The Characters In David Mitchell's The Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is an epic adventure across time. With an air of mystery and the supernatural, the novel enchants readers for all of its five hundred and nine pages. One of the novel’s most intriguing features is its construction. Cloud Atlas is a collection of six stories spanning from the mid-1800s to the distant future. Each story is told half way through and then interrupted by the next, until the sixth, and chronologically last, story. After the sixth story is told in its entirety, the others resume, but in reverse chronology. Thus the novel ends with the conclusion of the first story. This unique story-telling method provides the reader with engaging tales, while not taking away from the others. Each story is also imbedded into the others, whether it be in the form of a book, letters, a movie, or otherwise. The six tales in Cloud Atlas are still independent, in

the sense that they could stand on their own without losing their essence, but they all share similar themes of heroism and friendship against exploitation and corruption. Needless to say, the structure of Cloud Atlas and interconnectedness of the stories present a challenge when adapting the novel for the screen. It was accomplished, however, in the similarly lengthy movie of the same name. In order to maintain the unique storyline of Cloud Atlas while creating a movie that would keep the audience engaged for a reasonable period of time, the six stories were broken down into hundreds of short scenes, juxtaposed into a mosaic of scenes and stories, with the occasional overlapping monologue. This one change required many changes itself, but by altering the setup of the story, Cloud Atlas becomes one continuous story, rather than many stories with the same theme.
Within the first five minutes of Cloud Atlas, the audience is introduced to all six stories, in short snippets, most not much longer than thirty seconds. It begins with Zachry from “Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After” introducing his about his life and Old Georgie. The movie immediately cuts to Adam Ewing, from “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing,” speaking about his first meeting with Doctor Henry Goose. After this scene, Luisa Rey is shown, driving across the bridge to Swannekke Island and the nuclear reactor. Luisa immediately introduces the plot of “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery,” talking about the Sixsmith report and the murders committed to keep it a secret. Next is Timothy Cavendish, typing his memoir, “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish” on an old typewriter, ironically commenting about flashbacks and flash-forwards. Then the audience is thrown right into the end of “Letters from Zedelghem” with Frobisher’s suicide starting his story. This is followed by the introduction of the interview in “An Orison of Sonmi-451.” The movie jumps back to Luisa, before quickly moving to Cavendish, then to Ewing and Goose. Now back to Sonmi and the Archivist, and the nature of truth. A final scene of Frobisher, just before he pulls the trigger of the gun in his mouth, and then a cut to black. Not counting the few seconds given to reveal the title of the movie, the entire introduction sequence take four and a half minutes. In this four and a half minutes, you are introduced to six different time periods, six unique plots, and nine different characters. The pacing of this scene sets the stage for the rest of the movie. It is not entirely made of a series of thirty second clips, but short interludes break up the longer scenes. The movement from scene to scene creates a fast pacing with action and suspense that continues for much longer than the average movie. Intense scenes are briefly interrupted by other intense scene, and the action goes back and forth. The pacing of the movie is hardly slow, with action just around the corner. This pacing is necessary for the movie, as it has to contain multiple stories, but it also subtracts from the individual story. To keep the pace, many events in the novel that do not significantly contribute to the plot are removed. For example, none of the scenes of Luisa Rey at Spyglass magazine, or her coworkers there, are present in the movie. Scenes that focus on characters who are not a protagonist are removed as well, such as sections in “Half Lives” that include details on the Seaboard’s plot and the background of Joe Napier (129, 103). The content of each story is reduced to the bare minimum to save screen time. As a further result, the movie has very little presence of the passage of time. Adam Ewing’s journal spans over two months; Frobisher’s last letter is written six months after his first; Several months pass between Dermot throwing critic off the balcony and Cavendish ending up in Aurora House. In the movie, however, this passage of time is almost no existent. The characters may mention the passing of time, but it is not greatly expressed. Without the feeling of the passage of time, the stories establish an interconnectedness. Rather than it spanning thousands of years, the movie’s Cloud Atlas is one event, one life, that happens to take place across time.
Although the exposition of short scenes subtracts material from the story, the juxtaposition of scenes allows for brilliant cinematography that creates transitions between scenes that allows them to bleed into each other. The first transition presented in the movie is right at the beginning, in the introduction sequence. Zachry says he is going to “yarn” about the first time he met Old Georgie. This scene then cuts to Adam Ewing, and the first time he meets Henry Goose. When Zachry is talking about the first time he met Old Georgie, he means the events at Sloosha’s Crossin’, but the transition provides a new interpretation. Instead of it being the first time Zachry meet Old Georgie, it is the first time the spirit of the protagonist meets their adversary. Ewing’s story is chronologically first; thus the first time “Zachry” meets the evil demon “Old Georgie” is back when “he” was Adam Ewing. Unlike the novel, the movie explicitly connects the protagonists into one spirit through time. The novel gives the idea of a soul passing through the ages, but it is not the main focus. The connections in the movie are continued throughout the movie. As Autua begins his test to be made a member of the crew, the scene cuts from Ewing to Sonmi and Hae-Joo being invaded by Unanimity forces. A shot of Hae-Joo’s feet running across a beam in escape, cuts to Autua running across a beam off the mast. As Boerhaave aims at Autua, the scene cuts back to Sonmi and Hae-Joo being fired upon. Connections are also made by the occasional monologue from one character during other scenes. When Zachry goes to visit the Abbess, she reads from “The Revelation of Sonmi-451,” quoting “Our lives are not our own… we are bound to others, past and present…” While she reads, brief images of the other protagonists are shown: Sonmi, Frobisher, Cavendish, Luisa, Ewing, and once again to Sonmi. There is no way to deny the intended message, that all six of the protagonists are really one. Isaac Sach’s soliloquy before his death overlays scenes from all of the stories. The main element of this speech is that the “forces that shape our lives begin long before we are born and continue after we perish.” This quote further enforces the idea of the interconnected destiny of the characters. The movie gives the audience the idea that all of these events and encounters were fated to happen, that these souls continue to meet time and time again. In the novel, their acts are less about destiny and more about heroism. The actions of Ewing and Sonmi may be similar, but there is no indication that they are fated triumph. Unanimity wanted Sonmi to write her Declarations so they inspire fear and hatred of fabricants, but Sonmi sacrifices herself for the success of the Declarations (348-49). Ewing is inspired to join the abolitionist movement after Autua saves his life, but he could have easily died (508). The theme of the novel is less about destiny and more about heroism and friendships. The movie plays to the Hollywood themes of fate and everlasting love. In one brilliant exposition at the end of the movie, Sonmi explains her beliefs about death. She says “death is only a door. When it closes, another opens. If I cared to imagine Heaven, I would imagine a door opening.” As she speaks of a door opening, the scene cuts to a door opening, and Adam Ewing, supported by Autua, surrounded by light, enters to his wife’s delight. Not only is the transition beautiful, but do to the unique way of portraying the characters, where one actor plays many different people, Adam Ewing and Hae-Joo, like Sonmi and Ewing’s wife Tilda, are played by the same actors. Their love extends beyond death and time. The Cloud Atlas movie is a story of love triumphing over death, and fate bringing people together time and time again.
Comparing the content of the movie versus the content of the novel, allows one to realize the extensive changes made to the stories. The set up and the pacing of the movie require shorter, condensed plots that are mainly action of building suspense. As stated above, there is no room for exposition; only the necessary details are preserved. Many elements of “Letters from Zedelghem” are removed, most notably Frobisher’s extensive affair with Jocasta and his infatuation with Eva. In the novel, Frobisher writes of his affair with Jocasta many times, including his worries that Ayrs will find out about the affair. In the movie, the affair is mentioned, but only in one scene, and then it is never brought up again. He also falls deeply in love with Ayrs’s daughter, Eva. It is his love for Eva that makes him stay in the town rather than returning to England after leaving the estate (457). Eva is not even included in the movie; instead, Frobisher is briefly infatuated with Ayrs himself. A great deal of Ewing’s story is removed, like his friendship with the young boy, Rafael, and much of his religious devotion. Certainly some items were removed to make more time for the more important elements, but other scenes were lost to shift the attention onto the characters love. By not including Frobisher’s infatuation with Eva, the movie can place more focus on his relationship with Sixsmith. The extra time in Ewing’s story allows for the appearance of his wife and the love between them. In “An Orison of Sonmi-451” Sonmi and Hae-Joo have to travel quite a bit, with various scenes that help inspire Sonmi, like the stay at the colony, and the murder of the fabricant doll (329-33, 335). Instead of including these scenes, the movie deepens the relationship between Sonmi and Hae-Joo. Hae-Joo becomes more than a temporary lover and a secret employee of Unanimity; he and Sonmi love each other, and he sacrifices his life for her. Elements were completely invented for the purpose of adding love into the stories as well. Timothy Cavendish ends up with his teenage love, Ursula, at the end of the movie, which is hardly entertained in the book. The audience is shown Isaac Sachs on the plane set to kill him, so he can announce he is in love with Luisa Rey. Their actors also portray Zachry and Meronym, who end up married with children and grandchildren. The film version of Cloud Atlas has an explicit goal, and it is exactly copying the book. The movie wants to intrigue its watchers, so cliff-hangers and elements that would draw away from the main storyline are removed.
Cloud Atlas is a novel about the nature of man and the future of humanity.

In it, humans are doomed to fall, but with acts of kindness and friendship, the exploitation of the weak by the strong can be eliminated. It is a hopeful story that inspires us to believe that, in Adam Ewing’s words, “diverse races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree … such a world will come to pass” (508). The Cloud Atlas movie places this theme at the wayside, and focuses on the nature of fate and love. Relationships are expanded and invented, to create a world where love can triumph over death. The stories of the novel are like fibers twisted together to make a rope. They are individual, with a few stray threads here and there, but together they are strong enough to raise the flag of a better future. The stories in the movie are more like tiles in a mosaic. Each story is a color, and the different colors come together to create an image. They mosaic may be made out of many stories, but together, they form one story, a story of two people embracing across

time.