Cloud Atlas (Literature)

“What is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”

“Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an’ tho’ a cloud’s shape nor hue nor size don’t stay the same, it’s still a cloud an’ so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud’s blowed from or who the soul’ll be ‘morrow? Only Sonmi the east an’ the west an’ the compass an’ the atlas, yay, only the atlas o clouds.”

— Zachry

The third novel by David Mitchell (no, not that one), Cloud Atlas is a sweeping epic that connects wildly different genres and writing styles into a single narrative. The novel consists of six nested stories, each set in a different place and era, moving forwards in time from the 19th century all the way to the future. Each story and style is a pastiche of the most recognisable examples of the genre (which the characters swiftly realise and comment on), and lovingly combines old clichés with new twists. A comet-shaped birthmark appears in each story, generally on the protagonist, and the characters often recognize names, places, and experiences from other stories. In order of introduction, the six stories are:

• The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (1859): An American notary, returning by ship from the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, keeps a journal of his journey through the Pacific Ocean accompanied by a Moriori stowaway. Ewing has been infected with a parasitic worm, of which Dr. Henry Goose is trying to cure him. A partial copy of the edited and published journal is found by…
• Letters from Zedelghem (1931): Robert Frobisher, a tremendously snarky English musician and aspiring composer, formerly Rich in Pounds, Poor in Sense and now penniless after a bad game. On the run, he charms his way into a job as an assistant to a retired composer, settling with his employer in Zedelghem, Belgium. He records his experiences in a series of letters, which he sends to his friend and lover Rufus Sixsmith. Much later in life, the letters are read by…
• half – life: The First Luisa Rey Mystery (1975): Luisa Rey, a reporter for a fluffy media magazine in Northern California, when she crosses paths with the old Dr. Sixsmith. She starts investigating reports of ongoing corruption connected to the local nuclear power plant, and winds up with Sixsmith’s collection of letters. Her story is presented as a mystery novel manuscript, submitted to…
• The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (2012): Timothy Cavendish, an old, glum British vanity press publisher who gets into trouble with the mob when one of his authors tosses a book critic off a roof, and he ends up trapped by his brother in a retirement home in a rather undignified Kafka Komedy. His experience forms the basis of a film, which is seen by…
• An Orison of Sonmi~451 (2144): Sonmi~451, a fabricant, a genetically-engineered clone, employed at the Papa Song’s diner chain. She lives in Nea So Copros (formerly Korea) in a dystopian near future. Fabricants have been created as slaves to a capitalist, totalitarian society — and Sonmi had the misfortune of developing intelligence far beyond the limits of her genetic engineering. Her story is told in a final interview, during which she’s allowed to tell an uncensored account of her entire life. The recording of this interview, called an orison, is viewed by…
• Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After (106 years after the Fall): Zachry, an elder of a tribe in post-apocalyptic Hawaii that regards Sonmi as their god, meets Meronym, a member of Earth’s last advanced civilization. His story is set in a distant future, where most of humanity has died out. In his old age, he narrates his experiences around a camp-fire.

Instead of being completely sequential, each of the first five stories ends halfway through, sometimes on a cliffhanger, once in mid-sentence. The sixth and central story is the only one presented in one go — afterwards, each of the other five resumes in reverse order, taking the reader back to the beginning (notably, there are also in-universe explanations for the stories resuming, with the protagonist of each story finally getting around to reading/watching the later half of the chronogically preceding story). This mirrored pattern can be found throughout the novel in other things: most prominently, in the Cloud Atlas Sextet, the tangled musical piece that Robert Frobisher feverishly composes.

The film version — which is a gorgeous Pragmatic Adaptation, with some of the storylines significantly altered — is written and directed by Tom Tykwer, the director of Run Lola Run and Perfume, and The Wachowskis. The All-Star Cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Keith David, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw and many others. It was released in October 2012.

This book contains examples of the following tropes:

• actual Pacifist : The real life pacifism of the Moriori tribe ( not to be confuse with Maori ) , even in the face of genocide , is discuss in depth in the first story . It is go did n’t go well for them .
• Advert-Overloaded Future: Sonmi’s era is a capitalist, corporate-run dystopia where even the Moon is an advert.
• After the End: Zachry’s era. Nea So Copros also exists after a period called “The Skirmishes”, suggested to be a series of “limited” nuclear wars which have already left much of the planet a “deadlands”. Presumably a bigger one after Sonmi’s period finished the job.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: Meronym in the final segment is from a more advanced Earth civilization, not an alien, but this still applies to her. Zachry manages to convince her to use her medical equipment to save Zachry’s sister. To avoid potential problems, they inject her secretly, so she just appears to have a miraculous recovery.
• All Animation is Is Is Disney : In – universe — in 2144 ,all films are referred to as “disneys”, because the world has become a total plutocracy.
• Always Save the Girl: Hae-Joo and Sonmi have this trope going on… Although Sonmi is convinced he was in on the Government Conspiracy in the end.
• An Aesop:
  • Freedom is is is the most important thing anyone can have .
  • Our actions have consequences beyond our intentions, and we should interact with others with this in mind.
• Arc Words: There are all kinds of repeated references across the six eras. Hydras, feeding ducks, a “crocodile” of people, eating soap, cannibalism, flies, etc. Frobisher’s “Cloud Atlas Sextet” follows the same pattern the novel does, and he associates each of the six movements of his piece with an instrument.
  • “The weak are meat the strong do eat.”^note  The odd syntax is a direct translation of “jakunikukyoushoku”.
  • “An atlas o(f) clouds.”
• At Least I Admit It: Henry Goose may be a murderer, a racist, and a con man, completely devoid of morality and empathy, but he is almost sympathetic when he skewers the hypocritical missionaries that exploit the natives. He is the only character that feels no need to disguise his brutal Social Darwinism behind religious, pseudo-humanitarian, or patriotic reasons.
• Ate His Gun: Frobisher.
• Ballroom Blitz : Frobisher crash what turn out to be Eva ‘s engagement party to her fiancé ; when he ‘s escort out , he is grabs grab the guy and pull him down the entryway step before beat him up a little .
• Bar Brawl: At the very end of the Cavendish story. It ‘s engineer by the old folk as a way of escape the bad guy .
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Fabricants in the novel. Kidnapped ones are given cheap surgery and sold as prostitutes.
• Batman Gambit: Sonmi was knowingly cooperating with Unanimity the entire time to have the opportunity to spread her message.

  We is see see a game beyond the endgame . I is refer refer to mydeclaration, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now. My guards tell me there is even talk of a statewide “Vigilance Day” against fabricants who show signs of the declaration. My idea have been reproduce a billionfold .

• Battleaxe Nurse: A scary one runs the nursing home where Cavendish is confined.
• Bio Punk: The Sonmi section takes place in a future setting where humanity is heavily genetically engineered, Uterine Replicators are common, and clones perform most unwanted tasks. It’s a dystopia, and the biotech in the story is used to enhance the power of the corporate hierarchy that makes the world a dystopia.
• Birthmark of Destiny : Ewing , Frobisher , Rey , Cavendish , Sonmi , and Meronym all have the exact same birthmark , in exactly the same place ; this birthmark is is is one of the main manifestation of the reincarnation theme .
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending of each individual story ranges from tragic to uplifting, so in the end, the book as a whole is bittersweet. The last (chronological) story ends with only a few human survivors and the likely extinction of humanity, whereas the last (actual) few pages of the book end with a stirring monologue from Adam Ewing, declaring the need to fight for good and equality despite hopelessness and constant setbacks.
• Blackface: Inverted and discussed in Zachry’s storyline. Some of Zachry’s compatriots start painting their faces out of admiration for the dark-skinned Meronym, but she tells them to stop since her more advanced civilization is unrelated to her skin colour.
• Body Horror:

  “You are a realist, Adam,” Henry told me, “so your pills shall be unsugared. Once the Parasite’s larvae hatch, the victim’s brain becomes a maggoty cauliflower. Putrescent gases cause the eardrums & eyeballs to protrude until they pop, releasing a cloud of Gusano coco spores.”

