Meaning of Cloud Atlas
Hey guys, welcome to my very last post. It's been, in my opinion, kind of difficult to write posts about this (509 pages!) book. I almost feel like I need to read it again, just to get some of the smaller details I may have missed. If I'm being honest, as I was reading, I felt like my thoughts and theories were a little too scattered to put into words. I felt like all my ideas were sort of half baked. Now that I have finished the book, I have had time to think things through and further develop those ideas.
As I mentioned in the previous post, one of the main themes (from what I can tell) is human nature. This can be seen in the basic summaries of each of the stories, but it also goes deeper than the surface level. Characters can be quoted saying things about how its only human nature to be destructive.
For example, on page 129 of Half -Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery Alberto Grimaldi says something very interesting. "The only answer can be 'There is no "Why." This is our nature.' 'Who' and 'What' run deeper than 'Why.'" I took this as him discussing how humans very rarely consider anything outside of the main objective, as seen in Zachry's era.
On page 470 of Letters from Zedelghem Robert Frobisher says "People are obscenities." Just before this, he talks about why people enslave others and test their luck.
Then the last quote that really stuck out to me the most, "One fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself." (David Mitchell 508) from The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. Human nature is just that. Corrupt, even at the best of times.
Humans are also inherently greedy as seen in the preteen "Barbie Prostitutes" who stole Timothy's wallet. Timothy takes all the money from the incarcerated writer and refuses to share with his brothers In Sonmi-451's time, everything is regulated and controlled by corporations to produce a profit. Ayers takes all the credit from his workshop with Sixsmith.
It's easy to pass this off as just creating drama for the story, but I think the author wrote this with the intention of the reader finishing the book and thinking about human nature. He consistently slipped in little quotes and betrayals that correspond with this theme too well to not be on purpose.
This is even relevant today in regular everyday politics. Scandals, murders, crimes could all be seen as human nature, as much as we try to hope it isn't. Human nature will always be relevant, as long as we continue to make mistakes and try to learn from them.
In a way, human nature is sort of in the book we are reading in class, Macbeth. He was corrupt and incredibly greedy; he was willing to kill someone he was loyal to for his own gain. Very similar to the corporations of the future and the genocide and slavery of their people.
This is unrelated to the theme, but I saw Mrs. LaClair's comment on one of my partner's post about birthmarks, so I did a little research and read back a little, and found all 6 people had a comment birthmark. I looked around on the internet and a lot of people had theories about how they were all the same soul reincarnated. Kind of cool. Just thought I'd share.
Thanks for sticking around!
As I mentioned in the previous post, one of the main themes (from what I can tell) is human nature. This can be seen in the basic summaries of each of the stories, but it also goes deeper than the surface level. Characters can be quoted saying things about how its only human nature to be destructive.
For example, on page 129 of Half -Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery Alberto Grimaldi says something very interesting. "The only answer can be 'There is no "Why." This is our nature.' 'Who' and 'What' run deeper than 'Why.'" I took this as him discussing how humans very rarely consider anything outside of the main objective, as seen in Zachry's era.
On page 470 of Letters from Zedelghem Robert Frobisher says "People are obscenities." Just before this, he talks about why people enslave others and test their luck.
Then the last quote that really stuck out to me the most, "One fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself." (David Mitchell 508) from The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. Human nature is just that. Corrupt, even at the best of times.
Humans are also inherently greedy as seen in the preteen "Barbie Prostitutes" who stole Timothy's wallet. Timothy takes all the money from the incarcerated writer and refuses to share with his brothers In Sonmi-451's time, everything is regulated and controlled by corporations to produce a profit. Ayers takes all the credit from his workshop with Sixsmith.
It's easy to pass this off as just creating drama for the story, but I think the author wrote this with the intention of the reader finishing the book and thinking about human nature. He consistently slipped in little quotes and betrayals that correspond with this theme too well to not be on purpose.
This is even relevant today in regular everyday politics. Scandals, murders, crimes could all be seen as human nature, as much as we try to hope it isn't. Human nature will always be relevant, as long as we continue to make mistakes and try to learn from them.
In a way, human nature is sort of in the book we are reading in class, Macbeth. He was corrupt and incredibly greedy; he was willing to kill someone he was loyal to for his own gain. Very similar to the corporations of the future and the genocide and slavery of their people.
This is unrelated to the theme, but I saw Mrs. LaClair's comment on one of my partner's post about birthmarks, so I did a little research and read back a little, and found all 6 people had a comment birthmark. I looked around on the internet and a lot of people had theories about how they were all the same soul reincarnated. Kind of cool. Just thought I'd share.
Thanks for sticking around!
Macayla, I couldn't agree with you more on your opening paragraph. Reading through this, putting it into writing is tough because of how much is thrown at you as the reader. I can somewhat articulate my thoughts in speech, but committing them to writing is hard. But we made it through! :)
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