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Margot is a creative and talented child whose primary motivation throughout the story is to remember, see, and experience the sun. Because she has been brought to live in a place where the sun never shines, the sun becomes her singular focus. Margot is so traumatized and shocked by her situation that she barely responds to stimuli. She is despondent and takes no joy in the games the other children play, and she can’t bring herself to sing along with the class. When the songs are about the sun, however, Margot sings along quietly, hinting at how vitally important the sun is to her. Margot’s character truly comes to life when the class is asked to describe or write about the sun; her descriptions are poetic and powerful in their simplicity, much like Margot herself. The sun inspires Margot to be her best, most creative self, and so she craves it desperately.

While the lack of sunshine is an obvious and constant refrain in the story, no character more strongly represents the negative effects of its absence than Margot. Bringing a child like Margot to a place like Venus is a cruelty, and her presence and demeanor reflect this. She appears pale and washed out, as if she is wilting like a flower deprived of sunlight. Like such a flower, Margot will die without the sun. Her parents recognize this about her and are thus considering taking her back to Earth. Ironically, this worsens Margot’s situation at school, causing the other children to be jealous and to inflict even more cruelty upon her. The incident in the shower, when Margot refuses to let the water touch her head, shows that Margot is nearing a breaking point. If things do not soon improve for Margot, she will not survive. With no definitive resolution to the story, Margot’s fate remains unclear, but the evidence suggests tragedy.

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