An Orison of Sonmi-451 - Part 1
The fifth section of Cloud Atlas takes the form of an interview dialogue occurring in a corpocratic future Korea in a “deadlanded” world. The interviewee, named Sonmi-451, is a type of manufactured clone worker called a “fabricant.” She is telling an “archivist” the events that led up to the present before being “sent to the litehouse” for a crime we have yet to discover.
Sonmi talks about her life working in Papa Song’s (a fast food corporation inferred to be McDonalds). She and her other fabricant sisters did nothing but work for 19 hours, imbibe soap, sleep, then repeat the cycle day in and day out for 12 years which is when they would reach Xultation (a type of beneficial retirement). Serving the "purebloods", they were essentially slaves but didn’t realize so because serving was all they had known and were created with low IQ’s and dampened curiosities..
The archivist asks about Yoona-939, Sonmi’s fellow fabricant sister who began her “ascension,” thinking for herself and yearning for knowledge. She would sneak out before “yellow up,” break the “Six Catechisms,” and share secrets with Sonmi. Yoona realized that Unanimity, the governing system, was suppressing her and she tried to runaway but was shot before she could leave the Papa Song elevator. The events of Yoona’s ascension sparked that of Sonmi’s. Soon, Sonmi was waking before “yellow up” and wanting to learn. One morning she awoke to find Seer Rhee, her Papa Song manager, dead presumably by an overdose of soap. Sonmi was approached by a chauffeur named Chang who offered her an escape from being blamed for his death.
Chang takes Sonmi to Taemosan University where she is assigned to a lazy “xec” post grad student named Boon-Sook Kim who deserts her in his lab for days. Sonmi is visited by another students' fabricant named Wing-027 who is kind to her and gives her a broken sony from which she can learn. When Boon-Sook returns, he does not recognize Sonmi’s ascension and carries on with his debauchery.
One night, Boon-Sook and his friends use Sonmi for target practice. She is rescued seemingly just in time and is brought to Dr. Mephi, a Unanimity boardman and Sonmi’s new mentor. He has been monitoring her sony and wishes to enroll her in the University if she allows tests to be performed on her (a stabley ascended fabricant was unheard of). Sonmi accepts.
University life is not a breeze as she is scorned for not being a pureblood. Being ostracized in lectures, Sonmi soon spends all her time in her room learning from her own sony. Dr. Mephi is not pleased with this so he sends Hae-Joo Im, a student, to get her out and about. They become friends as they attend galleries, have eye opening visits to Papa Song’s, and watch half of an old “disney” called The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. The section ends when Hae-Joo receives a message stating Dr. Mephi has been arrested as Union spy and that Unanimity enforcers are coming to arrest Hae-Joo and kill Sonmi-451.
Sonmi talks about her life working in Papa Song’s (a fast food corporation inferred to be McDonalds). She and her other fabricant sisters did nothing but work for 19 hours, imbibe soap, sleep, then repeat the cycle day in and day out for 12 years which is when they would reach Xultation (a type of beneficial retirement). Serving the "purebloods", they were essentially slaves but didn’t realize so because serving was all they had known and were created with low IQ’s and dampened curiosities..
The archivist asks about Yoona-939, Sonmi’s fellow fabricant sister who began her “ascension,” thinking for herself and yearning for knowledge. She would sneak out before “yellow up,” break the “Six Catechisms,” and share secrets with Sonmi. Yoona realized that Unanimity, the governing system, was suppressing her and she tried to runaway but was shot before she could leave the Papa Song elevator. The events of Yoona’s ascension sparked that of Sonmi’s. Soon, Sonmi was waking before “yellow up” and wanting to learn. One morning she awoke to find Seer Rhee, her Papa Song manager, dead presumably by an overdose of soap. Sonmi was approached by a chauffeur named Chang who offered her an escape from being blamed for his death.
Chang takes Sonmi to Taemosan University where she is assigned to a lazy “xec” post grad student named Boon-Sook Kim who deserts her in his lab for days. Sonmi is visited by another students' fabricant named Wing-027 who is kind to her and gives her a broken sony from which she can learn. When Boon-Sook returns, he does not recognize Sonmi’s ascension and carries on with his debauchery.
One night, Boon-Sook and his friends use Sonmi for target practice. She is rescued seemingly just in time and is brought to Dr. Mephi, a Unanimity boardman and Sonmi’s new mentor. He has been monitoring her sony and wishes to enroll her in the University if she allows tests to be performed on her (a stabley ascended fabricant was unheard of). Sonmi accepts.
