Prejudice And Racism In David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
856 Words4 Pages
Cloud Atlas is a book is said to explore several important themes, the most important of which is summed up by a quote from David Mitchell himself, “The book’s theme is predacity … individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations.”. Keeping the books central theme in mind it makes sense that the first story is set in the colonial 1850s. The first story is an excerpt from a journal which closely imitates a white gentleman's writing style. It is a good imitation and includes words like “Bedlamite,” (Mitchell 3) “thitherwards,” (Mitchell 6) and “valetudinarian.” (Mitchell 15) In addition to an antiquated vocabulary the narrator has a winding sentence structure, and his journal is littered with a casual sort of racism, another…show more content… He wasn't necessarily likable but same time, he didn’t make me want to stop reading. His attitude was annoying and his racism always came through quite clearly, but his setting and situation were interesting. It seemed like everything he did both made me both like and dislike him. For example, towards the end of the story he finds a stowaway on his ship, and on one hand, he turns him in knowing he could be killed, but on the other he provides him with clothes and speaks in his defense. Adam is a character typical of his time, and is by no means a hero. He is only slightly more accepting and understanding then those around him, but that is what makes him a believable character. The turning point to Adam's world view and the beginning of his growth as a character, begins when he falls down in a mysterious crater with "... hundreds of faces [which] emerged from the perpetual dim, adzed by idolaters into bark, as if Sylvan spirits were frozen immobile by a cruel enchanter..." (Mitchell 18) He is fascinated by what he finds but, after falling he begins suffering from a mysterious an “ailment”, which only gets worse in the presence of his strange friend Dr. Henry Goose. Dr. Goose is an enigma, first refusing to go on the same voyage as Adam and then appearing on the ship. He first seen searching for human teeth in order to disgrace an enemy, and then he attends Adam free of charge. He is a hard character to