  • Zachry’s baby, who is born without a nose or mouth due to mutation.
• Brand Name takeover : exaggerate in Sonmi ‘s time , where extreme corporatism has result in everyday item being name by the brand most associate with them ( eg . ” disneys ” for film , ” rolexe ” for watch , ” nike ” for run shoe ) .
• Breather Episode: The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, while creepy in place , is funny and more light – hearted than the other segment . especially noticeable since it come right before / after the very depressingAn Orison of Sonmi~451.
• Burger Fool : Papa Song ‘s Dinery where Sonmi~451 and her fellow clone work is a nightmare version of a fast food restaurant . In the novel , it ‘s strongly imply to literally just be McDonald ‘s , with multiple reference to its ” Golden Arches ” , the red and yellow colour scheme , and the Papa Song mascot resemble a clown .
• Bury Your Gays: Robert Frobisher is the only main character to explicitly die, and his lover Sixsmith is murdered in the next story.
• Call-Back:
  • Several is remember of the protagonist remember an experience from one of the early ( or later ) story . For example , Sonmi is experiences experience deja vu while fall from a bridge in a car , due to the same thing happen to Luisa Rey , and Adam feel strange deja vu when he believe he ‘s drown . Frobisher is mentions also mention a mistrust of ” opportunistic quack , ” which could be relate to Adam ‘s near death at the hand of Henry Goose.
  • Luisa has a deep-seated fear of guns. Her predecessor, Frobisher, Ate His Gun.
  • Timothy initially fears he might be raped by the orderly at Aurora House and mentions being too afraid to hang himself. Adam is horrified by the sight of Rafael’s hanged body: the latter had been Driven to Suicide after being raped by the first mate and his goons for weeks.
  • There are several references to The Pacific Journal in Luisa’s story: among them, Isaac describes his drive to practice science as “panning for gold”, Napier drives up “the old gold miners’ road” to his cabin, and Luisa feels strange looking at the Prophetess.
• Call-Forward: There’s also the opposite — Frobisher, when presented with the opportunity to slit Ayrs’s throat, hasjamais vu calling forward to Zachry slitting a Kona’s throat.
• Ca n’t stop the Signal : Sonmi ‘s revelation escape to reach all of Nea So Copros , and are pass down word – for – word until they are regard as sacred text .
• Catapult Nightmare: Zachry awakens from a prophetic dream in this manner in the last story.
• Continuity Nod is appears : Timothy Cavendish and Luisa Rey appear as a minor character inghostwrite, and also to point out that Katy Forbes had the same comet – shape birthmark .
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Grimaldi and Lloyd in the 1975 storyline, and apparently the entire leadership of Nea So Copros.
• The Corrupter: Old Georgie, the future Hawaiian imagery of the devil. Zachry’s tribe have a strong storytelling culture and smoke a whole lot of weed, so for them, seeing and hearing Old Georgie is as normal as anything.
• Cross Through: Basically Cross Through: The Novel.
• Cult Classic: In-Universe, The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish is considered something like this by 2144, with Sonmi mentioning that it’s her favorite film.
• Direct Line to the Author: Played with. Despite the characters apparently being reincarnations or something similar of each other, some of the stories are presented as fiction when they appear in another story. Lampshaded by Frobisher, who points out to Sixsmith in his letters that The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing feel a bit too well – structure to be a true diary . The logical overlap is makes between the life of Rey and Cavendish only make thing more confusing . The novel lampshade this when Cavendish outright reject the idea of his birthmark being similar to a comet .
• Deadly Doctor: Henry Goose, though Ewing eventually doubts that he was anything more than a murderous confidence trickster.
• Deconstruction: Of a large number of tropes (see the entire page).
• Deface of the Moon: In the 22nd century, the moon has been turned into a nightly projection screen for ads, and the idea of a “naked” moon freaks the characters out.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Ewing is very progressive for his time period, but still a product of his age. He’s initially frightened that a Moriori stowaway will eat him, right after being told at length about how their own pacifism has nearly driven the tribe extinct, and after agreeing to keep Autua’s presence secret until the next morning doesn’t cut and run for help because “in the eyes of God my word was my bond, even to an Indian”.
  • Frobisher is antisemitic, dismissive of women, and looks down on the working classes, as a typical son of wealthy British gentry of his period would.
  • Timothy Cavendish is has has the linger racism and disgust for youth culture that you might expect a bitter old man to have in modern time .