University life is not a breeze as she is scorned for not being a pureblood. Being ostracized in lectures, Sonmi soon spends all her time in her room learning from her own sony. Dr. Mephi is not pleased with this so he sends Hae-Joo Im, a student, to get her out and about. They become friends as they attend galleries, have eye opening visits to Papa Song’s, and watch half of an old “disney” called The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. The section ends when Hae-Joo receives a message stating Dr. Mephi has been arrested as Union spy and that Unanimity enforcers are coming to arrest Hae-Joo and kill Sonmi-451.
An Orison of Sonmi-451 - Part 2
Sonmi’s interview continues and we find out that Hae-Joo Im is actually a part of Union, the group that opposes Unanimity. Together, Sonmi and Hae-Joo escape with Mr. Chang and Xi Li. Xi Li is killed in the pursuit. Mr. Chang’s ford is hit and Sonmi feels a tinge of remembrance. The trio manages to escape into the slum of Huamdonggil, where they meet Union general An-Kor Apis who speaks to them as a holographic carp. He believes that Union can change their corpocratic society for the better with Sonmi acting as an ambassador between ascended fabricants and Union.
Both Hae-Joo and Sonmi receive new “souls” to disguise themselves from Unanimity while on their travels. Sonmi also gets “facescaped” by Madam Ovid before they set off to Pusan. Sonmi’s journey is eye opening to say the least. Together the pair come across an off-the-grid community in the mountains led by an Abbess (which shows that people can survive without corporations) and witness a pureblood man tossing a fabricant doll over a bridge.
Once Sonmi and Hae-Joo reach Pusan, General Apis sends them to Papa Song’s Golden Ark. Sonmi knows that this is where all of her twelvestarred fabricant sisters go for their Xultation and are repaid for all their years of service with retirement in Hawaii. She is absolutely horrified when she sees a twelvestarred Sonmi murdered in the Xultation room and butchered, along with all the other twelvestarred fabricants. As it turns out, there is no Xultation and there is no “retirement” in the sense that Sonmi, and we as readers, believed. Twelvestarred fabricants are “retired” by being murdered and their bodies recycled into biomatter that is then used in wombtanks, soap, and Papa Song food products. Inconsolable, Sonmi vows to destroy Unanimity and all of it’s wickedness.
She writes her own Declarations, now known as the “twelve blasphemies,” although she knows she has been played by Unanimity all along. Sonmi explains how her whole journey was a charade put on by Unanimity to instill fear and discredit fabricants. She also explains that there is no Union either. It is merely a scapegoat crafted by Unanimity to place all blame. Although Sonmi had it all figured out, she played the game hoping her writings would someday influence others to eventually bring down the immorality that is Unanimity. Sonmi’s orison ends with her final request to finish The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish.
Both Hae-Joo and Sonmi receive new “souls” to disguise themselves from Unanimity while on their travels. Sonmi also gets “facescaped” by Madam Ovid before they set off to Pusan. Sonmi’s journey is eye opening to say the least. Together the pair come across an off-the-grid community in the mountains led by an Abbess (which shows that people can survive without corporations) and witness a pureblood man tossing a fabricant doll over a bridge.
Once Sonmi and Hae-Joo reach Pusan, General Apis sends them to Papa Song’s Golden Ark. Sonmi knows that this is where all of her twelvestarred fabricant sisters go for their Xultation and are repaid for all their years of service with retirement in Hawaii. She is absolutely horrified when she sees a twelvestarred Sonmi murdered in the Xultation room and butchered, along with all the other twelvestarred fabricants. As it turns out, there is no Xultation and there is no “retirement” in the sense that Sonmi, and we as readers, believed. Twelvestarred fabricants are “retired” by being murdered and their bodies recycled into biomatter that is then used in wombtanks, soap, and Papa Song food products. Inconsolable, Sonmi vows to destroy Unanimity and all of it’s wickedness.
She writes her own Declarations, now known as the “twelve blasphemies,” although she knows she has been played by Unanimity all along. Sonmi explains how her whole journey was a charade put on by Unanimity to instill fear and discredit fabricants. She also explains that there is no Union either. It is merely a scapegoat crafted by Unanimity to place all blame. Although Sonmi had it all figured out, she played the game hoping her writings would someday influence others to eventually bring down the immorality that is Unanimity. Sonmi’s orison ends with her final request to finish The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish.