The Sun Is Also a Star

Natasha selects the song, “Fell on Black Days,” by Soundgarden. Daniel notes that she is a terrible but sincere singer and it makes him even more attracted to her. He teases her about the morose quality of the song. He reaches for her and kisses her. She kisses him back.

Natasha and Daniel continue to kiss each other. As Daniel is kissing Natasha, he lays her across the norebang couch. They continue to kiss this way.

Daniel is startled by the passion of their kissing.

Natasha is startled by the passion of their kissing.

Daniel wants to have sex with Natasha but realizes the norebang is not the best place to have sex with someone you just met. He pauses momentarily.

Natasha compliments Daniel’s butt. She decides to stop kissing him as she feels that their sexual intimacy will escalate if they continue to touch.

Daniel and Natasha take a break from kissing. Daniel tells her that they are meant to be, which makes Natasha sad because she knows she may have to leave the country tomorrow. She apologizes for being so moody. Daniel asks her about her father. Natasha says that her father regrets ever having a family. Daniel shares that families are complicated, but he was once surprised to learn that his mother was a painter. He wonders if she gave up her art to have a family and if she regrets it sometimes. He explains that all he knows is that poetry is important to him. As of that moment, Natasha is important to him, too. Moved by his words, Natasha kisses him.

Natasha kisses Daniel so that he will stop talking. She is afraid that if he continues to speak so sweetly to her, she will fall in love with him.

Daniel sets out to write a poem entitled “Ode to a Kiss.”

After an impatient waitress interrupts them to ask if they want to order anything else, Daniel and Natasha decide to leave the norebang. Natasha decides to take Daniel to the Museum of Natural History, her favorite museum. Along the way, she begins to think of the possibility of her deportation. She realizes that her romance with Daniel is a fantasy, and she needs to live realistically.  

Natasha is distant towards Daniel while they are on the subway to the museum. Noticing her hesitation around him, Daniel asks her, “What are you so afraid of?” (186).

Natasha responds, “What are you talking about?” (187). She pretends to not know what he means.

Daniel is frustrated when Natasha feigns ignorance about her sudden emotional coldness. He insists, “We’re meant to be” (188). Natasha disagrees and finally admits that she is undocumented and that she will be deported the next day. She explains that this is why they cannot be together. Daniel is in shock.

Natasha wishes she had told Daniel the truth from the very beginning.

Daniel is angry that Natasha hid information from him about her legal struggles with her undocumented status, as he had postponed his interview for her. Natasha is furious that he would think it was her fault, as opposed to a choice he made on his own. She accuses Daniel of being a dreamer and romanticizing their relationship. She also tells him that he is acting selfishly and foolishly, much like her father does. She says, “You think the entire world revolves around you. Your feelings. Your dreams” (194). He in turn accuses her of being too pragmatic and of being afraid.

Natasha tells Daniel, “You should go” (196). She criticizes him for being selfish and not considering what she is going through. Rather than consider the vulnerability caused by her struggles as an undocumented immigrant, he only thinks about himself. 

Daniel starts to believe that what Natasha says is true and that there is no such thing as fate.

In Greek mythology, the three sisters of Fate are Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Together, they hold the threads that symbolize someone’s life and destiny. They determine where it starts and when it ends. Fate is part of Natasha and Daniel’s story.

Natasha decides to go to the Museum of Natural History alone and visit her favorite exhibit, the Hall of Meteorites. She wishes she could have taken Daniel there. Natasha believes the universe was created by coincidence, and her romance with Daniel is not connected to a greater fate.

Daniel writes a poem entitled “Symmetries” about the differences that drive him and Natasha apart. The poem reads: “I will/stay on my/ side. And you will/ stay on an-/other” (204).

Natasha remembers when she used to be close to her father. She used to help him memorize lines for his plays. Over time, Natasha’s mother grew impatient with Samuel’s refusal to get a more sustainable job. When Samuel lost his job, he also lost his will to perform. He kept assuring his family that things would be different once he becomes a famous actor, but none of his family members believe him. Natasha catches him rehearsing for A Raisin in the Sun one day. Embarrassed that his daughter has seen him doing something that he is failing at, he chastises her for interrupting him. When Samuel finally gets a role in A Raisin in the Sun, Patricia asks how much he is getting paid, instead of congratulating him. This causes some tension as Samuel realizes his whole family is waiting for him to give up on acting and enter the “real world” (208). This informs Natasha’s perspective on dreams and reality.

