Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mireya Cabral-Mixco
English 123
Dr. Wilson
What comes to mind when you hear sci-fi? I think of Star Wars-- creatures zooming around
in spaceships bouncing from planet to planet, blasting each other with plasma guns. Although the
sci- fi genre can be seen as quirky or nerdy, there is more to this genre than what’s on the surface.
David Mitchell plays with the relationship between genre and theme in his novel Cloud Atlas. He is
able to connect 6 different genres into one novel-- each story emphasizes the same message in a
variety of ways. The section that intrigued me the most was the Orison of Sonmi-451. By analyzing a
book’s literary features such as plot, narration, character, and setting we are able to see how a
theme can be synthesized. I would classify this section as science fiction but due to the
advancement of technology in the future, it ultimately turns into a dystopian novel. One thing that
is undeniable in the future is the maturing of technology. With a growing dependence on it, our
individuality can be lost. Mitchell uses the science fiction genre in Cloud Atlas, The Orison of
Sonmi-451, to show that technology suppresses an individual’s free will and expression. This
dehumanizing process then blurs the line that differentiates science fiction and dystopian novels.
A common element in the sci-fi dystopian genre is the role of technology in the novel’s plot.
Through the advancement of technology, a dystopian society is bound to form based off of people's
materialistic needs. Those at the head of corporation control all aspects of society: people’s
thoughts, actions, and way of life. In the movie Blade Runner 2049, the Wallace Corporation
manufactures bioengineered humans called Replicants. These Replicatants are created to work,
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making them slaves, and the backbone of society. They all have a limited vocabulary, look alike, and
are given serial numbers as names. The head of Wallace corporation says, “Every civilization was
built on the back of a disposable workforce.” Corpation’s use of technology is meant to undermine
the individual’s awareness of how they contribute to society. This abuse of the power of technology
can be seen in the Orison of Sonmi- 451. Sonmi was fabricant, or a product of Neo se Corpros
intended to work for 12 years and then be put to death. Replicatants and fabricants do not have
control over what they do and have no unique characteristics to make them stand out. This
oppression of one’s originality leads one individual in each story to rise to make a difference. This
can be seen in Blade Runner 2049, 1984 by George Orwell, and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. In
Blade Runner 2049, Agent K realizes that replicants are more powerful than he was raised to
believe when he learns that they are able to procreate on their own, instead of in a factory. This
The narration of sci-fi dystopian novels is often the individual that strays from social norms.
This makes their experience different from the masses because they are undergoing a revelation of
their self worth. On the main character’s path of awakening they usually encounter someone else
that is unique and together they help each other find answers. A staple of dystopian societies is
1984, by George Orwell. The book was first published in 1949, therefore, the novel could have been
seen as a futuristic novel at the time-classifying it as a science fiction novel. In 1984, Winston Smith
was bred to work and worship Big Brother without question. Strict regulations are set up by the
Party to limit individuality. The Party constantly innovates the language that the proles speak, the
threat of capture by the thought police forces obedience, names given are recycled, and technology
like telescreens are placed everywhere so citizens are constantly reminded how great Big Brother
is. Similar to how young, absent minded children watch TV and absorb everything they see and hear
without question. Those that do not work for the inner party live in poverty and filth. Winston sees
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the lies and corruption that the Party is build on and quietly finds outlets to defy the system. He falls
in love with Julia and together they both die on the hope that the Revolution will save them. In the
Orison of Sonmi-451, the organizations that Sonmi worships is Papa Song. The parallels in the
names Big Brother and Papa Song, both are a male family figures that are made to make the
individual feel like they are apart of a big, loving family--and why turn your back on family? Her
name along with her co-workers are recycled, they are created in a factory, they are given drugs to
keep their minds from wandering, and they have a limited vocabulary. Archivist says “ the very
word slave is abolished throughout Neos se Copros, “ (189) and “fabricants have difficulties
threading together an original sentence of five words,” (188). How could have fabricants been able
to defy something that they are physically incapable of understanding. It isn’t until Sonmi’s
ascention when she understood that she was a slave. She was then sought out by Hae Joo who
guided her to be the voice of the Union, the revolutionaries. A member of Wallace Corporation says,
“The world is build on a wall that seperates kind. Tell either side theres no side, you brought a war.”
Thiss shows that there is nothing that differentiates the oppressors and those being suppressed.
