The thing that most intrigued me about Cloud Atlas was the way society was shown deteriorating and then rising again. This is illustrated more literally by the ascending and descending of characters in each arch.
In Adam Ewing's arch, society was at its peak. The world was waiting to be explored and discovered, and this made it possible for people to live how they wanted. Well, except for slaves. That part wasn't so good. But apart from that, society was at its peak. After that things got worse with each new reincarnation until Sonmi-451, where it was at its worst, so then things could only get better and start from the bottom up again with Zachery and Meronym's arch.
I think that the theme of the characters ascending and descending is related to the theme of society's own rising and falling. I think each example of the characters ascension and descention was meant to mirror the rising and falling of the quality of society. Maybe this suggests that each reincarnation's society went through a little different graphing than what Lisa had drawn on the board, but it might have looked more squiggly on the way down. like it goes down, then back up a little, but then drops further for the next reincarnation's society. What do you think?
American, like Greece, Rome, and Egypt is destined to fall.
ReplyDeleteHow far down will our decline go this time? When will America fall completely? WIll we be able to build ourselves up again this time?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first sentence
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the writers idea of having a rising and declining story timeline even though i found it to be confusing
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the idea of the rising and falling decline.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the idea of the rising and falling decline.
ReplyDeleteI liked the rising and concluding action in this novel.
ReplyDeleteIf any of you are interested in the fall of civilizations, Jared Diamond's Collapse is a non-fiction reflection on why a number of societies have failed. I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about it.
ReplyDeleteTATY SAYS: I like the thought process of how societies have a rising then falling. I also agree with Jessica’s thought of America’s decline.
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