The Abbess is the leader of The Valleysmen people, including Zachry and his family. Her name comes from a ruined abbey nearby that survives from before a nuclear holocaust called the Fall. The Abbess preaches the value of civilization, encouraging the Valleysmen to try to act the way people did before the Fall, but so much knowledge vanished during the Fall that the Abbess and the other Valleysmen often don’t understand the purpose of the relics that survive from the old civilization. This abbess probably isn’t the same person as the Abbess of the Mountain Colonists from “An Orison of Sonmi~451,” who is already in her 60s in that pre-Fall story, but it’s possible that she is a reincarnation of that Abbess, given that role that reincarnation seems to play with the comet birthmark characters.
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The Abbess of the Valleysmen Character Timeline in Cloud Atlas
The timeline below shows where the character The Abbess of the Valleysmen appears in Cloud Atlas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...arrives, he hears that the Prescient chief wants to speak with a local leader called the Abbess of the Valleysmen . The Prescient chief wants a special bartering session that year: If one Prescient woman...
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...when he sees Meronym in the sacred Icon’ry. He accuses Meronym of trying to make the Abbess of the Valleysmen and his Ma look stupid. Meronym swears on Sonmi that she means no harm, but...
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Zachry takes his concerns about Meronym to the Abbess of the Valleysmen , but she requests proof that something’s wrong with Meronym. Zachry sneaks around and finds...
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