Sonmi, Winston, and Agent K all would sacrifice their lives for the smallest chance of hope for
change. The chance to be seen as equals to those in power and to have the same liberties.
In Silvana Caporaletti literary criticism of “The Machine Stops”, she breaks down how
at the center of E.M Forster's utopian society, lyes a machine engine that gives everybody what
they want impartially. The entire earth is dependent on the Machine and she compares it to a
mother. Similar to the father or brotherly figure that other science fiction dystopian societies
praise. Like other stories in this realm, the citizens are passive and oblivious to their moral
decline and how dependent they are on the Machine- never giving it a thought until the Machine
stops. The engine erases the possibility of all of the negative effects of the making of a utopian
society. Caporaletti explains themes in the book like being afraid of a materialistic world and
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utopian societies always have dark side. Caporaletti writes the, “tragic paradox of human
civilization, the impossibility of rationally reconciling two incompatible ideals, a stable and well
organized society with complete individual freedom.” In order to make these “perfect” or utopian
societies, the citizens must sacrifice their freedom. The freedom to express yourself and the
freedom to live life like you want to. If everyone one was raised the same and was the same
person, of course society would be perfect because there would be no one to want change.She
then states that Forester, “ too is aware that stability and peace cannot exist without careful
centralized planning: they inevitably depend, in part at least, on the restriction of individual
will.” This discovery of individual will can be seen in Sonmi-451and Winston in the “climax in
Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the odd one out, Winston, is even deprived of his freedom to die.”
Sonmi’s section is her being interrogated after capture by Archivist, a member of Neo se
Corpros. She explains her daily life before her ascention, the meeting of Yoona-391 and Hae Joo,
and finally her experience at the plant where slaves are recycled into the food they eat. Her
narration allows us to see her transition of a deprived, oblivious slave into an intelligent
reformer.
Those in power can easily abuse their abilites, making it hard for other’s to challenge.
The theme of self discovery through oppression caused by those in power can be seen throughout
Cloud Atlas. In a different section of Cloud Atlas, an elderly composer states“any society’s upper
crust is riddled with immorality, how else d’you think they keep their power, Ruptation is king of
the public sphere… It is dethroned by public acts.”(456) In the futuristic dystopian world that
Sonmi lives in, she discovers the truth about how Neo se Corpros, or Unanimity, is run. That the
corporation that they praised killed fabricants after they had worked for twelve years, instead of
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awarding them a paradise. At this moment Sonmi realized that the reconstruction of society was
more important than her own life. She along with thousands of fabricants, the public sphere, have
the power to dethrone corporation, the king. David Mitchell shows the struggle of self discovery
overpower throughout the six different genres in Cloud Atlas. In Cavendish’s section (memoir
genre) he says, “ Freedom! Is the fatuous jingle of our civilization, but only those deprived of it
have the barest inkling re: what the stuff actually it.” (308) Those deprived of their freedoms,
Sonmi and Winston knew that their freedom was worth fighting for. In both these stories, those
oppressed become a powerful force becuase soceity would not be able to function without them.
Although not shown in either of these novels becuase both rebels were incarcerated, the notion to
take back what was wrongfully taken from them leaves the reader to decide if their message will
be passed on to others.
The reincarnation of one single person’s struggle can be seen through the presence of a
comet shaped birthmark in Cloud Atlas. The main idea of the novel can be expressed by this-a
Cloud Atlas cannot be drawn because clouds are always moving. The clouds represent people’s
souls as they drift from one life to the next. Robert Frobisher (from eplistary novel section and
has the birthmark) says in his letters that, “wars are never cured, they just go into remission for a
few years.” (453) The struggle to overcome a powerful force in order to gain some sort of self
control is one that can be seen throughout the novel as it flows one life time to the next-- the
most clear space is in Sonmi’s story. Due to the accessibility of technology in science fiction
novels, it becomes easy for a revolution to occur. I invision plasma guns blasting each other on a
high speed chase in aircrafts. Technology easily allows visualization of the struggle to overcome
power. Sonmi’s life can continue to drift to other chapters, to a different person, but the same
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soul, determined to overcome power--grounding something that is not stationary into something
his novel, Feed, of a near future version of earth. The feed is a chip that is installed in children's
brains that gives them access to all the information in the world. With this much knowledge one
would think that everyone is a genius, but it is the complete opposite. The feed allows the
characters in a way to turn off their brains and let the computer talk for them. They had grown
accustomed to the decline of the environment and couldn’t formulate an opinion of what should be
done to change their decline. Earth has become a toxic place, so much in fact that it gives all the
characters lesions all over their body's. The way the character’s talk is how we text people
now--instead of laughing they just say “lol”. It becomes hard to differentiate the character’s because
they all talk and act the same. The one character that is expressive can only do so when her feed
glitches. The struggle to surface originality over the feed can be seen through Violet’s glitches. Violet
had the feed installed when she was a teen-- giving her the opportunity to form a personality.
