Religion In David Mitchel's Cloud Atlas

In “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchel, the concept of religion continuously makes a showing throughout the different stories, particularly in The Orison of Sonmi and Sloosha’s Crossin’: An’ Ev’rythi’ After. Moreover some of the characters within each of these stories are referenced to characters in the bible as well. Christianity is the most frequently encountered religion, and its adherents are depicted as both highly moral and highly immoral. Just like real life, some Christians are good and some are bad. The concept of theology and a search for the right one relates to the book as a whole, due to the fact that one is trying to figure out the interconnectedness between its characters and what their cycles of reincarnation are truly meaning. There were multiple references to Christianity throughout the story of “Sloosha’s Crossin’: An’ Ev’rythi’ After” One of the major references is when Zachary and his kin are in the what was left of a …show more content…
When she questions the Archivist, “Why does any martyr cooperate with his judases?” (349) She pleads guilty of knowing their intentions and that her actions would lead to her death. Sonmi likes to call herself a Martyr believing her death will help inspire a successor who will in turn help to liberate the fabricants. These actions of Sonmi reflect her Christ-like behavior and the Christians undertones are illuminated through the text. Moreover the word “judas” means to betray or betrayer. Ironically in the bible Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus for a bribe of “thirty pieces of silver”. The valleymen like to refer to any one who will betray them as “Judas”. Not to mention the fact that Sonmi reffered to “his judases” proves to the reader that she has pre-knowledge of the Christian religion and the impact of the death of martyrs like Jesus Christ had on their own