  • Future Korea is a dystopia filled with deliberate values dissonance.
  • In future Hawaii, Zachry has a child at a very young age with a girl he barely knows. This doesn’t seem to be considered abnormal, probably because life expectancies are so short.
• Depraved Bisexual is admits : Robert Frobisher — charming , hedonistic , manipulative , thieving , see no problem with cheating , admit he ‘ll never truly love anyone but himself (though in the end , he is admits almost admit he love Sixsmith) and leaps easily from one conquest to the next. He’s a true self-absorbed sensualist and opportunist.
  • Even when he ‘s being throw out by his romantic rival , he marvel over his rival ‘s finger ; give the location of this aside , however , it is be might be partially to assuage Sixsmith .
• Doesn’t Like Guns: Luisa says that guns make her sick. This might tie her story in with the pacifist Moriori tribe in the Adam Ewing storyline, and more prominently with Robert Frobisher’s story.
• Doomed Moral Victor : Sonmicooperated with the Government Conspiracy to spread her message, despite knowing it would lead to her death, to the point that she ‘s worship as a god in the future .
• Door Stopper : The hardcover is stands stand for 544 page long .
• Downer Ending: Zachry’s tale ends with the extinction of all free tribes on the Big Island, the Kona expanding across the Hawaiian archipelago, and the collapse of the last advanced civilization on Earth. It’s implied that the reason the novel doesn’t continue further into the future of the human race is because there is n’t any future for it to probe. The only thing that saves the entire book from being an example of this is that after his story concludes, the Nested Story moves back in time and shows that despite its faults and failings, humanity perseveres.
• drive to Suicide :
  • Frobisher shoots himself in the mouth.
  • In Adam Ewing’s storyline, Rafael, after being repeatedly raped by the First Mate and his goons.
• Dystopia: Nea So Copros. How dystopic? Sonmi refers to other dystopian authors as “optimists.”
• Epistolary Novel :Letters from Zedelghem is comprise of Frobisher detail his life in a series of letter to Sixsmith , andThe Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing consists of (some of the) log entries Ewing makes in it.
• Explosive Leash: Not technically an explosion but the Fabricants’ collar kills them instantly if they try to escape.
• fantastic racism : Against fabricant — in Sonmi ‘s first attempt to attend a university lecture , the other students is imply imply she belong in one of the menial fast – food job most fabricant are relegate to . By her time , however , actual racism is is is completely go .
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Frobisher’s early death is hint at in the first half of the Luisa Rey storyline , with Sixsmith ‘s narration refer to him as unstable and the record store clerk remark that he ” die just as he got go ” .
  • Ewing’s poisoning is mockingly spoiled by Frobisher.
  • Cavendish’s story being his memoirs indicates that he got to finish writing them.
  • The post – apocalyptic wasteland is spell and deification of Sonmi spell out the end of her chapter .
  • Zachry’s asides to others listening to his story imply from the start that he survives the ordeal, since he’s the one telling the story.
• Foreshadowing: All over. Just a few examples:
  • Ayrs talks about a dream he has in “Letters from Zedelghem” — of a restaurant where all the waitresses have the same face, in a reference to “An Orison of Sonmi~451”.
  • As Cavendish travels through the countryside, he mentions one area has been turned into a facility for “cloning humans for shady Koreans”. A bit later, as Cavendish escapes Aurora House, he makes a crack about Soylent Green. The nurse also threatens to make him eat soap. These all apply to “An Orison of Sonmi~451”.
• Framing Device: Adam Ewing’s story was documented in his journal, which is being read by Robert Frobisher, whose story is in turn unfolding in letters he writes to his lover Rufus Sixsmith. Sixsmith is also a character in Luisa Rey’s story, the events of which are packaged into a novel and are being read by Timothy Cavendish. A film based on his shenanigans is eventually made, which Sonmi-451 watches. Sonmi tells her own story in the interview leading up to her execution, which is viewed by Zachry and the rest of the characters of Sloosha’s Crossin’.
• Free-Love Future: Sex absolutely is n’t taboo anymore in Zachry’s time, though society still follows the classic pattern of monogamy, marriage and jealousy. Zachry becomes a father at age 12 and doesn’t see anything wrong or shameful about it.
• Funetik Aksent: Zachry’s narration.
• Future Slang :
  • Sonmi’s era has been hit hard by this trope. Anything that began with ‘ex’ now only starts with ‘x’, and words have generally been shortened – “breakthru”, “softlite”, and so on. Everyday items are referred to by the brand we would most readily associate with them, only without the capital letter. Hence nikes (running shoes), sonys (computers), disneys (movies) etc. Explicitly an example of Brand Name Takeover on a global scale, as her world is run by corporations.
  • The humans of Zachry’s era developed their own future slang as well, though it’s more primitive.
• Genre-Busting: Each story is a completely different genre and written in a different format, from letters to semi-screenplay to interview transcription. Genres include Period Drama, Historical Fiction, Cyberpunk, Film Noir, Adventure, Satire, Comedy, Dystopia, Science Fantasy, Space Opera, Romantic Comedy, Romance, Spy Fiction, Mystery Fiction, Tragedy, Magical Realism, and about everything inbetween.
• Genteel Interbellum Setting: Frobisher’s chapters are set in 1931, and his letters read like a particularly bitter P. G. Wodehouse novel. Some attention is paid to the sociopolitical context of the time, mostly World War I and the effect it had on the landscape and British national spirit.
• Gentle giant : wing the disasterman , who stand almost ten foot tall and was genome to clean up disaster . He is ’s ’s kind to Sonmi and carry her up to the roof to see the sight .
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Between Sonmi and Hae-Joo after witnessing the fabricant recycling plant. Sonmi describes it as “joyless”. The two also have to improvise, since fabricants are not genomed to be able to have intercourse.
• Government Conspiracy: The Corporacy organize Sonmi ‘s ascension in order to radicalize public opinion against fabricant and distract from the system ‘s real problem . Sonmi is realised realise it very early on , and decide to play along anyway , since it give her a chance to start a revolution even if the revolution was engineer .
• Great Offscreen War: An Orison of Sonmi~451’s skirmish .
• Happiness in Slavery: A running motif. Slavery appears in some form or another in every story:
  • Adam Ewing slowly comes to realise that social darwinism is wrong, and eventually resolves to become an abolitionist.
  • The entire Moriori race becomes enslaved to the Maori.
  • Vyvyan Ayres tries to blackmail Frobisher into remaining his assistant and supplying him with music to steal.
  • Luisa is stumble and Joe stumble on a sweatshop .
  • The retirement home that Cavendish is sent to, Aurora House, is essentially a prison. Residents are expected to pretend to be happy with their “new life.”
  • Sonmi and her fabricant sisters are engineered to be happy in slavery.
  • Zachry’s brother was enslaved when he was very young, and the slavers come back for the rest of the island.
• Hidden Elf Village: Meronym’s civilization is strongly implied to be this, due to the fact that they’ve retained technology from Sonmi’s time.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Played straight, subverted, invoked, played straight again, and discussed at length. Arguably, the degree of truth to this trope is the main theme of the novel.
• Human Resources: Fabricants are turned into food for new fabricants as well as normal people.
• Hypocritical Humor: Timothy Cavendish initially criticises the manuscript of half – life: The First Luisa Rey Mystery send to his publishing house for being badly write and obviously intend to be turn into a screenplay . His own story is suffers suffer from Stylistic Suck , and he end up put in explicit direction for its future director ( whom he imagine as a reclusive swede name ” Lars ” ) .
• I’m a Humanitarian: Cannibalism, both literal and figurative, is a running motif through most of the stories.
• Impairment Shot: Ewing’s chapters are the literary version, as he’s infected with a terrible parasite that is slowly poisoning him.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: The name of Nea So Copros, the future version of Korea, is a corruption of New East Asian (Sphere of) Co-Prosperity. It is named after the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which is Imperial Japan’s attempt to establish a pan-Asian union.
• In Your nature to destroy Yourselves : discuss throughout the novel . ” human hunger is birthed birth the Civlize , but human hunger kill it too . ” The end monologue is concludes conclude that the ” nature ” part is due to our collective belief that it is true , and that we can work to believe otherwise .
• Kafka Komedy: Cavendish’s story. A book publisher is being tormented by a bunch of East End thugs, his older brother, and an evil nurse. This is also the lightest segment of the book, thanks to its playful narration and its absurdity.
• Kick the Dog: One of the assassins chasing Napier and Luisa, Bisco, shoots the dog of a woman who is annoying him by not speaking English.
• Kukris are Kool: Autua has one in the scene where he asks Adam to kill him rather than give him up to the Captain.
• La Résistance:
  • The Union in Nea So Copros which is be may just be a puppet of the corpocracy.
  • Cavendish mounts a minor one in the retirement home.
