Cloud Atlas

by

David Mitchell

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Sonmi~451 is the protagonist of “An Orison of Sonmi~451,” which survives as a recording on an egg-shaped device called an orison that Meronym carries with her. She answers the questions of the Archivist, who visits Sonmi in prison while she’s awaiting death for her role as a government dissident. Sonmi is a fabricant (synthetically created human clone) who initially has limited sentience and works in a chain restaurant called Papa Song’s. She is also one of the characters with the comet birthmark. As Sonmi learns more about the world, particularly from her friend Yoona~939, her ability to think improves, and she eventually “ascends” to the point where she is at least as smart as any “pureblood” human (i.e., someone born naturally and not a clone). After ascending, Sonmi develops ideas that are blasphemous in the ultra-corporate society she lives in, like how fabricants are treated like slaves and deserve the same rights as purebloods. She befriends Hae-Joo Im, who turns out to be a part of a revolutionary group known as the Union. Sonmi writes a grand manifesto to help other fabricants who ascend rebel against their masters. At the end of her interview with the Archivist, however, Sonmi reveals the surprising fact that she believes that Hae-Joo and other revolutionaries might all be part of an elaborate show put on by the government to turn people against fabricants. Sonmi shows how the powerful find ways to exploit the weak, but her character also suggests that the oppressed might be able to join together to fight their oppressors.

Sonmi~451 Quotes in Cloud Atlas

The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by Sonmi~451 or refer to Sonmi~451. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cycles of History Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

V.A. was unsure of himself for once. “I dreamt of a … nightmarish café, brilliantly lit, but underground, with no way out. I’d been dead a long, long time. The waitresses all had the same face. The food was soap, the only drink was cups of lather. The music in the café was”—he wagged an exhausted finger at the MS—“this.”

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Vyvyan Ayrs (speaker), Sonmi~451, Papa Song
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:

She plays with that birthmark in the hollow of my shoulder, the one you said resembles a comet—can’t abide the woman dabbling with my skin.

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Luisa Rey, Timothy Cavendish, Sonmi~451, Meronym, Rufus Sixsmith, Vyvyan Ayrs, Jocasta van Outryve de Crommelynck
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Truth is singular. Its “versions” are mistruths.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), The Archivist
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:

Catechism Three teaches that for servers to keep anything denies Papa Song’s love for us and cheats His Investment. I wondered, did Yoona~939 still observe any Catechism? But misgivings, though grave, were soon lost in the treasures Yoona showed me there: a box of unpaired earrings, beads, tiaras. The xquisite sensation of dressing in pureblood clothes overcame my fear of being discovered. Greatest of all, however, was a book, a picture book.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), Adam Ewing, The Archivist, Yoona~939, Boardman Mephi, Papa Song
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Old Georgie’s path an’ mine crossed more times’n I’m comfy mem’ryin’, an’ after I’m died, no sayin’ what that fangy devil won’t try an’ do to me … so gimme some mutton an’ I’ll tell you ’bout our first meetin’. A fat joocesome slice, nay, none o’ your burnt wafery off’rin’s …

Related Characters: Zachry Bailey (speaker), Sonmi~451, Old Georgie
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis:

So hungrysome was my curio, I held it again, an’ the egg vibed warm till a ghost-girl flickered’n’appeared there! Yay, a ghost-girl, right ’bove the egg, as truesome as I’m sittin’ here, her head’n’neck was jus’ floatin’ there, like ’flection in moon-water, an’ she was talkin’! Now I got scared an’ took my hands off the sil’vry egg, but the ghost-girl stayed, yay.

Related Characters: Zachry Bailey (speaker), Sonmi~451, The Archivist, Meronym, Adam Bailey
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:

Zachry my old pa was a wyrd buggah, I won’t naysay it now he’s died. Oh, most o’ Pa’s yarnin’s was jus’ musey duck fartin’ an’ in his loonsome old age he even b’liefed Meronym the Prescient was his presh b’loved Sonmi, yay, he ’sisted it, he said he knowed it all by birthmarks an’ comets’n’all.

Related Characters: Adam Ewing, Sonmi~451, Zachry Bailey, The Archivist, Meronym, Jackson Ewing
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The economics of corpocracy. The genomics industry demands huge quantities of liquefied biomatter, for wombtanks, but most of all, for Soap. What cheaper way to supply this protein than by recycling fabricants who have reached the end of their working lives? Additionally, leftover “reclaimed proteins” are used to produce Papa Song food products, eaten by consumers in the corp’s dineries all over Nea So Copros. It is a perfect food cycle.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), The Archivist, Hae-Joo Im, Papa Song
Related Symbols: Hawaii
Page Number: 343
Explanation and Analysis:

We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), Luisa Rey, Zachry Bailey, The Archivist, Hae-Joo Im, Boardman Mephi
Page Number: 349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“The weak are meat the strong do eat.”

