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The comet-shaped birthmark that several characters share represents all that connects humans across time and space. Many comets, like the famous Hailey’s Comet, follow an elliptical orbit and travel past Earth at regular intervals. Similarly, the comet-birthmark characters seem to be reincarnations of one another, where each new character is like a comet passing by Earth. Notably, the comet-birthmark characters do not all have the same personality—Luisa Rey is a journalist willing to put her own life at risk, whereas Robert Frobisher is selfish and mostly just cares about securing his own wealth and reputation. But the characters do have a few things in common. All the comet-birthmark characters practice some form of writing (Robert is a composer, Luisa is a journalist, Timothy Cavendish is a publisher and memoirist, Sonmi~451 is a manifesto-writer, and Meronym is an anthropologist). Similarly, these characters struggle to overcome the greed of the other characters around them, with the greed often leading to violence. While on a literal level the comet suggests that the novel takes place in a universe with a Buddhism-derived type of reincarnation, on a metaphorical level it also suggests that the struggles of past humans are not so different from the struggles of present and future humans, even if these struggles take different shapes.
The Comet Birthmark Quotes in Cloud Atlas
The Cloud Atlas quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Comet Birthmark . 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:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
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.
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This passage describes a birthmark on Robert’s shoulder that Jocasta notices while having sex with him. The passage is important for several reasons, perhaps above all because it introduces the comet, one of the most important images in the whole novel. At first, the comet birthmark seems to be a casual aside. Robert mentions that Rufus himself is the one who noted the birthmark’s resemblance to a comet, perhaps suggesting that Robert and Rufus have themselves had sex with each other before. But when the next chapter reveals that Luisa Rey also has a comet birthmark in the same location, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit
Chapter 3 Quotes
Robert Frobisher mentions a comet-shaped birthmark between his shoulder blade and collarbone.
I just don’t believe in this crap. I just don’t believe it. I don’t.
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This quote contains narration in normal font and Luisa’s thoughts in italics. It describes the moment after Rufus Sixsmith’s assassination when Luisa reads Robert Frobisher’s letters to Rufus and realizes that she has the exact same birthmark as Robert. One of the key elements of Cloud Atlas’s structure is that in the first half of the book, each character reads (or watches) the events of the previous chapter, with Robert reading Adam Ewing’s journal, then Luisa reading Robert’s letters, then Timothy Cavendish reading a manuscript of Luisa’s story, and so on. This nested structure of the novel, tied together by Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commo
Chapter 5 Quotes
Truth is singular. Its “versions” are mistruths.
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This quote comes from near the very beginning of the Archivist’s interview with Sonmi~451, when Sonmi promises to only tell the truth. It may seem surprising at first that Sonmi suggests that there’s only one version of the truth, given that Cloud Atlas contains so many different characters with different perspectives that seem to each portray a variation of the truth. But Sonmi’s statement makes more sense in the context of the dystopian “corpocratic” government in her country, where her reference to different “versions” of the truth seems to reference the government’s extensive propaganda operations. Arguably, Cloud Atlas leaves open Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum vol
Chapter 6 Quotes
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.
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This quote comes after Zachry completes his story, when, following a brief jump ahead in time, one of Zachry’s children comments on Zachry’s story after his death. It mirrors the ending of the novel itself, where Adam Ewing’s son (Jackson Ewing) leaves a footnote about his dead father. Zachry’s child both confirms and casts doubt on Zachry’s story. On the one hand, the presence of the orison makes it clear that part of story involving Meronym and her record of Sonmi and the Archivist’s conversation is true. On the other hand, however, Zachry’s descendent notes that Zachry was eccentric and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus p
Chapter 10 Quotes
Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year’s fragments into a “sextet for overlapping soloists”: piano, clarinet, ‘cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan’t know until it’s finished, and by then it’ll be too late, but it’s the first thing I think of when I wake, and the last thing I think of before I fall asleep.
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In this passage, Robert Frobisher describes his plan for a piece of music called the Cloud Atlas Sextet. As Luisa Rey’s story reveals, this sextet never becomes a major success, but it does go on to become a cult classic among record collectors. With the reference to six “overlapping soloists” the structure of Robert’s composition has clear parallels to the structure of the novel Cloud Atlas itself, which contains six stories that each focus on a different character and where each story gets “interrupted by its successor,” just like in Robert’s composition. Robert also mentions how each solo is in Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitat
Time cannot permeate this sabbatical. We do not stay dead long. Once my Luger lets me go, my birth, next time around, will be upon me in a heartbeat. Thirteen years from now we’ll meet again at Gresham, ten years later I’ll be back in this same room, holding this same gun, composing this same letter, my resolution as perfect as my many-headed sextet. Such elegant certainties comfort me at this quiet hour.
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This passage describes Robert’s final letter to Rufus Sixsmith, as he describes the moments leading up to his own suicide. Robert’s previous few letters have all suggested a deteriorating mental state as he slips into despair and seems to lose track of time. Despite the extremely dark ending to Robert’s letters, they still contain a glimmer of hope—while Robert’s mention of a “next time around” sounds like the orbit of a comet, and some part of Robert seems to get reincarnated in the future characters who all share a comet birthmark with him. Robert’s language in this passage strong recalls Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis conse
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The Comet Birthmark Symbol Timeline in Cloud Atlas
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Comet Birthmark appears in Cloud Atlas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...women he’s been with. She’s fascinated by the birthmark on Robert, which looks like a comet. She even tells Robert she loves him. He tells her he’s never loved anyone but...
(full context)
Chapter 3
...doesn’t notice. She rereads Robert’s letters to Rufus and is surprised when Robert references a comet-shaped birthmark. Luisa’s super tries to tell her that someone went up to her apartment already,...
(full context)
...where she sees she has a birthmark on her shoulder that looks just like a comet, in the same location where Robert described his.
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Chapter 5
...puzzled to see that Sonmi has a birthmark near her shoulder that looks like a comet, since fabricants don’t usually have birthmarks. Sonmi has known for a while that she’s different—in...
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Chapter 6
...has a birthmark that looks like a hand with six streaks coming off it (a comet).
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...that his Pa, Zachry, was weird. Zachry believed Meronym was Sonmi herself because of the comet birthmark. Zachry’s son isn’t sure how much of his father’s old stories about the Kona...
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Chapter 7
...to haunt her. At the flophouse, Sonmi and Hae-Joo have sex. Afterward, Hae-Joo examines Sonmi’s comet birthmark. In the morning, Sonmi deicides they must destroy all the slaughterships. Consumers need to...
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Chapter 9
...the Starfish sits just a little past the Prophetess. Now, as Luisa approaches it, her comet birthmark seems to throb. She and Napier break into the Starfish and find a draft...
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