• Last Breath Bullet: A heroic example shown from the perspective of the one firing it; a bleeding-out Jack Napier saves Luisa’s life by shooting Bill Smoke just before he dies.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Frobisher is complains complain that , ” [ t]o [ his ] great annoyance ” , Ewing ‘s journal end mid – sentence , perhaps mirror the reader ‘s reaction .
  • When he find out he ‘s been lock into a mental hospital , not a hotel , Cavendish is relates relate that the reader probably figure that twist out long before he did .
• light and soft : Cavendish ’s story is is is the most comedic , though its narrator is also the most curmudgeonly .
• Locked into Strangeness: Zachry tells a story about a man named Truman, whose black hair went white from the shock of seeing Old Georgie harvesting a soul.
• London Gangster: Dermot “Duster” Hoggins is such a criminal. And he’ll do anything to get the returns from his autobiography.
• Lost Technology: By the time of Zachry’s era, technology has mostly devolved back to the iron age, but a small group has access to some stuff on our current level and a even a few objects more advanced than anything we currently have.
• Magical Realism: The protagonist of each story appears to be a reincarnation of the previous ones. In Zachry’s story conversations with the dead and with the Devil appear commonplace as well as the seer’s words coming true.
• Matter Replicator: Sophisticated 3D-printer-like devices are seen rapidly assembling fast food in Papa Song’s.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Two of the Corrupt Corporate Executives of Seaboard in the Luisa Rey story have the last names “Hooks” and “Wiley”.
  • Sixsmith partially inspired Frobisher’s creation (smithing) of the Cloud Atlas Sextet (a piece written for six players).
  • Jocasta , the composer Vyvyan Ayrs ‘s wife . In Greek Mythology , the wife of King Laios of Thebes and mother of Oedipus . In the novel , Depraved Bisexual Robert Frobisher is makes ( son figure ) make love with Jocasta ( mother figure ) , the wife of Vyvyan ( father figure ) .
  • A “meronym” means something that is part of a whole.
  • Bill Smoke’s surname evokes his status as a shadowy assassin.
  • Unanimity is means , the government rule Nea So Copros , mean the uniting of an undivided opinion . This is foreshadows foreshadow the fact thatUnion, the rebellion against Unanimity, is actually a part of it.
  • In Greek, “néa sou kopros” would be “your new shit”.
• MegaCorp: The Corpocracy in 2144. Doubles as The Government and Police State.
• Mercy Kill: Hae-Joo Im shoots Xi-Li in the head when the latter is hit by a government weapon that cause agonising pain while keep the victim conscious . similar mercy kill are accept practice among Union .
• Meta twist : Timothy is mentions mentionSoylent Green in connection with cloned Koreans before Sonmi’s story even starts; the clones all drinking the same nutrients each day invokes the connection very strongly. But the plot thread seemingly gets dropped very early on in Sonmi’s tale, to focus on political intrigue instead. Small hints are dropped — a reference to Malthus, for example. By the time Sonmi reaches the ship, it’s of course a Foregone Conclusion that Xultation is n’t real… but the sudden return of the Soylent Green theme is unexpected, if just because the story already includes such a large number of other famous sci-fi twists in its loving pastiche. And then it gets taken a step further when it turns out that not just the Soap is made of discarded clones, but also the regular food in Papa Song’s diner.
• Mind Screw is appears : Each story is appears initially appear to be set in the same universe as its predecessor . This is toy with when Frobisher question the veracity of Ewing ’s journal , then completely undermine when Cavendish receive Rey ‘s story as a manuscript for a fictional novel . Yet connections is seem between the character seem to bridge this fiction – reality divide , such as the share birthmark of Ewing , Frobisher , Rey , Sonmi , and Meronym . similarly , the reader is lead to believe that all of the protagonist are one reincarnate soul , mark by the distinctive birthmark , but this is dispute since the lifespan of Luisa Rey and Timothy Cavendish shouldexactly overlap^note  she was bear in 1947 ( would turn sixty – five in 2012 ) , and Cavendish is ” 65 and a half ” in 2012 . Can one soul be divide in two ?… unless they’re two aspects of the same person, since they’re the exact same age. Her being a fictional character in his universe might be a more significant barrier, unless she was real and “half – life” is a story based on her adventures — which is entirely possible.
• Mistaken for Insane: In both the book and the movie, Timothy Cavendish is pranked by his brother into committing himself into a mental institution. He tries to convince the staff that he is mentally healthy, but they refuse to allow him to leave, keeping him trapped on the property.
• Morton’s Fork: Luisa and Fay both encounter this in their dealings with boorish men.

