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Timothy Cavendish
Sonmi~451 is the protagonist of “An Orison of Sonmi~451,” which survives as a recording on an egg-shaped device called an orison that Meronym carries with her. She answers the questions of the Archivist, who visits Sonmi in prison while she’s awaiting death for her role as a government dissident. Sonmi is a fabricant (synthetically created human clone) who initially has limited sentience and works in a chain restaurant called Papa Song’s. She is also one of the characters with the comet birthmark. As Sonmi learns more about the world, particularly from her friend Yoona~939, her ability to think improves, and she eventually “ascends” to the point where she is at least as smart as any “pureblood” human (i.e., someone born naturally and not a clone). After ascending, Sonmi develops ideas that are blasphemous in the ultra-corporate society she lives in, like how fabricants are treated like slaves and deserve the same rights as purebloods. She befriends Hae-Joo Im, who turns out to be a part of a revolutionary group known as the Union. Sonmi writes a grand manifesto to help other fabricants who ascend rebel against their masters. At the end of her interview with the Archivist, however, Sonmi reveals the surprising fact that she believes that Hae-Joo and other revolutionaries might all be part of an elaborate show put on by the government to turn people against fabricants. Sonmi shows how the powerful find ways to exploit the weak, but her character also suggests that the oppressed might be able to join together to fight their oppressors.
Sonmi~451 Quotes in Cloud Atlas
The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by Sonmi~451 or refer to Sonmi~451. 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
V.A. was unsure of himself for once. “I dreamt of a … nightmarish café, brilliantly lit, but underground, with no way out. I’d been dead a long, long time. The waitresses all had the same face. The food was soap, the only drink was cups of lather. The music in the café was”—he wagged an exhausted finger at the MS—“this.”
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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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Chapter 5 Quotes
Truth is singular. Its “versions” are mistruths.
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Catechism Three teaches that for servers to keep anything denies Papa Song’s love for us and cheats His Investment. I wondered, did Yoona~939 still observe any Catechism? But misgivings, though grave, were soon lost in the treasures Yoona showed me there: a box of unpaired earrings, beads, tiaras. The xquisite sensation of dressing in pureblood clothes overcame my fear of being discovered. Greatest of all, however, was a book, a picture book.
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Chapter 6 Quotes
Old Georgie’s path an’ mine crossed more times’n I’m comfy mem’ryin’, an’ after I’m died, no sayin’ what that fangy devil won’t try an’ do to me … so gimme some mutton an’ I’ll tell you ’bout our first meetin’. A fat joocesome slice, nay, none o’ your burnt wafery off’rin’s …
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So hungrysome was my curio, I held it again, an’ the egg vibed warm till a ghost-girl flickered’n’appeared there! Yay, a ghost-girl, right ’bove the egg, as truesome as I’m sittin’ here, her head’n’neck was jus’ floatin’ there, like ’flection in moon-water, an’ she was talkin’! Now I got scared an’ took my hands off the sil’vry egg, but the ghost-girl stayed, yay.
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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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Chapter 7 Quotes
The economics of corpocracy. The genomics industry demands huge quantities of liquefied biomatter, for wombtanks, but most of all, for Soap. What cheaper way to supply this protein than by recycling fabricants who have reached the end of their working lives? Additionally, leftover “reclaimed proteins” are used to produce Papa Song food products, eaten by consumers in the corp’s dineries all over Nea So Copros. It is a perfect food cycle.
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We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.
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Chapter 11 Quotes
“The weak are meat the strong do eat.”
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Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?
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Sonmi~451 Character Timeline in Cloud Atlas
The timeline below shows where the character Sonmi~451 appears in Cloud Atlas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
Throughout the chapter, a character called the Archivist asks several questions of a prisoner named Sonmi~451, who tells her life story. Sonmi is a “fabricant” who works at a restaurant seemingly...
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The Archivist asks about Yoona~939, and Sonmi says she was the fabricant Sonmi knew best. Yoona was dignified, refusing to answer drunk...
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...reveals that his friends think he’s crazy because of the risks he’s taken to interview Sonmi, who is a well-known heretic. He asks about Seer Rhee, whose journal played a big...
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Sonmi continues her story. One day, Yoona told Sonmi the definition of the word “secret.” The...
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...would cheat Papa Song out of his investment. Over the next few months, Yoona takes Sonmi back to her secret room several more times. Yoona tells Sonmi she has doubts about...
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One night, Yoona tells Sonmi she wants to flee the restaurant. Sonmi resists, both because leaving is prohibited and because...
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Back in the present, The Archivist asks Sonmi what happened with Yoona on a specific New Year’s Eve. In her story, Sonmi recalls...
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Sonmi continues her story. Although the restaurant fabricants usually get their memories wiped with Soap at...
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...the restaurant must work hard to regain the consumers’ trust. Much later at her trial, Sonmi doubts Yoona could have been a Union member, since the Union had no opportunity to...
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...unusually subdued. After the ceremony, medics examine all the replicants. They’re puzzled to see that Sonmi has a birthmark near her shoulder that looks like a comet, since fabricants don’t usually...
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One night, Sonmi wakes to the sound of breaking glass and goes to investigate. She goes over to...
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The next morning, a man in a dark suit comes to see Sonmi and ask her questions. Sonmi initially thinks he might be an enforcer, but in fact,...
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Sonmi agrees to leave with Chang. While in the elevator, she experiences nausea. Outside, all the...
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With Boom-Sook away, Sonmi spends three days at the university doing nothing but staying in place and observing. Eventually,...
