The Sun Is Also a Star

Natasha agrees to take part in the love experiment. For Daniel’s first question to Natasha, he asks her to list the five ingredients of love. Natasha responds cheekily that she does not believe in love, but as she continues to talk with Daniel, she notices attractive aspects of his physical appearance. Daniel tells her his response to the question and flirtatiously suggests that the two of them have the “X-factor” (83). Natasha becomes increasingly charmed by Daniel’s flirtations. Daniel promises to make her fall in love with him that day, but Natasha reveals that he has an hour to do so, as she has an appointment in an hour. When Daniel asks her about the appointment, she does not tell him that it is in regard to her family’s deportation.

Since they do not have time to answer all thirty-six questions, they narrow it down to ten. Natasha is especially interested in one of the questions about mothers, as she expresses that fathers have a vital role in making lives difficult for their children. She is thinking of her own father in this moment. Daniel wants to ask her more about her parents, but Natasha notices the time and begins to rush out of the restaurant. Daniel follows her, deciding to forgo his haircut and go with her to her appointment uptown.

As Natasha and Daniel are walking, they begin with their answers to the question, “Would you like to be famous and how?” (90). Natasha reveals that she would like to be a benevolent dictator while Daniel says he would like to be “poet-in-chief.” Then they each respond to the question, “What’s your secret hunch about how you’ll die?” (92). Daniel believes he will die an incompetent hero trying to save others from a robbery. Natasha says at first that she believes she will die from heart failure, as black women in the U.S. are statistically likely to do. She eventually reveals the truth, which is that she thinks she will die from drowning. While she could swim in Jamaica, she is not used to the chlorine pools in the U.S. Daniel is amused that someone who grew up on an island could not swim. He promises to teach her how to swim one day.

Natasha asks Daniel why he is wearing a suit. He reveals he has an interview with a Yale University alum later that he does not care too much about. This leads to a discussion about the future, in which Natasha reveals she wants to be a data scientist, not because she feels passionate about it but because it is the job that makes the most sense for her personality. This leads to a debate about whether it is more important to be practical or to follow one’s passions. Daniel gives a spirited speech about the importance of following one’s dreams, exclaiming, “We are born to dream and make the things we dream about” (100). Their eyes meet after Daniel’s speech. Natasha opens her palm, as if readying to hold Daniel’s hand. Instead, she walks away.

When Daniel gives his speech, Natasha is momentarily moved by his “poetic heart” (102). She admits to herself that she really desires the kind of optimistic promises that Daniel makes. She opens her palm to him but then retracts her hand at the last minute.

Natasha knows about the three stages of love: lust, attraction, and attachment. She is aware of the chemical reasons behind each stage. These facts have helped her recover from her ex-boyfriend Rob’s betrayal. However, her feelings for Daniel begin to feel like something that cannot explained by chemistry alone.

After they nearly hold hands, they walk the rest of the way to the USCIS building in silence. Daniel offers to wait for her outside, but Natasha urges him to go to his interview. Daniel wonders if Natasha’s feelings for him are truly unrequited. He is not sure what future their romance will have, given his family’s expectations for him. He thinks maybe his attraction to her might be partially informed by his fear of committing to a stable future. Eventually, he agrees to leave her at the USCIS building. Natasha seems slightly disappointed.

When Natasha gets to Jeremy Fitzgerald’s office, the receptionist, Hannah Winter, reveals that Fitzgerald has been in an accident. While he has only sustained several bruises, he will not return to the office until later. Natasha is devastated that her family’s fate will be further delayed but agrees to complete forms about her immigration history in the meantime. When Natasha returns the forms to the Hannah, she tells Natasha to be more specific in responding to the question about how she will be a beneficial asset to the U.S. She tells Natasha that “[a]nything that Jeremy can use to humanize you will help” (111). She adds that Natasha has a good chance of winning because Jeremy never loses. Natasha notices from the way that Hannah speaks about Jeremy that she is secretly in love with him. Natasha submits her forms and hopes that the lawyer will call her later. She wishes Daniel were there with her.

Hannah Winter has never considered herself the heroine or romantic lead of any story until she fell in love with her boss. However, he is married with two children. Jeremy’s accident makes him realize that he truly loves Hannah. When he returns, he will set out to be with her.

As Jeremy was crossing the street earlier in the day, the same BMW that almost hit Natasha crashed into Jeremy at twenty miles per hour. While the injuries he sustained were not life-threatening, it did make him realize his love for his receptionist, Hannah. When he returns to the office later in the day, he holds her wordlessly in his arms.

Daniel reschedules his interview with the Yale University alum because he wants to wait for Natasha in the lobby. Thankfully, the woman on the phone says she was about to call to reschedule the interview for later in the day. He knows it is a foolish to postpone his future for the prospect of being with a girl. Eventually, he sees Natasha in the lobby. She seems to be looking for someone.  

Natasha notices Daniel in the lobby.

Natasha is moved that Daniel postponed his interview for her. Since they have more time together, Daniel proposes they go together to Harlem, so he can drop off the deposit slips for his dad at their shop. Daniel is nervous that his family will see Natasha and make racist assumptions about her identity. 

When Daniel and Natasha arrive at Daniel’s family’s black beauty supply store in Harlem, Daniel is visibly nervous and asks Natasha not to go in. Natasha does not think anything of it at first but then realizes that his request is made because she is black. She realizes that Daniel does not want his family to know he is with a black girl.

Hair has always been an important aspect of African-American identity and can be traced back to early African civilizations. Slavery took away this identity through shaving and denigrating the bodies of black people. Over the years in the U.S., many African-American entrepreneurs have spearheaded the creation of black hair products, leading to its development into a prominent industry today. Patricia Kingsley, Natasha’s mother, used to relax and straighten Natasha’s hair so that her daughter could adhere to Western conventional beauty standards. Natasha decided three years ago to stop straightening her hair and to wear it in an Afro. She does it not necessarily to make a political statement but because she believes it is beautiful.

Daniel realizes that he made a mistake when he told Natasha not to come into the store. He realizes that he is just as bad as his brother, Charlie, when he lets his father’s racism precede his feelings for Natasha. He says to Natasha, “I want to do the easy thing, not the right thing” (132).

Natasha tells Daniel it is fine, wanting him to “be as noble as he first seemed to be, but of course he’s not” (133). She decides to forgive him for not standing up to his family against their racism. However, her faith in love is lessened due to Daniel’s cowardice.

Daniel decides to do things differently and asks for a “Do-Over” (134) of his initial request for Natasha to stay outside the store. This time, he asks Natasha to go into the store with him. Natasha is pleased by this new request and her faith in him is restored.

In the store, Daniel’s father is busy with a customer, so Daniel and Natasha walk through the aisles, to pass the time. When Natasha picks up a box of pink dye, the two of them flirt, thinking about how Natasha would look with pink hair. Charlie catches the two of them and threatens to reveal their relationship to his parents, who will surely forgive his academic troubles once they find out Daniel’s relationship with a black girl. Natasha says to him, “You’re an asshole” (138), but it does not faze him. Daniel moves to protect Natasha by holding her hand. As Natasha and Daniel turn the other way, they come face to face with Daniel’s father.

When Daniel’s father spots Daniel and Natasha, he asks what they are doing in Korean. Charlie, trying to make the situation more uncomfortable, volunteers to translate Korean to English for Natasha, so that his father will not be able to talk about her secretly. To compensate for Charlie’s bad behavior, Daniel’s father awkwardly offers Natasha free hair product. He offers her a relaxer so that her hair would be “not so big” (142). She politely declines. Charlie makes a racist joke about the size of Daniel’s penis to Natasha. Daniel rushes to hand the deposit slips to his father. He takes Natasha’s hand and quickly exits the store.

Natasha thinks it’s funny that Daniel’s family is so racist and rude. Daniel is apologetic, lamenting the behavior of his family as well as the racism of the world. Natasha asserts, “You can’t apologize for racism” (144). She also reassures him, “You’re not your dad” (144), but Daniel seems doubtful.

Daniel’s father, Dae Hyun, came into the black haircare business after the cousin who helped him come to the U.S. gave him a loan to start his own store. This is common practice for many South Koreans due to a historical precedent connected to the rise of wig manufacturing made from South Korean hair and sold to African American women in the 1960s. When the U.S. banned the import of wigs from China, South Korea became the main wig manufacturer in Asia. This eventually led to the development of black hair care businesses run by South Koreans. Dae Hyun does not know this history, only that “America is the land of opportunity” and “[h]is children will have more than he once did” (146).

Daniel suggests that they take the D train to Korea town to get lunch at his favorite restaurant. On the train, Daniel tries to discreetly sniff Natasha’s hair, but she catches him, much to his embarrassment. He says it smells like rain.

Although Natasha does not like poetic sentiments, she is a bit moved by Daniel’s comparison of her hair to rain.

On the train, the two ask each other questions about their relationship to their parents. Daniel says that he does not have a favorable relationship with his dad, but he gets along with his mom, who is artistic like he is. When asked about her relationship to her parents, Natasha makes the thumbs-down gesture for her dad and gives the thumbs-up sign for her mom.

Natasha further describes her relationship with her father. She says, “It’s hard to love someone who doesn’t love you back” (152). She has once heard her father describe her as his “greatest regret” (152).

Samuel Kingsley met his wife, Patricia, one day when it was raining heavily in Jamaica. He had ducked into the store she was managing to escape the rain. He had an audition to go to later and he did not want to soak his clothes before then. He was attracted to Patricia because she was shy, and he liked shy women. He ended up singing and quoting poetry to her. He missed his audition but did not care.

At the Korean restaurant, Daniel explains the different kinds of Korean foods and how to eat them. Natasha asks why he calls himself Korean when he is an American. Daniel explains that he gets asked where he is really from all the time and he has given up explaining to people who think of him as a foreigner, so he just says that he is from Korea. Natasha tells him that he should say he is from the U.S., since it’s the truth. Natasha shares that being from Jamaica, she saw snow for the first time when she was 8 years old and in homeroom. She spelled the word “favorite” with a “u,” in the English way, which was marked wrong by the teacher. She corrected her teacher and received her rightful points for her answer. Daniel is bemused by her tenacity.  

The waitress at the Korean restaurant tells Daniel to teach Natasha how to use chopsticks, frustrated that she does not know how to do so. Her animosity towards non-Koreans has to do with her son’s perceived betrayal, when he married a white woman, instead of a Korean person. She and her husband refused to attend her son’s wedding. They have also declined to meet their son’s mixed-race children. The waitress explains that her resentment of non-Koreans is due to her belief that “[t]his country try to take everything from you” (161).