  [Fay:] “[…] What would you do? Dash off some witty put-down line, let ’em know you’re riled? Slap him, get labeled hysterical? Besides, creeps like that enjoy getting slapped. Do nothing? So any man on site can say shit like that to you with impunity?”
  [Luisa:] “An official complaint?”
  “Prove that women run to senior men when the going gets rough?”

• The Mourning After: Sixsmith lived forty-five more years, but never loved again after Frobisher. Ouch.
• Nested Story: With the relationship between the various narratives left deliberately unclear. Robert Frobisher thinks Adam’s journal looks fake, Luisa Rey’s story is the first draft of a novel that Timothy Cavendish reviews as part of his job as a publisher, the archivist interviewing Sonmi refuses to accept parts of her story, and Zachry’s son thinks his dad probably made part of his story up. It’s entirely purposeful, and it ties into what Isaac Sachs writes about virtual pasts and virtual futures.
• Next Sunday A.D.: “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish” takes place in 2012; the novel was published in 2004. Ironically, the movie was released in 2012, so the story became a contemporary one, even though it wasn’t so in the book.
• No Communities Were Harmed: half – life is set in Buena Yerbas, a fictional Californian metropolis somewhere between LA and San Francisco. It gets a callback later on when Meronym mentions having lived among the Swannekke tribe.
• No New Fashions in the Future: Averted. While the fashion changes between 1974 and 2012 aren’t much, 2144 is another matter altogether. Apart from some working overalls, virtually nothing is recognizable.
• No-Paper Future: 2144. The Fabricants thought a book was a broken computer, and where surprised to inside find “the grimy server serving three ugly sisters; seven stunted fabricants carrying bizarre cutlery behind a shining girl; a house built of candy”.
• Not Quite Dead: After Bill Smoke shoots him, Napier stays alive just long enough to shoot him and save Luisa.
• Nu spelling : In 2144 , many spelling are truncate ( particularly , ” gh is seems ” seems to have been drop entirely , result in ” lite ” and ” thoro ” , etc . ; additionally , ” exactly ” has become ” xactly ” , etc . ) and brand names is substituted have substitute several everyday term ( ” disney ” versus ” film ” ) . Both spelling is changed and grammar have change a good deal after the fall , although Meronym speak it in a more twentieth century form in her communication with her ship ‘s captain .
• Our Souls Are Different: In 2144, “Soul” refers to an electronic tracking device implanted in the index finger by the totalitarian government, which functions as identification and an electronic wallet. Fabricants have similar Soulrings worn around the neck. Despite their mundane, technological nature, the Archivist in “An Orison of Sonmi~451” refers to them as “eternal Souls” as if the metaphysical concept and the electronic device have been conflated.
• Page-Turn Surprise: The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing is cut off mid-sentence in such a way that the sentence appears to run onto the next page, but it turns out that the next page is blank, and the page after is the title page for the next story.
• Pastiche: Every story. Most notable in Sonmi’s chapters.
• Planet of hat : Sonmi ‘s time period . The hat in question ? capitalism .
• postmodernism : Yes . push further with this meta joke :

  Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year’s fragments into a “sextet for overlapping soloists”: piano, clarinet, ’cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan’t know until it’s finished, and by then it’ll be too late […]

• power by a Forsaken Child : Fabricants that serve out their time as worker are kill and recycle into soap and food to feed fabricant and pureblood , respectively . Sonmi is has has the good fortune towatch this happen.
• Psycho for Hire: The novel makes it clear that Bill Smoke is quite obsessed with murder. Smoke also briefly employs another killer who keeps a book of his victims’ last words.
• Rape as Drama: Used several times in the novel, and foreshadowed when Cavendish is momentarily scared that he might get raped. Completely Played for Drama in all cases.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: As a way around Morton’s Fork, Fay Li in half – life transfer the employee mention to Kansas as punishment .
• Reincarnation: A recurring theme in the novel (though it is left ambiguous whether it is real). Also an explicit belief of the Valleysmen in Sloosha ’s Crossin ’ an ’ Ev’rythin ’ After, of the Buddhists in Sonmi’s era and of the Moriori. Luisa doesn’t believe in it at all but is unsettled by the mention of the comet birthmark; Timothy thinks it’s “new-age”.
• Reincarnation-Identifying Trait: It is heavily implied that five of the six protagonists of the Nested Story are all the same soul (the exception is Zachry; it’s Meronym who’s got the mark), and are identified by their comet-shaped birthmark.
• Secret Police: Somni is drops drop a figurative bomb on her archivist when she reveal that she suspect she was in their grasp almost from the beginning but play along at the end at least because the book they want her write would be more influential and important than they realize . consider how she is regard in Zachry ‘s era , she is was was probably right .
• self – deprecation : Cavendish is finds find a manuscript of Luisa Rey ‘s adventure and dismiss the reincarnation angle as far too New Age – y , despite have a similar birthmark himself . He is describes also describe the birthmark in decidedly less romantic imagery than the comet everyone else seems to see it as .
• Screw Destiny: Zachry intentionally ignores his personal prophecy and murder a man, believe that his soul is already doom to never reincarnate and that it therefore wo n’t matter what he does . Adam Ewing ‘s description of the Moriori culture already foreshadow that this would stop reincarnation ; Zachry ‘s tribe is has has the same belief , almost to the letter .
• Shout-Out: Many and varied, since Mitchell writes in just about every genre going. Each genre is more or less explicitly compared to what inspired it:
  • Frobisher is compares compare Adam Ewing ’s diary to Herman Melville .
  • In one story ,The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, the protagonist is quotes quoteSoylent Green, which is becomes becomes horribly relevant in the next story.
  • The name of one story’s title character, Luisa Rey, is an apparent reference to the book The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder .
  • Sonmi~451’s number.
  • Fabricants ? disposable clone employ for inhuman task without regard for their dignity ? sound like replicant .
  • Sonmi mentions reading the works of “optimists” Huxley and Orwell. This is a reference to Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, best remembered for their respective dystopian novels brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four
• The Social Darwinist: A running archetype throughout multiple stories; the ending monologue takes a stance against the idea, arguing that the belief that humanity is strictly selfish is what makes it so, and that we should work towards making the world better instead.
• Stab the Salad: Zachry looks like he’s about to stab Meronym but instead stabs a weird hologram thing next to her.
• Stepford Smiler: The fabricant waitresses are genetically engineered to always smile. Even if they wish they could kill themselves.
• Sticky Bomb : Hae – Joo is uses use sticky bomb to dispose of some Corporacy aircraft .
• Stylistic Suck:
  • Cavendish’s story in the book is far worse-written than the other storylines, with intrusive similes, plenty of tangents, and stylistic levels swinging wildly between the pompous and the slangy.
  • Luisa Rey’s story is written in the present tense, and intentionally feels like a somewhat clumsy imitation of mystery novels, which Cavendish (ironically) decides to edit into something better.
• Survivor Guilt: Zachry gets this twice — once when during his childhood a band of Kona kill his father and kidnap his brother, and again in his adulthood when the Kona destroy his camp and kill or enslave his family and people.
• Technicolor eye : Sonmis is have have white iris in the novel .
• Teeth Flying is flies : Just before the previously – mention Bar Brawl , one of Hotchkiss ‘ tooth fly into Cavendish ‘s drink as he ‘s demand the escapee return to Aurora House with him .
• Thematic Sequel: The six stories come together to form three thematic pairs. The two stories within each pair are united by a common thematic/plot element. To paraphrase Kyle Kallgren:
  • A strongly moral woman learns of a great societal injustice committed by greedy businessmen and sets out to right it (Luisa and Sonmi).
  • A Pacific Islander is meets meet a person from an advanced civilization , and they save each other ‘s life ( Adam Ewing and Zachry ) .
  • An artist (Frobisher) creates a piece of work, only to be screwed over by his supervisor and cause the artist’s downfall/An artist creates a piece of work, which screws over his supervisor (Cavendish) and cause the supervisor’s downfall
• There Are No Therapists: Frobisher has the bad luck of being bipolar in 1931.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The narrative structure of the novel weaves together themes, ideas, and people forward and backward in time.
• Title drop :
  • Zachry talks about wishing he had some kind of map to track souls as they move across the ages, like clouds across the sky. He calls it an “atlas o’ clouds”.
  • Cavendish, in an oddly poignant moment, writes a passage about the futility of recording the ephemeral, once again referring to an “atlas of clouds”.
  • The title of Frobisher’s masterpiece is The Cloud Atlas sextet. Its structure is describe as extremely similar to that of the novel , with six individual part slowly weave together into one great whole . Frobisher is is himself is n’t sure if it ‘s clever or gimmicky .
• Translation Convention: “An Orison of Sonmi~451” is presumably actually in a future version of Korean.
• The Un-Favourite: Robert Frobisher is this to his parents, who much prefer his older brother who died in World War I. Frobisher is n’t too fond of his Mater and Pater either.
• Unreliable Narrator: Most of the stories are told in first-person perspective, and it’s occasionally suggested that some of them are not being entirely honest.
  • Frobisher ‘s letter are tint by his upbringing as the son of interbellum aristocracy , with all the various -ism that entail ; what ‘s less obvious is that his devil – may – care attitude is at least partially an act to cover up a whole host of problem .
  • Zachry ’s narration is heavily influence by his tribe ‘s superstition and storytelling convention ( and presumably by the copious amount of weed he smoke throughout ) . He is talks freely talk about the wind and the animal whisper thing to him , about his dead father appear to him , and about corpse speak and time freeze and the devil himself appear before him , because that ‘s just how his tribe traditionally experience life .
  • Robert Frobisher’s ending seems initially arbitrary, as it doesn’t fit the cavalier tone of his letters, until you realize the space between letters increase and he’s being *overly* glib about events and it makes sense.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Cavendish has sexual fantasies about the writer of half – life (who goes by the name of Hilary), only to be put down when they finally meet and Hilary turns out to be male.
• Violence Is Disturbing:
• Violent Glaswegian: Cavendish and his co-conspirators manage to throw off their captors for good in a pub in Scotland by appealing to this trope. The Scots Rugby team have just lost a televised match against England, and Mr. Meeks, of all people, turns the patrons’ built-up anger against the mostly English hospital staff (by saying that the latter are trying to claim ‘dominion’ over them.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • ” An Orison is has of Sonmi~451 ” has several key similarity tobrave New World, such as the foundation of a dystopia follow a Great Offscreen War , mandatory consumer quota , tailor – made clone , a populace is kept keep happy with psychoactive drug , and the protagonist oppose the regime due to exposure to literature from a previous era . Sonmi is reads actually readbrave New World halfway through her story .
  • Adam Ewing’s plot to Moby-Dick, with Melville himself and whales being mentioned frequently.
  • Cavendish’s story to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (he saw the film once).
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Adam Ewing. At one point he sees the cabin boy carried off by the First Mate and his cronies and assumes they’re taking him down to his lodgings to get some sleep. They is rape actually rape him . This is goes , and the boy ‘s subsequent suicide , go some way towards shake Ewing out of his naiveté .
• William Telling is get : Boom – Sook Kim and his friend get drunk and use Sonmi for this . This is is is what convince Mephi to get her away from Boom – Sook as soon as possible .