Through her feed malfunctions, she is able to explain to her friends that earth is dying, that lesions
are life threatening, and that something needs to be fixed. Everyone pushes her and her message to
the side and carrys on with their lives. This shows that technology has the ability to change who we
are and can be detrimental to our development. Only when her technology broke was she able to
say something truthful and meaningful. The story ends while she is on her deathbed in a comatose
state as narrator comes to visit her. He talks to her about what was happening in the world, which
shows that he was starting to see what she saw. The same element of not knowing if change will
earth. In the movie Blade Runner 2049, while Agent K drives across California in the year 2049, the
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sun doesn’t shine and the ground is littered with garbage. Cities are covered in a thick cloud of smog
due to the pollution of the bioengineering industry. In the novel Feed, due to the use of floating cars,
the feed, and other technology, the condition of earth has weakened. So much in fact, that the
characters have the liberty to travel to the moon as a place for fresh air and to relax. The same
environment can be seen in the post apocalyptic aftermath of The Orison of Sonmi-451 section. It
can be assumed that war erupted after Sonmi's death or that corporation continued to destroy the
environment because in the following story Zachary, a Valley Man on an isolated tribe explains the
Fall. “ Now the Whole World is big, but it weren’t big’ nuff for that hunger what made Old Uns rip
out the skies an’ boil up the seas an’ poison the soil with crazed atoms an’ donkey bout’ with rotted
seeds so new plagues was borned,”(272). Corporation’s need for power destroyed the environment.
The same message about the health of the environment is one we hear today. Global warming, the
threat of a nuclear weapons, and fracking are all forms of this deterioration that is written in these
sci-fi novels. The continuation of these detrimental changes to the environment is inevitable if there
is no change. Characters in the novels were physically incapable of seeing deterioration. Their
thoughts were hindered by the feed, Sonmi was given drugs, and Winston was brainwashed with
Big Brother propaganda. In the present, our materialistic desire can block our path from seeing
what is happening behind the scenes. New clothes from Forever 21 entail long hour labor in a
factory in a foreign country, cars need gas which inevitably leads to refineries filling the air with
gases, and the list goes one. We have the ability to make a change and influence others to change in
The phrase that your phone or technology is apart of you is taken literally in these science
fiction novels. The feed is a computer in one’s brain, Sonmi and Agent K are the product of
bioengineering, and Winton was surrounded by it due to Big Brother. These stories have either
transformed the humans into clones or we are walking computers. Having technology around us so
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often can be detrimental to our growth. It becomes easy to lose yourself in it and be oblivious to
change around you. Science fiction and its sub-genre of dystopia show that technology has the
ability to take away a person’s identity--the way they look, think, talk, and act. The narration, plot,
language, and setting of these novels all are similar. One individual awakens and takes on the
responsibility of giving others the gift of knowing their self worth. They are made to be aware that
they have the ability to express their opinion in order to dethrone corrupt power. Even if it seems
daunting to propose change to such a widely accepted tradition, it is still worth the try. The ending
of Cloud Atlas is, “ What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops.” In Sonmi’s society, fabricants are
what made up Neos Se Corpros. Sonmi’s voice alone was seen as insignificant to Unanimity, but
fabricants united, million upon millions, would cause significant change. This message to challenge
what inhibits you from expression in science fiction novels can carry through to your life now.
Being aware of our liberties and protecting them. Our liberty to breathe fresh air should not be
tainted by industry. Our liberty to marry whoever we want should not be limited. To overcome a
powerful force it takes a powerful soul and we are all capable of it.
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Work Cited
Blade Runner 2049. Dir. Denis Villeneuve. Warner Bro, 2017. Film