Text Analysis of Cloud Atlas

Abstract:

Cloud Atlas is a novel, created by David Stephen Mitchell, popular around the world. The reason why it becomes so famous is not only because the author writes the subtle plot out, but the novel has artful structure and narrative techniques. In this text analysis I only focus on the main of them. Firstly there will be introduction of the author, the whole novel and the specific chapter. After that, the words go on with the style and techniques. There will be a conclusion for the whole paper lastly.

Keywords:

Cloud Atlas; novel; technique; stylistic;

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction to the author and Cloud Atlas

David Stephen Mitchell, born in 1969, is an English novelist and has two (of seven) books shortlisted for the Booker Prize, one of which is Cloud Atlas. Time magazine chose him as the only literary novelist in their 2007 list of the one hundred most influential people in the world, following the publication of his fourth novel, Black Swan Green.

Although it might seem unbelievable that a famous writer could have language difficulties, David Michel indeed grew up with stammer, and he is even a proud patron of the British Stammering Association. When being interviewed at the influence of stammer to his writing, he said, “The writer that I am has been shaped by the stammering kid that I was, and although my stammer didn’t make me write, it did, in part, inform and influence the writer I became.”

Another noticeable experience of David Mitchel is that after obtaining a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature, he moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years and luckily met his beloved Japanese wife. The life in Japan has shaped his attitude and style of writing remarkably, such as the character of humble and polite, and of course, the theory of samsara, which was thoroughly and brilliantly displayed in Cloud Atlas.

Cloud Atlas is David Mitchell’s third novel, wrote in 2004, and was made into a movie in 2012. It has positive reviews from most critics, for had managed to successfully interweave its six stories. Kirkus Reviews called the book "sheer storytelling brilliance." Laura Miller of the New York Times compared it to the "perfect crossword puzzle," in that it was challenging to read but still fun. In its "Books Briefly Noted" section, The New Yorker called the novel "virtuosic."

1.2 Structure and theme of Cloud Atlas

The book consists of six different stories that happen from 19 century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future and uses six type of narration. The whole book is just like a giant Russian doll: There is a naive clerk on a nineteenth-century Polynesian voyage; an aspiring composer who insinuates himself into the home of a syphilitic genius; a journalist investigating a nuclear plant; a publisher with a dangerous best-seller on his hands; and a cloned human being created for slave labor. These five stories are bisected and arranged around a sixth, the oral history of a post-apocalyptic island, which forms the heart of the novel. Only after this do the second halves of the stories fall into place, pulling the novel’s themes into focus: the ease with which one group enslaves another, and the constant rewriting of the past by those who control the present. Cloud Atlas complicates a understanding of epic by drawing together six pivotal fictions of development to convey a fractured yet interlocking narrative of global transition, capitalist crisis, and post-apocalyptic development on a planetary scale.

No matter when and where, humans keep pursuing freedom and love. However, with the development of human civilization and the expansion of desire, they become more and more difficult to obtain. The clan system of the 19th century, the decline of European civilization at the beginning of the 20th century, the cold war of the late great powers and the infighting of the human race in the 22nd century, and they finally led to the destruction of human civilization and the return of human civilization Dark times. In David Mitchell's view, the process of human civilization is not linear, but reincarnation, so the human civilization development and the world's crisis cannot be ignored.

Except concern to human civilization development, the author also emphasized the theory of samsara and unity of opposites. Just as David said himself: “The title itself "Cloud Atlas," the cloud refers to the ever changing manifestations of the Atlas, which is the fixed human nature which is always thus and ever shall be. So the book's theme is predacity, the way individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes.”

1.3 General introduction to the excerpt of the Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish

The excerpt is from Chapter 4, the first half of Cavendish’s story, and is not far from the begging of it. This chapter starts with Mr. Cavendish relating an incident that occurred six years prior to the telling. He didn't report the crime, since he'd have to admit that he was bested by three teenage girls. Then comes the excerpt we will analyze.

In this fragment, Mr. Cavendish is the owner of a small, and largely unprofitable, vanity press. He continues his tale with the story of Dermot "Duster" Hoggins, the author of "Knuckle Sandwich" and one of Cavendish's authors. It is the night of an awards presentation, and the restaurant is filled with authors, editors, and book critics. Towards the end of the evening, Hoggins finds Cavendish, nursing his drunkenness on the restaurant's rooftop patio. Hoggins is upset that one of the critics there, Mr. Felix Finch, panned his book, which was Hoggins' only review. Hoggins begins making a scene, egging on the crowd to congratulate Finch. When the hapless critic inquires as to the prize (critics all love freebies), Hoggins tells him it's a free flight and proceeds to fling him off of the twelfth floor balcony. After that incident, Hoggins' books sell off the shelves and make Cavendish quite a bit of money - at least until his creditors are paid. Soon, he is visited by the incarcerated author's thuggish nephews, looking for their share of the revenues. Hoggins, in his