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Zach Finklestein

English-123

Professor James Wilson

26 April 2018

The Cycle of Life

Despite the six different genres and stories in ​Cloud Atlas​, it all manages to tie

together, leaving the reader with the thought of “what was the book trying to tell me?” ​Cloud

Atlas’s​ six genres are all unique but yet still connect one to the other, especially being hundreds

of years apart on the timeline. ​Cloud Atlas​ proves one major point, we’re connected with our past

and present, and the actions we make birth our futures. In ​Cloud Atlas,​ each section has a direct

connection with one another and there are even prime examples of sections impacting the next.

Ranging from a mans journal in the 1800’s to a post apocalyptic story set in the very distant

future, ​Cloud Atlas​ has any thrilling genre you can think of and each section could have easily

been their own book yet David Mitchell ties them all together perfectly. The most important

being “An Orison of Sonmi-451.” Sonmi takes place in a futuristic South Korea, heavily based

on the book ​Brave New World​ but of course unique. Sonmi is an interesting section because not

only is it the first section that takes place in the reality of the story, but it also seems like a point

in the book with the most realization about what’s going on in the book overall. The overall

theme of birthing our future is more common than the average person might think. It’s important

to look at not only Sonmi, but the whole book, dystopian fiction as a genre, Mitchells message to

the reader and most importantly the theme overall.

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Cloud Atlas​ is connected in a lot of ways, but there’s an important lesson David Mitchell

is trying to teach. We’re connected with our past and present, and the actions we make birth our

futures. This means that whatever we do, it can either impact us in this life or even a future life in

which we’re still connected with. All sections of ​Cloud Atlas​ are connected to each other in some

way, even if it isn’t the main protagonist. This is easily shown by the characters with the comet

birthmark, but the connections go way deeper than that. In one way or another, how one

character acts can impact either them in the future, or a future character. For example, Sonmi’s

revolution leads to her, hundreds of years later, being seen as a god, like Jesus, to Zachry in

“Sloosha’s Crossin’”. You can argue that parts of the story aren’t in the real world of the book,

though this can be true, what would the point be of connecting characters if it doesn’t prove an

important point. Any good story comes with hidden meanings and authors know that. It isn’t as

simple as saying “it’s fictional” when there’s always something to learn and as told in ​Cloud

Atlas​, this theme can be applied to real life, Sonmi says “We see a game beyond the

endgame,”(Mitchell 349). This shows that Sonmi knows that the actions she’s made affects the

future, even if it’s the end for her, a whole new game begins that’s been influenced by her. This

might not be the only theme in the book, but this is the most impactful and most relevant to all

sections of the book rather than just some.Of course it may be harder to prove, but there are a ton

of people that believe when someone passes they’re reborn into a new life which doesn’t fall far

from this theme. ​Cloud Atlas ​has a lot of hidden details and clues about previous and future

sections in it that also connect the sections together, leaving the reader wondering why and how

they’re connected. This theme shows up not only in Sonmi, but the entire book as well.
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Cloud Atlas​ is all about the connections between characters in each section and is safe to

say that’s what most people reading are trying to find out. Although this theme is seen in the

entire book, there are 2 groups of sections that stand out that connect and impact each other. The

first being Sonmi and “Sloosha’s Crossin’”. Sonmi is seen as a god to others in “Sloosha's

Crossin’” and they happen to be the only two sections that are in the “reality” of the story.

“Sloosha’s Crossin’” takes place hundreds of years after Sonmi, yet her impact is still seen even

with Meronym with the Orsion she has of Sonmi and it seems that where she’s from has the

same futuristic technology that was on Sonmi, but not from the same place, also they share the

same comet birthmark. One simple line that could’ve been missed was, “My ideas have been

reproduced a billionfold,”(Mitchell 349). This might be seen as foreshadowing because in

“Sloosha’s Crossin’” Zachry and probably many others see Sonmi as a god, her ideas continued

to spread and impact people for hundreds of years, proving her impact on the future. Another

connection can be seen between Robert Frobisher and Luisa Rey. Unironically they have the

same birthmark as well. At many points of Luisa Rey, she gets flashbacks and memories of

things in another life that never happened to her, for example, when she is running from people

trying to kill her, she escapes from a hotel, and has flashbacks to when Frobisher would escape

hotels that he hadn’t paid for and she’s confused about it because she’s never been in that

situation before, or obviously that timeline. In one way or another, ​Cloud Atlas​ is connected and

the only obvious part about it is the comet birthmark, and who’s connected and it’s important to

look at how each character impacts another of a future story or time. How the characters are

connected is a completely different story that requires thinking about connecting details from
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each section but that doesn’t mean the deeper connection isn’t there. Since “An Orison of

Sonmi-451” is the most important, it’s important to look at the inspiration to the section as a

whole, ​Brave New World​.

One of the harder things to realize is the connection between theme and Sci-Fi or

dystopian fiction as a whole. The theme doesn’t only relate to ​Cloud Atlas​ as a whole, but to

many if not all dystopian fiction and Sci-Fi stories. A lot of these futuristic dystopian stories

have some connection to the time it’s written to give the writer the feel that maybe one day that

it’s possible for something similar to the story to happen. Whether the connection be companies,

objects, old language, in some way they connect with the past and like any story, the actions they

make will affect their own future and the societies future which impacts the future of future

generations. In every dystopian novel, the society is exposed as not so perfect and the main goal

is to expose it as a whole and ultimately create change in the city and the people living there,

which makes it hard to argue that the actions they’re making don’t affect the future of everyone.

Brave New World​ uses language like “Alpha,” “Beta” and so on to describe social classes, using

language that’s been around for centuries and with language constantly evolving as time passes,

it’s the connection the author makes to connect it with present or past times.

It’s hard to understand themes in dystopian fictions without knowing what exactly makes

a story a story fit into that genre and how they’re connected with the past. These similarities can

be found in every dystopian fiction novel or story but some might be easily missed. One

uncommon feature is class systems. Like in Sonmi and ​Brave New World​, the people are divided

from class to class. Some obviously less than others doing all the dirty work, “​Only an Epsilon
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can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him they aren't

sacrifices; they're the line of least resistance. His conditioning has laid down rails along which

he's got to run. He can't help himself; he's foredoomed,”(Huxley). This quote from ​Brave New

World​ talks about how people from the lower class, Epsilon, aren’t even given the resources to

know that they’re imprisoned doing the work no one else wants but that’s still necessary.

Another feature is the environment. All dystopian stories start out describing the society and life

in it, bragging how it’s perfect, which is the ironic part. These societies defy nature, either by

cloning, creating people in labs giving them specific genes, or changing how people think, they

move from natural to controlled environments made to seem natural, “In many contemporary

eco-dystopias, technological progress means both a movement away from and simultaneously a

movement into or towards nature – away from nature-as-wilderness, but towards

nature-as-garden, a constructed, mediated, engineered nature that is still essential to our

definitions of urban space or technological utopia,”(Hughes & Wheeler 3). They talk about how

many dystopian societies like to abandon the natural way life works in order to create the

“perfect” world. In addition, many dystopian novels have very strict leaderships, “Two children

– one male, one female – to each family unit. It was written very clearly in the rules,” (Lowry).

In ​The Giver, ​the society has strict rules to follow to keep the perfect order. The many rules that

the leaders put on people controls people’s beliefs about almost anything, giving the illusion of a

utopia. Another thing that’s common among most dystopian fictions is the langage. Many

dystopian stories have their own made up form of language mixed with old language to help tie

in the idea of progress into the future, but also past influences. There are many aspects to
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dystopian fictions but what’s important is the specifics that set it apart from any other genre,

making one of the most unique out there.

Much like any Dystopian fiction story, Sonmi shares all of those traits. Nature is played

with, because fabricants are produced to do work that Purebloods wouldn’t do. Not only that, but

their thought process is mostly taken away, so they won’t fight back and do what they’re made to

do, with Sonmi being one of the rare and only cases. The​ fabricants are seen as less than

everyone else, purebloods, not only because are they clones, but also because it’s normal for

everyone to look at them and see something that isn’t completely human with a lesser thought

process than everyone else, like how Epsions are treated in ​Brave New World​. It might be easier

to see Sonmi as a generic Sci-Fi story, but when you look deeper and compare Sonmi to

something like ​Brave New World​, it’s easy to see the aspects and features of a dystopian fiction

story being told. One similar feature to other dystopian stories is the language, “​to reduce

xperimental contamination,” (Mitchell 202). The language in Sonmi is very simplified, like any

word with “ex” is just “x” and this seems like the language used in a lot of text message

conversations have taken over as the normal way to spell. This is a small change, but still proves

the connection of the change in language with a dystopian story like Sonmi. Sonmi shares the

same goal as many stories in this genre. They want to expose and change the society that isn’t as

perfect as everyone might think. It’s easy to find similar features between Sonmi and ​Brave New

World​ not only because they share genres, but also because Sonmi is inspired by ​Brave New

World​, but how similar are the two?

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While ​Brave New World​ was a direct inspiration to Sonmi, it is easy to see some of those

influences but there’s also some that aren’t as obvious. When Sonmi worked at the restaurant,

after closing, everyone would drink soap until they passed out. This is a direct connection

because in ​Brave New World​, the characters would take Soma to help avoid feelings acting like

weed or an alcoholic substance. Other than Soma sounding strangely similar to Sonmi, it’s easy

to connect the two. One that might not be as obvious has to do with the fabricants themselves. In

Sonmi, the fabricants are made in factories and are basically identical clones, at the start of Brave

New World it explains how everyone is bred in factories and are separated based on what traits

they are given. One big similarity is there is a breed in ​Brave New World​ where they are

purposely made less smart than others, so they do the work no one wants to do and won’t ever

fight back, “​Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so

frightfully clever. I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we

are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and

Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still

worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write,”(Huxley). Each class has a name, and the

lower the class is the weaker they’re made on purpose so they do the work no one wants to do

without the threat of them fighting back.​ This is almost identical to the fabricants working in the

diner except some stand out like Sonmi and Yoona because they learn about the outside world.

Although the details are different, you could say the use of making fabricants was inspired by

how people are made in ​Brave New World​, besides who would enjoy it if it was exactly the

same? Not only are the characters similar, but so is the plot. Both stories work around one
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character that has traits like no one else does, for example Sonmi learns faster and easier than

other fabricants. In ​Brave New World​, the most dominant are given the ability to be smarter than

the rest, but despite not being born into the most dominant class, the main character has intense

thoughts, not wanting to be like the rest, forgetting all their feelings. This is typical in most

stories, where the protagonist isn’t like the rest and that’s the main point of conflict. But what

makes these two similar is how. Both characters are smarter and learn about the problems of the

world they live in easier and faster than others and spend their time trying to convince others,

like when Sonmi goes back to the diner, yet both end up failing to fulfil their mission in ruining

the “utopian” society.

The message David Mitchell wants to send can be clearly seen with not only the theme,

but with Sonmi as a section. What Mitchell wants to say is that no matter what we do, our

actions are important to not only to our future selves, but to future generations as well, for

example any children someone might have. Not only that, but we are also connected with out

past because where a person is in life, they got there from the actions and results of people in the

past, whether it be family, friends, or both. Sonmi expresses this not only with the main plot of

the section, but side characteristics that might easily be forgotten. For example, movies being

called disneys. Disney as a company became so big that it was normal for every film to be called

a disney because that monopoly took over, this was affected by not only the people, but the

company as well for the actions they took to get where they were. It’s not a coincidence that

Michell chose big brand names to take over as everyday names, like Nike, Sony and Disney, but

to help show the impact they had in the past to change the future in such a big way. The entire
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section is Sonmi being interrogated while in custody for starting a revolution, but this didn’t only

affect her, it impacted the rest of the book, with Sonmi even being recognized as a god. The

actions she made when she was alive not only impacted how she was seen but how the future

saw her way of thinking and how they saw her as a whole. It’s important to understand that

Mitchell wants people to think about the actions they make, because they will have a bigger

impact than anyone might think.

Cloud Atlas​ expresses that we’re connected with our past, and what we do impacts us in

our future as well as a future life. “An Orison of Sonmi-451” is the best section because not only

are dystopian fictions unique, it tells an interesting story. Sonmi is the first section in the reality

of the book, this is important to help understand the story as a whole and how everything ties

together. “An Orison of Sonmi-451” itself is inspired by ​Brave New World​, a dystopian fiction

written in the 1930’s. It’s easy to see the similarities of the two stories, once you read both it

makes sense why David Mitchell chose ​Brave New World​ as his inspiration. The way he

implemented the similarities fits well with other themes of the story and leaves the reader

wondering and wanting more. ​Cloud Atlas​ is a very unique novel with genres ranging

everywhere to capture anyone that reads it. David Mitchell’s use of different language styles and

genre usage as a whole is unique along with how he ties every section together in many ways.

Not only is it important to look at Sonmi, but the dystopian genre as a whole. How it connects to

the theme, Sonmi and why it’s important. There's many connections between them all but they

can also be easily missed. Lastly, David Mitchell has many hidden messages in every section of
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the book, but it’s important to look at the connections we have to not only to the past, but to the

future as well.
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Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. ​Brave New World​. Granada, 1981

Lowry, Lois. ​The Giver​. Seedlings, 1997

Mitchell, David. ​Cloud Atlas​. Sceptre, 2012

Wheeler, Pat, and Rowland Hughes. “Introduction.” ​Critical Survey​, Berghahn Journals,

22 Mar. 2018,

www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/critical-survey/25/2/cs250201.xml?pdf

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