Related Characters: Dr. Henry Goose (speaker), Adam Ewing, Sonmi~451, Sonmi~451, Vyvyan Ayrs, Preacher Horrox
Page Number: 489
Explanation and Analysis:

Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

Related Characters: Adam Ewing (speaker), Sonmi~451, Jackson Ewing
Page Number: 509
Explanation and Analysis:
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Sonmi~451 Quotes in Cloud Atlas

The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by Sonmi~451 or refer to Sonmi~451. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cycles of History Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

V.A. was unsure of himself for once. “I dreamt of a … nightmarish café, brilliantly lit, but underground, with no way out. I’d been dead a long, long time. The waitresses all had the same face. The food was soap, the only drink was cups of lather. The music in the café was”—he wagged an exhausted finger at the MS—“this.”

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Vyvyan Ayrs (speaker), Sonmi~451, Papa Song
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:

She plays with that birthmark in the hollow of my shoulder, the one you said resembles a comet—can’t abide the woman dabbling with my skin.

Related Characters: Robert Frobisher (speaker), Luisa Rey, Timothy Cavendish, Sonmi~451, Meronym, Rufus Sixsmith, Vyvyan Ayrs, Jocasta van Outryve de Crommelynck
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Truth is singular. Its “versions” are mistruths.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), The Archivist
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:

Catechism Three teaches that for servers to keep anything denies Papa Song’s love for us and cheats His Investment. I wondered, did Yoona~939 still observe any Catechism? But misgivings, though grave, were soon lost in the treasures Yoona showed me there: a box of unpaired earrings, beads, tiaras. The xquisite sensation of dressing in pureblood clothes overcame my fear of being discovered. Greatest of all, however, was a book, a picture book.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), Adam Ewing, The Archivist, Yoona~939, Boardman Mephi, Papa Song
Page Number: 191
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Old Georgie’s path an’ mine crossed more times’n I’m comfy mem’ryin’, an’ after I’m died, no sayin’ what that fangy devil won’t try an’ do to me … so gimme some mutton an’ I’ll tell you ’bout our first meetin’. A fat joocesome slice, nay, none o’ your burnt wafery off’rin’s …

Related Characters: Zachry Bailey (speaker), Sonmi~451, Old Georgie
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis:

So hungrysome was my curio, I held it again, an’ the egg vibed warm till a ghost-girl flickered’n’appeared there! Yay, a ghost-girl, right ’bove the egg, as truesome as I’m sittin’ here, her head’n’neck was jus’ floatin’ there, like ’flection in moon-water, an’ she was talkin’! Now I got scared an’ took my hands off the sil’vry egg, but the ghost-girl stayed, yay.

Related Characters: Zachry Bailey (speaker), Sonmi~451, The Archivist, Meronym, Adam Bailey
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:

Zachry my old pa was a wyrd buggah, I won’t naysay it now he’s died. Oh, most o’ Pa’s yarnin’s was jus’ musey duck fartin’ an’ in his loonsome old age he even b’liefed Meronym the Prescient was his presh b’loved Sonmi, yay, he ’sisted it, he said he knowed it all by birthmarks an’ comets’n’all.

Related Characters: Adam Ewing, Sonmi~451, Zachry Bailey, The Archivist, Meronym, Jackson Ewing
Related Symbols: The Comet Birthmark
Page Number: 308
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The economics of corpocracy. The genomics industry demands huge quantities of liquefied biomatter, for wombtanks, but most of all, for Soap. What cheaper way to supply this protein than by recycling fabricants who have reached the end of their working lives? Additionally, leftover “reclaimed proteins” are used to produce Papa Song food products, eaten by consumers in the corp’s dineries all over Nea So Copros. It is a perfect food cycle.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), The Archivist, Hae-Joo Im, Papa Song
Related Symbols: Hawaii
Page Number: 343
Explanation and Analysis:

We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.

Related Characters: Sonmi~451 (speaker), Luisa Rey, Zachry Bailey, The Archivist, Hae-Joo Im, Boardman Mephi
Page Number: 349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“The weak are meat the strong do eat.”

Related Characters: Dr. Henry Goose (speaker), Adam Ewing, Sonmi~451, Sonmi~451, Vyvyan Ayrs, Preacher Horrox
Page Number: 489
Explanation and Analysis:

Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

Related Characters: Adam Ewing (speaker), Sonmi~451, Jackson Ewing
Page Number: 509
Explanation and Analysis: