The Sun Is Also a Star

A romantic and poetically-inclined, Korean-American boy, Daniel’s desires for his life differ vastly from his parents. He is expected to follow in the footsteps of his successful older brother, Charlie, who attends Harvard University and seems to excel at everything he does. On the day that Daniel meets Natasha, he is about to follow in his brother’s Ivy League footsteps by attending an interview with a Yale alum as part of his early-decision application to the university. Charming and well-read, Daniel anticipates a favorable outcome from the interview but insists on locating signs that might point the way toward something more unexpected and spectacular. His exuberance is apparent in his fashion choices for the interview, as he dons a gray suit and a bright red tie, believing it would make him look “confident and debonair” (32), despite his mother’s protestations that the outfit is too bright and flashy. In his conservative family, he defies expectation in small ways in his appearance, such as by wearing his hair long and in a ponytail.

While Natasha expresses little interest in Daniel at first, it is his tendency to retreat into his poetry notebook that incites her interest. A budding young poet, Daniel writes poems when he feels inspired by a strong emotion, which is often. When pressed to express his desires for a life beyond what his parents have designated for him, Daniel states, “We are capable of big lives. A big history. Why settle? Why choose the practical thing, the mundane thing? We are born to dream and make the things we dream about” (101). Daniel’s passion is often contagious in this way and inspires Natasha to think about artistic aspirations differently.

Through his encounter with Natasha, Daniel gains the bravery to stand up to his family. He begins by confronting his family’s racism towards Natasha. When he recognizes that his initial hesitation to introduce her to his family contributes to racism, he forces himself to do better by Natasha. He introduces her to his family and after a series of uncomfortable encounters, he apologizes by stating, “I’m sorry about everything, about the whole history of the world and all its racism and the unfairness of all of it” (144). He continues to become more courageous through Natasha’s influence and eventually confronts Charlie for his cruelty towards him. When Charlie goads him by making racist jokes about Natasha, Daniel punches his older brother. Daniel eventually confronts his father, as well, by choosing to forgo Yale and his family’s financial support to become a writer.

Daniel is known for expressing deep empathy for those around him. When he sees others crying, he involuntarily cries as well. Despite his disdain towards Charlie, he still coaxes his parents not to be so hard on his older brother when Charlie is suspended from Harvard for two semesters. His empathy also makes him an especially ethical person, evident through his determination to report Natasha’s ex and the ex’s girlfriend for shoplifting from a small business. 

Samuel and Patricia Kingsley, parents to Natasha and Peter, met in Jamaica on a rainy day. Patricia was the manager of the store that Samuel ducked into in order to keep his clothes dry before he auditioned to be in a play. He was smitten with Patricia immediately and her shyness emboldened him to sing and share poetry with her. He missed his audition that day to spend more time with her. After they got married, they had Natasha. Soon after, Samuel left for the U.S. to pursue his acting career, with the intention that his family would join him a year later. After the first year, Samuel was reluctant for his family to join him, as he had grown accustomed to living on his own. After the second year, Patricia insisted that the family be together in the U.S. Once in the U.S., Patricia gave birth to Peter and the family lived together in a one-bedroom apartment. At Patricia’s insistence, Samuel took on a part-time job as a nighttime security guard so that he could audition during the day. However, it became clear to the whole family that Samuel was not getting many callbacks for acting roles and had given up altogether. The family has been quietly waiting for him to stop dreaming about being an actor and join “the real world” (208).

Samuel’s dreams continue to cause a rift in his family, particularly through tensions with Patricia. After Samuel finally lands a role in a small production of A Raisin in the Sun, he expects his family to regard the news with pride. However, Patricia responds only with a pragmatic question: “How much you getting paid?” (207). She can no longer abide by Samuel’s selfish dreams and demands that he contributes financially to the family. Patricia’s feelings towards Samuel are mirrored through Natasha as well. She recognizes Samuel’s resentment towards her and the rest of the family as he blames them for his lack of success as an actor. Despite Samuel’s treatment of them, Natasha still harbors love and empathy for her father. After watching Samuel perform in A Raisin in the Sun, Natasha makes the bittersweet realization that “[h]e belonged on that stage more than he ever belonged with us” (217).

After the performance, Samuel gets drunk and crashes a car into a police vehicle. He launches into a drunken rant, during which he reveals his undocumented status to the police. Without the adequate legal resources to properly contest their case, the family has no choice but to leave the country. While Samuel tells everyone that his confession to the police was a drunken error, he secretly sabotaged his family’s life in the U.S. due to feeling like a failure in the country.

Daniel’s parents, Min Soo and Dae Hyun Bae immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea with the help of Dae Hyun’s cousin, who gave them a place to stay and a loan to start a black beauty supply store in Harlem. Before immigrating to the U.S., Min Soo and Dae Hyun experienced poverty but never relayed the full details of their hardships to their children. When Dae Hyun turned 13 years old, his father started to groom him to take over the family’s crabbing business. His family struggled financially because crabbing was unreliable work. He still recalls the image of crabs fighting each other to get out of their cage once caught. This image comes to represent his view of survival, one that he takes with him to the U.S. 

After Min Soo and Dae Hyun arrived in the U.S., they soon gave birth to Charlie and then Daniel, giving their sons American first names with their Korean surname. Due to this blended identity and U.S. upbringing, Charlie and Daniel possess personal values that differ greatly from their parents. While Min Soo and Dae Hyun encouraged their children to get into the best colleges and pursue financially-stable careers so that they would never have to struggle, their children respond in different ways. Whereas Charlie fulfills their expectations on the surface, he no longer communicates with his family in the future and grows to despise his Korean identity. Meanwhile, Daniel tries to live up to their expectations until he meets Natasha. During a confrontation in which Daniel reveals that he has no desire to attend Yale, Dae Hyun says to him, “Why do you think it matters what you want?” (235). Dae Hyun also tells Daniel that his relationship with Natasha “can never be” (237), as he is expected to marry another Korean woman. Daniel’s recollection of how his mother sacrificed her artistic ambitions to start a family in the U.S. inspires him to take agency over his life. He does not want to regret not pursuing his art and letting go of Natasha because of his family’s traditional values. He stands up to his father by turning down Yale and pursuing his passion for poetry.