells her he can help with her deportation. Unknown to her, the excitement would not last.
- Natasha hurries to Daniel’s family’s saloon and collects his number from Charlie. Meanwhile, Daniel learns his interview is in the same building as Natasha. He is also shocked to see Jeremy is interviewing him. He realizes Attorney Jeremy was the one working on Natasha’s case.
- Daniel learns that Jeremy failed to help Natasha. Jeremy refused to say he was at fault as he had missed the judge’s appointment for Natasha’s case.
- Natasha calls Daniel, who tells her the news. He follows her home, and she packs. She eventually leaves the country.
- Five years after her departure, Natasha’s mother dies and loses connection with Daniel. Her mother dies from an abrupt illness.
- Ten years after the ordeal, Irene, now a flight attendant, sees a woman in a seat and realizes it is Natasha. She walks up to her and explains how her voicemail saved her life. When Natasha states her name, a man on another seat turns and is shocked to realize he is on the same flight as the girl he fell in love with. Natasha exclaims his name, Daniel.
Style, Tone, and Figurative Language
“The Sun Is Also A Star” is a beautifully written novel with intricate storytelling and well-structured expressive figurative language. Nicola Yoon’s expert blending of the plot with its characters made every aspect of the work intentional and fantastic.
Style
Nicola Yoon used two writing perspectives in “The Sun Is Also A Star.” Natasha and Daniel narrated events from their view using the first-person point of view. Nicola employed an expressive writing style that portrayed the characters’ feelings from this perspective.
Nicola also introduced a third-person perspective to fill in the blanks on characters not explored by the narrators. She talked about other people whose seemingly disconnected lives influenced the main characters. Nicola also used the third-person perspective to give more background to the past; this gave the backstory to characters like Samuel Kingsley and Dae Hyun.
A prominent characteristic of “The Sun Is Also A Star” is the author’s interruption to give snippets of information; this added more depth as it gave more background to characters that would otherwise have been shallow.
Tone
“The Sun Is Also A Star” has a melancholy tone. The story feels tragic as Natasha falls in love, though she is leaving. It gets worse when Daniel learns that Attorney Fitzgerald cannot stop her deportation. The story later ends happily, as Natasha reunites with Daniel in the strangest way possible.
Figurative Language
“The Sun Is Also A Star” uses metaphors, similes, and multiple literary devices to tell a fluid story. Nicola employs metaphors to describe Natasha’s past relationship with her father. She showed how the relationship between the two gradually withered and used the metaphor of planets and satellites to describe a relationship that faded with time and broken dreams.
Daniel also expressed his newly found freedom when he proclaimed he would follow the direction of the wind. Metaphors were also used throughout the story to show how each character felt about the American Dream. For Daniel, it was torture, while Natasha saw it as a goal that would change her life for good.
Other figurative language used includes irony which was used to show the parallels between Daniel and Natasha’s worlds.
Key Symbols
Symbols showing the bond of family and lost hopes occur throughout “The Sun Is Also A Star.” Here are some of them.
Natasha’s Headphones
Natasha’s headphones represented everything she held dear about her father. As a young girl, she and Samuel were close. However, she pulled away after overhearing him say she was his biggest regret. Though she and her father were no longer close, the headphones he had given her meant everything, as they reminded her of the father she once loved dearly.
Natasha’s Math Notebook
After Natasha went to bed, Samuel Kingsley opened her math book and was overwhelmed to see things he could not comprehend. On seeing the note, Samuel realized he was no longer in the same league as his daughter; this made him resent her as he felt he had given up everything for her. The notebook represents the divide between Samuel and Natasha’s thoughts.
A Raisin in the Sun
For most of his life, Samuel Kingsley had always wanted to become a famous actor who starred in many movies of critical acclaim. However, life had other plans. When he had his daughter, Natasha, his aspirations simmered down, and life became an empty shell of lost hope.
However, Samuel finally got a break when he starred in a play called The Raisin in the Sun. After the performance and cheers, he realized he could have made it only if he never had multiple setbacks in life; this upset him and led to a night of drinking that ended up with a DUI. The Raisin in the Sun represents lost hopes and dreams.
“The Sun Is Also A Star” tells a beautiful story of love, fate, and the past’s effect on the present and future. The novel is exquisite, and Nicola Yoon’s fluid storytelling makes every character feel seen and heard.