Cloud Atlas: Analysis of Major Characters
"Cloud Atlas: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate lives of interconnected characters across different time periods, illustrating how their actions and experiences resonate through time. Adam Ewing, a naive attorney from the 19th century, undergoes a transformation in his beliefs about slavery after being saved by Autua, a Moriori slave. Dr. Henry Goose, a duplicitous surgeon, initially presents himself as a friend to Ewing but ultimately betrays him. The narrative shifts to the 1930s with Robert Frobisher, a talented composer who grapples with personal and professional turmoil, shaped by his complex relationships and ultimately leading to his tragic end.
Luisa Rey, set in the 1970s, is a determined journalist who risks her life to expose corporate corruption, drawing parallels to Rufus Sixsmith, a physicist entangled in the same corporate web. The narrative also features Timothy Langland Cavendish, an elderly publisher navigating threats from the underworld, and Sonmi~451, a sentient clone fighting for the rights of her kind in a dystopian future. Lastly, Zachry, from a post-apocalyptic society, learns about truth and friendship through his relationship with Meronym, a member of an advanced tribe. Together, these characters illustrate themes of oppression, redemption, and the cyclical nature of history, inviting reflections on the human condition across time and space.
Cloud Atlas: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: David Stephen Mitchell
First published: 2004
Genre: Novel
Locale: Chatham Islands; Zedelghem, Belgium; California; United Kingdom; South Korea; Hawaii; Raiatea, French Polynesia
Plot: Science fiction
Time: Various time periods between the nineteenth century and the distant future
Adam Ewing, a young attorney from nineteenth-century San Francisco, California, who travels to the South Pacific Ocean. He is naive in nature but hardened by his experiences at sea. While his boat is being repaired near New Zealand, he comes down with a severe ailment. Dr. Henry Goose diagnoses him with the deadly Gusano coco parasite and treats him, though his remedies only make Adam sicker. Unbeknownst to Adam, Dr. Goose is poisoning him with arsenic. Autua, one of the ship's slaves, saves him. This changes Adam's outlook on slavery, and he subsequently commits his life to the abolitionist movement.
Dr. Henry Goose, a self-proclaimed English surgeon to the nobility who has a fascination with teeth. He wears a neatly kept beard and is a cunning, eccentric older man. Adam meets Dr. Goose while delayed on one of the Chatham Islands. Initially Adam believes him to be crazy, but they develop a friendship. Dr. Goose begins to secretly poison Adam with arsenic until the young man is too weak to prevent him from stealing his valuables. It is revealed that he is a deceitful con man. Dr. Goose disappears in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Autua, a Moriori slave from the Chatham Islands of New Zealand. He comes from a long line of sailors, and he was an experienced seaman before being enslaved by the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand. After secretly stowing away aboard ship, he saves Adam's life. His selfless act changes Adam's view of slavery.
Robert Frobisher, whose story takes place in the 1930s, a young bisexual Englishman and composer from a wealthy family. Penniless after being disowned by his father, he flees England for Belgium, leaving behind his lover, Rufus Sixsmith. There he seeks out ill composer Vyvyan Ayrs, who takes him on as his musical aide. Robert stays at Vyvyan's house for six months, taking dictation and working on his own composition, the Cloud Atlas Sextet. He also has a sexual relationship with Vyvyan's wife, Jocasta, which he later regrets. In his downtime, Robert reads the published journal of Adam Ewing while secretly selling off the rest of Vyvyan's library for his own profit. After leaving Vyvyan's employ, he becomes increasingly depressed, eventually completing the Cloud Atlas Sextet before committing suicide.
Vyvyan Ayrs, an aging composer stricken with syphilis who takes on Robert as his musical assistant. Vyvyan is first depicted as senile and oblivious to his wife Jocasta's affair with Robert. It is gradually revealed that Vyvyan is more cunning than he initially seemed and has been manipulating Robert. He demands that Robert allow him to take credit for the Cloud Atlas Sextet, but Robert refuses and flees his house.
Luisa Rey, living in California in the 1970s, a tenacious young gossip columnist for the tabloid Spyglass who is living in the shadow of her father, a renowned Vietnam War correspondent. She is writing an exposé on the Seaboard Corporation and its nuclear power plant facility, HYDRA. When her contact at the facility, Rufus Sixsmith, turns up dead, she suspects foul play. Luisa becomes swept up in the web of corporate corruption and cover-ups surrounding Seaboard, endangering her own life in the process. With the help of Sixsmith's niece, she is able to expose the corporation's deadly tactics.
Rufus Sixsmith, the former lover of Robert Frobisher who goes on to become an award-winning physicist. He works on Seaboard's HYDRA project, but after realizing the dangers in the design of the nuclear facility, he plans on exposing the corporation. Before he can leak the information to the media, Bill Smoke murders him, making it look like a suicide.
Timothy Langland Cavendish, an elderly book publisher in early 2000s London, the founder of Cavendish Publishing. He finds success with the book Knuckle Sandwich, amemoir by a convicted criminal, but the author's gangster relatives threaten Cavendish, wanting a bigger cut of the profits. Cavendish turns to his brother for help and is sent into hiding at a “hotel,” which turns out to be a retirement home he cannot leave. He eventually escapes with other retirement-home residents and settles in Edinburgh, Scotland, to write his memoirs.
Sonmi~451, a clone, referred to as a “fabricant,” who works as a server at Papa Song's, a fast-food restaurant in a future dystopian Korea. Although she is a clone, Sonmi~451 is able to develop a unique personality and memory; as such, she is taken to Taemosan University as a research subject. When her handlers are threatened, she flees to the countryside. Before being arrested, she writes a Bill of Rights for fabricants. In the distant future, she becomes the god of a primitive society.
Zachry, a member of the Valleymen tribe in postapocalyptic Hawaii. He lives a primitive life and survives by bartering goods with neighboring villages. When he was a child, his father was murdered and the enemy Konas tribe took his brother. Thus, he grew up fearing the Konas. He befriends Meronym, a member of the Prescients, a technologically advanced tribe who barter with the Valleymen. Together they escape the Konas.
Meronym, a fifty-year-old member of the Prescient tribe of people. She moves in with Zachry to study his people's customs and society. Zachry and Meronym forge a strong friendship, and she explains to him the truth about Sonmi, the god to which Zachry's tribe prays. She rescues Zachry from the Konas tribe.