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...he drinks and gambles a lot because he has a rich father, so this gives Sonmi a lot of freedom. He talks to Sonmi the way most other pureblood humans talk...
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One day, Sonmi overhears another student, Hae-Joo Im, telling Boom-Sook that a mutual friend of theirs accidentally burned...
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Over the summer recess, Boom-Sook is supposed to lock Sonmi up in a holding room, but he doesn’t bother. He goes off crossbow hunting fabricant...
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...aim with a demonstration. At the encouragement of his friends, he shoots a melon off Sonmi’s head with his crossbow. His friends still aren’t satisfied, so next he shoots a mango...
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...Boardman Mephi scolds Boom-Sook and calls Chang to come in. Chang treats the injury on Sonmi’s ear. Mephi informs Boom-Sook that his doctorate program is over. Chang tells Sonmi that she’s...
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Mephi apologizes for not realizing earlier that Sonmi had ascended so far. Sonmi, however, remains cautious of a trap and doesn’t want to...
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The discovery of Sonmi’s intelligence caused a lot of controversy at the university, with some wanting to dissect her...
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Sonmi learns that both she and Yoona were so well-suited to ascend—before the restaurant, they both...
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At Sonmi’s third lecture, the other students are curious. Afterward, though members of the media swarm her...
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On Mephi’s orders, a postgrad named Hae-Joo Im comes to Sonmi’s apartment. He is a friend of Boom-Sook’s who was there when Boom-Sook fired the crossbow...
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A taxi driver extends Hae-Joo and Sonmi’s trip to show them some landmarks. They make it to the shopping district, and Sonmi...
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Sonmi decides she and Hae-Joo must go back to her old restaurant. Cautiously, they descend on...
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Overall, Sonmi finds her return to Papa Song’s anticlimactic. She determines she used to be a “slave”...
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Hae-Joo likes “disneys” (movies) and introduces them to Sonmi. One of his favorites is The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, which comes from a...
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Sonmi continues her story. Hae-Joo shows her the first 50 minutes of The Ghastly Ordeal before...
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Chapter 6
...tie him up to take him away. Zachry feels awful and thinks that the god Sonmi ought to kill him for being so cowardly. He builds a burial mound for his...
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In Zachry’s valley, there’s only one god: Sonmi. Other nearby tribes have more gods, some of them including Sonmi and others not. Valleysmen...
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...to make the Abbess of the Valleysmen and his Ma look stupid. Meronym swears on Sonmi that she means no harm, but Zachry thinks she doesn’t actually believe in Sonmi.
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...device that contains a recording of a man asking a woman questions (the Archivist and Sonmi). All of a sudden, a man’s face appears on the egg-shaped device and asks where...
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...is dead and just a memory. After some hesitation, Meronym reveals that the woman is Sonmi, the same human that the Valleysmen believe is a god.
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Zachry is shocked to learn Sonmi was human, since he always learned that she was born from a god of Smart...
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...are awake, but a Kona tells him to shut up or die. Zachry prays to Sonmi. They travel farther, then they stop. The Kona chief addresses the prisoners, who are all...
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...before she can treat the wound. As they approach a bridge, Zachry warns Meronym that Sonmi has told him not to try crossing it. Meronym seems skeptical, but she agrees to...
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A new narrator says 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...
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Chapter 7
Picking up where the story left off in Chapter 5, the Archivist asks Sonmi what Hae-Joo’s real identity was. Sonmi continues her story. Hae-Joo is part of the Union....
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Enforcers chase Chang’s car, and after a disorienting journey, Sonmi and Hae-Joo make it to a Union stronghold. Chang disappears, and Hae-Joo takes Sonmi to...
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Hae-Joo takes Sonmi to the house of Ma Arak Na and gives her the bad news about Mephi’s...
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...new little egg with a new fictional identity. The implanter then performs an operation on Sonmi’s collar to remove her own identity and give her a human Soul. Next, they take...
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Sonmi continues her story. She and Hae-Joo take off to complete An-Kor Apis’s orders. Along the...
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The next morning, Sonmi asks Hae-Joo why the Union wants to protect her so much. Hae-Joo says it’s complicated....
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...powerful, it relies on fabricant labor and would crumble if the six million fabricants ascended. Sonmi provides proof that ascension is possible and could act as an ambassador between the Union...
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Sonmi and Hae-Joo continue their journey. They leave the wombtanks and make it out of the...
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...technology in exchange for being able to use the colony as a safe house. When Sonmi wakes up the next morning, the Abbess of the Mountains greets her and tells her...
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Soon, Hae-Joo and Sonmi must leave the colony. As they do, the Abbess of the Mountains whispers in Sonmi’s...
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The man comes over to Hae-Joo and Sonmi and complains about how he had to buy the living doll for his daughter because...
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By nightfall, Sonmi and Hae-Joo reach their destination, Pusan. Pusan has a reputation as the place where Seoul...
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...out a contraband transceiver to communicate with An-Kor Apis. Apis says it’s time to teach Sonmi a few things, so she can decide on her own if she wants to keep...
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Hae-Joo and Sonmi make it to a chamber that is full of fabricants in turnstiles, including Sonmis, Yoonas,...
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In the present, the Archivist interrupts to say that what Sonmi describes is too evil to be possible. Sonmi asks the Archivist if he’s ever seen...
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Sonmi continues her story. In the Ark, Sonmi watches the slaughter of fabricants for what feels...
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Sonmi writes Declarations outside Pusan. Over the course of three weeks. The very afternoon she completes...
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Sonmi believes the Union is real, but instead of encouraging revolution, its real purpose is to...
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