Samuel remembers seeing Natasha’s math and chemistry books on the kitchen table and wonders how she has become so different than the girl he once knew. Every now and then, Natasha still looks at him expectantly, but Samuel can only feel resentment towards her. He feels that “[h]e’s already given up all his dreams for her” (210).

Daniel is angry about his fight with Natasha. He decides to direct his anger towards Charlie and makes his way back to his family’s store to confront him.

Natasha arrives at attorney Jeremy Fitzgerald’s office, noticing that Hannah, the receptionist, looks as if she has been kissed. Hannah takes Natasha to Jeremy’s office. Natasha notices that when Jeremy looks at Hannah, it is as if he wants to declare his love for her. Natasha sits down and begins to tell Jeremy about the night her father received the DUI that led to their deportation notice.

On the night of Samuel’s performance in A Raisin in the Sun, he ordered Chinese takeout for the family and presented each family member with a ticket to the show. The performance did not offer complimentary tickets to the actors, so Samuel had to buy the tickets on his own. When Patricia received her ticket, she angrily told him that it was a waste of her money and refused to go. The children tried to persuade her to go but ultimately ended up taking the train there on their own. During the play, Natasha notices that her father is incredibly talented and that “[h]e belonged on that stage more than he’s ever belonged with us” (217).

Daniel returns to his family’s store to confront Charlie. When face to face with his older brother, he demands to know why his brother treats him so badly. Charlie reveals that he resents Daniel because “Korean is all you are” (221). Daniel realizes that Charlie hates him because he reminds him of what it means to be Korean. He feels pity for his brother. When Charlie begins to berate Daniel for having a black girlfriend, Daniel punches his older brother. They struggle together until their father intervenes.

Natasha tells Jeremy the rest of the story following her father’s performance. The children waited for him after the play was over to go home but Samuel was distracted by the emotions he felt following his performance. He decided to go out to drink with his actor friends. He accidentally became so drunk that he crashed his car into a police vehicle. While under the influence, he ranted to the police about how he was undocumented, and that America never gave him a fair chance. Jeremy wants to know why Samuel would do something so reckless.

Written in the form of a play, this chapter presents the two actors, Patricia and Samuel Kingsley, as they are having an argument in their bedroom following Samuel’s arrest. Samuel tells Patricia that everything will work out, but Patricia is not convinced. She reminds him of the day they met and how he had promised to make her happy. She eventually believed it. Samuel blames his family for his inability to pursue his dreams. He claims that his family’s aspirations mean less to him than his own dreams, declaring, “Them not nothing compared to mine” (229).

Natasha tells Jeremy about how the family received the Notice to Appear letter from Homeland Security weeks after Samuel’s arrest. Her parents attended the Master Calendar Hearing without a lawyer since they read online that one did not need a lawyer for the first appointment, a decision that makes Jeremy shake his head. At the hearing, the judge gave her parents the option of Voluntary Removal or Cancellation of Removal. They refused Voluntary Removal at the hearing. When they researched Cancellation of Removal that night, they learn that Samuel had to prove that he had lived in the U.S. for at least ten years, that he possessed good character, and that leaving the U.S. would cause undue hardship to his family. Since Peter was born in the U.S., they thought he would serve as a good reason as to why they deserved to stay. However, it was hard to prove “extreme hardship” (231) with Peter as he would not be in immediate danger, should he go to Jamaica. At the Merits Hearing, the judge denied the family’s case and Samuel accepted Voluntary Removal at the advice of their immigration lawyer who was the cheapest one they could find. Their lawyer advised them to opt for Voluntary Removal so that they would not have deportation listed on their records and retain some chance of returning one day. 

After hearing Natasha’s story, Jeremy tells her he will talk to a judge friend of his who will get the Voluntary Removal reversed so that the family does not have to leave immediately. Afterwards, they will file an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals. The process will take several hours.

Daniel’s father takes him to another room and hands him a cold can of Coke, to lessen the swelling of his lip from his fight with Charlie. He asks Daniel genuinely, “Why do you think it matters what you want?” (235). He explains that he has known poverty in his life and that Daniel knows nothing of it. He urges Daniel to make the right decision to choose Yale and lead a stable life. Otherwise, he will have to pay for college on his own and get a job. Daniel’s father also tells him that he and Natasha “can never be” (237), to which Daniel says that he is wrong.

When Dae Hyun was thirteen, his father was grooming him to take over the family’s crab-fishing business. It was a struggle to make ends meet in crabbing. As the oldest of three, he had no choice. He remembers first seeing the crabs and how they fought each other to get to the top. The image haunts him as a symbol of how hard it is to survive.