Within the story Cloud Atlas you learn about the story of Sonmi-451. I found this story to be the most interesting out of all of the stories to read. You learn of a society that depends on the servitude of clones. The clones that are named “fabricants” have no rights other than serving the rest of society. They are reduced to being in a pattern of going about their everyday chores and not questioning their purpose in life. Then you learn about Sonmi-451 who wants to learn what else life has to give her. She pushes the boundaries of society and wants to extend her knowledge.
In Sonmi-451’s push for knowledge she escapes from the McDonalds that was her “prison”. She gets exposed to the outside world which she tells the archivist that she had never known that there was such thing as green plants. She also was curious about the insects that were everywhere. Her search for knowledge extended past just the outside world. Soon you learn about her obsession with her Sony. She had a deep thirst for knowledge and this led her to connect with people that would give her access to such. She was given the ability to start attending classes at the university which was unheard of before and there was a shock to society that a fabricant could challenge the boundaries. She started to have the ability to learn about the beauty in the world.
As Sonmi-451 quenched her thirst for knowledge she was wrapped into many different situations that led to her destruction in the end. She immersed herself into the conspiracy theories of Hae-Joo and his people. In learning from him she learned of what really happened to her people. She discovered how each of the old fabricants were demolished as soon as they could not benefit from society. The purebloods feed the fabricants to each other to keep their society running without considering the rights of the servants. When she learned this she finally discovered how messed up the system was and that there was so much that could be done to improve the lives of her people.
What we learn from Sonmi-451 is that in our search for knowledge you can learn things that you never thought were imaginable. You can discover the beauty of the world and increase your appreciation for life and the way the world works. Then you can also be exposed to things that totally tear apart everything you thought about society and make you question whether or not there is hope for your own people.
Perhaps the phrase "ignorance is bliss" should be corrected to "innocence is bliss"
ReplyDeleteKnowledge is power. But is power a good thing?
ReplyDeleteKnowledge is power, but unfortunately the more you know, the less happy you get, because there are a lot of things messed up in this world that I know about and that depress the hell out of me. I embrace the power I have to make knowledgeable decisions, but I regret that I know of the horrors of our world.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Hemingway's quote, "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
ReplyDeleteI agree with what jess said
ReplyDeleteI liked what Sam and Lauren brought up, good points
ReplyDeleteYeah, Sam really brings up great points here.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Sonmi would have given up her knowledge of the horror of her and her fellow fabricants lives, for the ease of ignorance she experienced before her ascension. Seems to me a distinctively human trait, the desire to know and understand.
ReplyDelete