Cloud Atlas

Content Warning: This section depicts slavery and discusses death by suicide.

In a future version of Korea, a person known as the Archivist interrogates a clone named Sonmi~451. The transcript of the interrogation suggests that this is the final conversation in a series. Sonmi describes her previous life working at a fast food restaurant named Papa Song’s. Each day, her life follows the exact same routine, and—after her shift—she and her coworkers eat Soap, a food substance that immediately put them to sleep. Workers serve in Papa Song’s for “twelve working years” (187), earning a star for each year of service. At the end of these 12 years, they’re permitted to retire in Hawaii.

The Archivist wants to talk about the “notorious” Yoona~939. In Sonmi’s recollections, Yoona is also a fabricant (the word used for cloned humans). However, Yoona begins developing skills at a far more advanced level than the other fabricants. She shows Sonmi how their boss, Seer Rhee, drinks heavily and introduces her to unfamiliar objects like flashlights and children’s books. She also teaches Sonmi words, including “secret.” The two both dream of being anywhere but Papa Song’s. One day, Yoona abducts a “kindergarten boy in a sailor suit” (201). Since the elevators in Papa Song’s didn’t function for fabricants, she needs a Soul (a device to identify non-cloned humans) to escape the restaurant. Yoona is quickly caught. Sonmi sees the elevator return; inside, Yoona’s body is “a pulp of gun holes” (202). In no time at all, Yoona~939 is replaced by a “new Yoona.”

In passing, Sonmi mentions her birthmark. The Archivist says it “resembles a comet” (205). Sonmi describes how in her past she gradually becomes self-aware, developing more advanced language skills and seeking out knowledge. One day, she discovers that Seer Rhee has overdosed. Sonmi assumed that he died by suicide. When the time comes for the workers to wake up, an unfamiliar man named Mr. Chang appears. He leads Sonmi away from the restaurant, allowing her to see the world outside. Chang takes Sonmi through the chaotic city to a university and introduces Boom-Sook Kim, a grimy grad student. Under his care, Sonmi isn’t permitted to do much, though she’s often left alone. The following day, Wing~027 visits Sonmi. Like Sonmi, he’s a fabricant. Wing gives Sonmi an electronic learning device that contains everything Sonmi could ever want to know but warns Sonmi to avoid being discovered with the device by a non-fabricated human. Fabricants are forbidden from learning because the prospect of an educated fabricant scares the ruling class.

Sonmi spends nine months teaching herself everything, using the device whenever Boom-Sook is away. During this time, she overhears a student say that Wing was killed in an experiment gone wrong. The students look at Sonmi, unaware that she has started to learn. As a big festival approaches, the students relax by drinking alcohol and watching pornography. Boom-Sook places fruit on Sonmi’s head and shoots at it with a crossbow, telling her to stand “very, very still” (223). He doesn’t care whether she dies. Boardman Mephi interrupts the party, criticizing Boom-Sook and expelling him from the university. Then, he takes Sonmi to his more refined quarters. He says he wants to run tests on her because she has acquired a level of learning rarely seen in fabricants. According to Mephi, the test results will be valuable and could raise “billions of research dollars” (229) for the university. In exchange, she’ll receive a Soul and can attend university courses remotely. However, her attendance at these classes is a “humiliation” because the non-fabricant students treat her with scorn. Sonmi isn’t pleased with just knowledge. She craves experience, so she’s permitted to travel around the city under the watch of Hae-Joo Im. He takes her shopping and to Papa Song’s, where Sonmi tries but fails to warn the fabricants that they’re “slaves.” They watch a movie titled The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish but are interrupted when a student named Xi-Li bursts into the theater, telling Hae-Joo that Mephi has been arrested and that the authorities are searching for Sonmi. Hae-Joo turns to Sonmi, revealing that he’s not exactly “who [he] said [he was]” (245).