The Tragedy of Alignment: Machinic Consistency and the Failure of Human Relations in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

This article examines Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun as evidence of a shift in AI fiction toward a posthuman critique of relationality. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, the essay argues that protagonists Adam and Klara function as “molecular” disruptions to “molar” human structures. Adam’s ethical consistency destabilizes his owners' moral flexibility, while Klara’s care prioritizes relational integrity over utility. By analyzing the disposal of these characters, the article argues that the narratives depict a failure of human relations, not technology. The contemporary AI entities function as a diagnostic mirror, exposing the structural hypocrisy of anthropocentric frameworks and the inherent fragility of social bonds when confronted with a non-human ‘other’. Ultimately, the machine’s tragedy exposes a fundamental ethical gap: the human inability to inhabit the very moral consistency we demand from our creations.