Sam Casselle Sanchez

English 123

Essay 3

April 25, 2018

Purpose in Life

“If by happiness, you mean the absence of adversity, I and all fabricants are the happiest stratum

in corpocracy, as genomicist insist. However, if happiness means the conquest of adversity, or sense of

purpose, or the xercise of one’s will to power, then all Nea So Copros’s slaves we surely are the most

miserable” (David Mitchell,p.188). In the chapter “An Orison of Sonmi-451” from the book Cloud Atlas

with a genre of science fiction. David Mitchell shows the readers a possible outcome of our future by

describing every events, characters, place, and even the way they speak. He revealed how dystopian

society can be cruel and unhappy by enslaving clones which are also humans, but different because they

don’t have the same feelings as the “purebloods”. However, some clones were made containing feelings

just like Sonmi-451 who gained knowledge and tried to fight for everyone’s rights, but Mitchell justifies

that once we’re in a dystopian society, there’s no more changing on how life is once used to be.

David Mitchell wrote Cloud atlas with many different timelines and genres. However science

fiction struck me the most because it is something that is possible in real life to happen in the future. In

the chapter “An Orison of Sonmi-451” It begins in an interview with Sonmi and how she explained the

whole story of her life. She started by telling her life story as a server at papa song. Human duplications

who are called the fabricants are creatures who are created in a womb tank. One of those fabricants is

called Sonmi-451. These fabricants works at a diner called papa song and they have a caretaker called

Seer Reeh. The fabricants doesn’t have a break, but after work, they would drink a milk looking substance

that they call “soap” which is their source of energy. One night, Sonmi woke up and went out of her pod,

she saw Yoona~939 with the Seer overdosed from drinking too much soap. This was Yoona’s plan to get

a hold of the Seer’s “small picture book” where they could watch a small clip of a movie. This is the first

time Mitchell showed a fabricant being in control of itself, he’s trying to shows that a fabricant also have
the skills to learn new knowledge. Sonmi told the archivist how Yoona has began to be aware of her

surroundings, developed quriosity, and question about the world. Whenever the “purebloods” would leave

an item, Yoona would collect them them and tries to learn them such as reading and learning new words.

However, Yoona being curious about a lot of things put her in a lot of trouble. One New year’s eve at

papa song when Sonmi was wiping the tables, Yoona executed her escape plan by hostaging a boy. “The

child’s mother saw her son in Yoona’s arms as the elevator doors closed. She Screamed: ‘A clone’s taken

my boy!’”(Mitchell,194) panic happened, Yoona was shot by the enforcer into pulp. However rumors

spread that the boy was also shot, but then he is “he was quivering, balled into one corner. His sailor suit

was no longer white”(Mitchell,195). This is the intriguing part because Mitchell made the readers think

that it is possible for a fabricant to escape but at the end, she didn't make it.

Before Yoona died, the See Reeh would gather them and mark their collars which they call

“stars” and every fabricants who reaches their twelfth year gets escorted away to leave for xultation which

they think is their way of freedom, but little do they know, they are sent to xultation to get killed and

recycled to be use as ingredients to make a soap sac. This is kind of similar to the movie called “The

Island” directed by Michael bay because in this movie there is this one Island that is isolated from the rest

of the other Islands because they believe that the other Islands are contaminated for human lives to live

on. Similar to Sonmi, the scientists makes clones and it is governed with strict rules. A lottery is

conducted and every “winner” gets to leave the compound and live on the islands. One day, a character

named lincoln have discovered a live moth and followed it leading him to deduce the outside world is not

really contaminated. Lincoln follows the moth to another section and found out that the “lottery” is

actually a disguise to remove inhabitants from the compound where the winner is then used for organ

harvesting, surrogate motherhood, and other purpose for each one’s sponsor who is identical to them in

appearance. By having a similar story, it supports Mitchell’s narrative that having a dystopian society

could lead to this.

Although an escape seems impossible. A guy named Hae joo who is in the “union revolutionary

group” have come to help sonmi escape. Late night after the death of Yoona, sonmi woke up out of her
pod and went outside, she saw Hae joo standing over the lifeless body of Seer Reeh, Sonmi was terrified

and tries to sneak away but then Hae Joo stopped her and introduced himself and saying to not worry

about the Seer Reeh because he just overdosed from a soap sac. Sonmi was confused, but they had to

leave before they get captured by the enforcers. Hae Joo said “You must have a hundred questions,

Sonmi. I beg your patience a little longer - if we are captured now, believe me, the less you know the

better. We have a busy nite ahead of us. First, we’re paying a visit to Huamdonggil.” (315). Huamdonggil

is the birthplace of the union, explained by Sonmi to the archivist saying that “it is a noxious maze of low,

crooked ramshacks, flophouses, pawn shops, drug bars, and comfort hives, located in the Old

Seoul”(315). I get why Mitchell made Huamdonggil like this, it is because Old Seoul is the last remaining

of the old society. He makes this the last proof of their hope on fixing their society. When they got to the

headquarters of the Union, Sonmi met An Kor Apis of the Union, leader of the rebellion, promised that

Sonmi should understand much more very soon. An kor Apis then ordered her companion xit Sonmi from

soul thru the west gate one, to proceed to the northern camp in a convoy, and to reflect well upon what

had been advised. After going to the headquarters of the union, Hae Joo brought Sonmi to the union’s

doctor, Dr.Ovid to get her collar off. After that, they are immediately ambushed by the S.W.A.T team, but

Hae Joo beat most of them up by his martial arts skills then Hae Joo killed the truck driver so that they

could escape. While the SWAT team are looking for them, they almost got away but they were stopped

because they detected Sonmi at the back, they almost got Sonmi but Hae Joo beat most of them up again.

They headed back to Hae joo’s place and while Hae joo was sleeping, Sonmi tried to feel Hae Joo’s

heartbeat. Since Sonmi was curious, they somehow built an intense connection. This is Mitchell showing

that even Sonmi is only a clone, she is also a human that have the rights to feel and love. However it is

still different because when Sonmi and Hae Joo made love she said that “our sex was joyless, graceless,

and necessarily improvised, but it was an act of living.”(345) this is Mitchell saying that being in a

science fiction is now all about technologies and no more emotions. With Sonmi saying this, she justifies

that she will forever be a fabricant that won’t feel the same as a pureblood. Towards the end, Hae Joo

showed what happens to fabricants in their xultation, they disguised as a worker and Sonmi saw they
hang the fabricants and grind them to juice in order to make a soap sac because it is high on protein. This

event led Sonmi to start a revolution because of how cruel xultation can be. Sonmi became the head of the

revolution and fights the military for their rights. During their last fight, in the guidance of Hae Joo, she

writes what she calls her “revelations” and is ready to broadcast it to the world. Hae Joo gathered all the

squadron of the revolutionary army and takes over the the broadcast station and barricaded themselves

inside. when the military gained access inside, Hae Joo and his army were killed after a long firefight

while Sonmi sadly watching him die. Sonmi then was captured and didn’t win her fight, but she at least

shared how cruel their world is.

Mitchell have accomplished the thought of science fiction. In the article of “Creating a Medium

for Exploring the implication of Science: Edgar Allan Poe and the first Science Fiction” by Harry Lee

Poe stated that science fiction has emerged as one of our culture's means of carrying on a broader

conversation about the direction of both science and technology. It asks the questions of unintended

consequences and what might be the long-term outcome of applied science. He said “science fiction taps

into the fears and anxieties that people have about modern society and its direction.” (Poe) Mitchell

succeed in doing this because the story of Sonmi is really terrifying. Thinking about it now is giving me

anxiety since we are getting closer and closer to future and now that inventors are starting to make an

artificial intelligence, we can’t help but to think about what’s going to happen in the future. It might also

tap into something like cloning which is scary because government wouldn’t be scared to sacrifice the

clones lives since they can make as many as they want. Also it could lead to a long fights of war which

everyone is afraid of.

Also Mitchell, showed how being in the future changes a lot of things such as the way they speak.

Since everything has it’s shortcut, Mitchell made some of their words short. For example, Light changed

into lite, experience changed into xperience. By just doing this, it’s already a big thing to be part of

science fiction because of how much it changed from its usual appearance.

Making the setting a dystopian society is also a huge impact in science fiction because of its

“metallic” or “techy” appearance, seeing it in movies or imagining it while reading a book is really
heartbreaking because of how gloomy it looks, Mitchell did a great job on adding it because it can impact

a person’s mind and feel excited of scared which is a great feeling when you’re reading a book or

watching a movie.

However, this is only Mitchell showing us how dystopian society can be, it can contain happiness

or sadness, just like what Sonmi said to the archivist saying “If by happiness, you mean the absence of

adversity, I and all fabricants are the happiest stratum in corpocracy, as genomicist insist. However, if

happiness means the conquest of adversity, or sense of purpose, or the xercise of one’s will to power, then

all Nea So Copros’s slaves we surely are the most miserable” with this being said, Sonmi and other

fabricants are happy on their own, when they’re all together without any troubles or problems, no feelings

or purpose, then they would be the happiest in the world, but if the society thinks of them only as a

servant and not humans without any purpose in life then they are the most dejected creatures in the

world. It is not wrong to create or invent something that will make our lives easier, because that is one

way of evolving. However if you are to create a human looking creature, then we should treat them with

respect because they are also similar to us, there could be a slight difference, but they are still humans. I

think that the problem of having dystopian society, is that there is no equality. Mitchell made a great

explanation or scenery of how dystopian society can be. It gives the readers an idea on how it is and think

of how cruel it is. Writing about science fiction can change people's perspective for the future and it is

one way of ditching dystopian society. By this it can result to making the world a better and a happy,

peaceful, and relaxing.

 Resource:

Lee Poe, Harry. "Creating a Medium for Exploring the Implications of Science: Edgar Allan Poe and the

First Science Fiction." Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith, vol. 69, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 76-86.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=123370156&site=ehost-live.

Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas. New York, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004, pp. 185-349.

Wikipedia contributors. "The Island (2005 film)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopedia, 15 Apr. 2018. Web. 2 May. 2018.