Resisting Exploitation through Language

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Educational MA English Language and Culture University of Groningen

Resisting Exploitation through Language

A Marxist Analysis of Mechanisms of Oppression and Opposition in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

M.L. van Bloois

Student: Marije van Bloois Student number: S2376202

Supervisor: Dr R.H. van den Beuken Date: 26 May 2017

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Abbreviations

CA David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas (2004).

‘CM’ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ‘The Communist Manifesto’ (1848).

EPM Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (1923).

GI Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology (1932). TA David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010).

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Abstract

The novels of David Mitchell engage with a globalised society, and address the injustices related to this globalisation such as exploitation. Scholars have given these topics considerable attention, however they have only paid limited attention to the socio-economics which underlies these injustices. This thesis therefore considers exploitation from the perspective of Marxist theory in order to show how David Mitchell’s novels criticise capitalism as a system which leads to degeneracy and alienation, and whether the novels propose ways to combat these injustices and possibly even prevent humanity from destroying itself. Additionally, the role of language in both oppression and resistance against oppression is taken into consideration. The novels that are analysed are Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. The concepts of class consciousness, false consciousness, and alienation provide the basis for the analyses in this thesis. In order to examine how language functions in capitalist exploitation in the novels, Michel Foucault’s ideas on discourse and power are linked to the three aforementioned Marxist concepts. These analyses show that the novels express criticism on capitalist exploitation as it leads to alienation and social injustice, and that the creation of false consciousness through language is vital for maintaining the capitalist system and therefore the injustices related to it. Not only is language a means of oppression, but it can also be used as a means of resistance and create class consciousness through the dissemination of knowledge. Additionally, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet brings forward intercultural exchange as another remedy to the injustices caused by capitalist exploitation. Interestingly, the novels themselves are also acts of resistance as they, too, create class consciousness and intercultural connection through language.

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Introduction

Predacity is a recurring theme in the novels of David Mitchell. Mitchell has commented on his use of the theme in an interview for The Paris Review:

One of my serial-repeating themes is predacity—and cannibalism is an ancient and primal manifestation of predacity. I remember watching an animal documentary in school, where a cheetah successfully pursued an antelope. As the cheetah ripped the antelope to shreds, a cute girl called Angela said, Oh Miss, that’s cruel. The teacher answered, Yes, Angela, but nature is cruel. (qtd. in Begley)

This highlights how predacity in Mitchell’s novels is characterised by the strong taking advantage of the weak. This thesis focuses on this type of exploitation, and in particular on the ways people are exploited and how they may act against this exploitation. The novels Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet are analysed from the perspective of Marxist theory, as exploitation in the novels is presented as a result of socio-economic structures. These analyses show that language plays a role in oppression, whereas language may also play a role in the resistance against oppression.

David Mitchell, who has been described a ‘master of fragmentary fiction’ (Anderson), has published seven novels so far. According to Begley, ‘[these] novels are ambitious, formally complex, imaginatively powerful, and immaculately written. They zigzag across the globe, across centuries, skipping from genre to genre with a restless, openhearted intelligence’. Indeed, his novels cover a wide range of genres: Mitchell hops from bildungsroman Black Swan Green (2006) to science-fiction novel The Bone Clocks (2014) to horror novel Slade House (2015). In addition, a single novel may also cover several genres. Cloud Atlas (2004), for example, nests six narratives spanning centuries and genres: historical fiction, dystopian, detective, comedy, and sci-fi, for example. This fragmentation provides space to a multiplicity of voices, reflecting and

interrogating the twenty-first century globalised world. His novels are furthermore rich in intertextual elements, which introduce echoes of a global literary tradition.

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Despite the vast differences between the novels in terms of style and genre, David

Mitchell’s novels also share common ground. The novels’ characters, their reincarnations, or their family members reappear in different novels, which suggests that Mitchell’s novels take place in the same fictional universe. Hugo Lamb, an immortal villainous character in The Bone Clocks, is also featured as the protagonist’s nephew in Black Swan Green, for example, even though the latter novel contains no significant supernatural references. Reincarnations of Marinus appear in The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010), and Slade House. In addition to an extensive list of characters that are featured in multiple novels, other textual elements also recur: for example, Spyglass magazine is referred to both in Cloud Atlas and in Slade House, and the ship The Prophetess recurs in several novels as well.

These intertextual structures connect to the theme of recurrence in David Mitchell’s novels. Recurrence and predacity are considered to be related concepts by Mitchell, as he explains in his interview with Begley:

Interviewer: ‘Enomoto in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet commits cannibalistic atrocities so that he can attain immortality. Do cannibalism and reincarnation connect in your mind?’

Mitchell: ‘You and me both, right now, are converting our lunches into skin cells, brain cells, blood, mucus, sperm, hair, toenails, the rest of it. Enomoto is doing the same, but spiritually: by cannibalizing souls, he ensures that his soul can never be severed from his body.’ (qtd. in Begley)

Additionally, on a meta-fictional scale, the novel’s narratives consume each other through the way in which they are nested within each other, which expresses the thematic contents of the novel as it reflects the ubiquity of predacity through the recurrences of the act of cannibalism.

These themes of cyclicality and predacity, combined with the fragmentary character of Cloud Atlas, are often addressed by scholars. Beth Katherine Miller, for example, argues that the amalgamation of voices and experiences in the narratives come together as one shared narrative.

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According to Claire Larsonneur, the rich intertextuality of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet establishes Mitchell ‘as a global writer, a writer who fully addresses what globalization entails: the coexistence of a variety of distinct societies, irreducible one to another yet overlapping’ (146). Other critics have argued similarly about the global natures of Cloud Atlas, for example Wendy Knepper, who proposes that the novel belongs to a new genre that she calls ‘the experimental world epic’, which she describes as a genre that ‘highlights the deprivations associated with uneven development, enacts global cognitive justice as a pre-requisite to more ethical forms of world development, and involves readers as active participants in a widening sphere for articulating global transformation’ (121). Knepper argues that Cloud Atlas qualifies as an experimental world epic, as the novel brings together global knowledges and literacies in a way that lets the reader reflect on the globalisation of society. Likewise, Berthold Schoene dubs Cloud Atlas a ‘cosmopolitan novel’ as it materialises ‘humanity’s being-in-common’ through the way history endures in the characters, which is symbolised by recurrence and cyclicality (116). This, too, suggests that the novel presents a global community that is characterised by a strong connection despite their individual differences.

In addition to a preoccupation with globalisation and predacity, Mitchell’s writing also displays a preoccupation with language. According to Mitchell himself, this is likely to have originated from his speech impediment:

[My stammer] did, in part, inform and influence the writer I became. It’s true that stammerers can become more adept at sentence construction. Synonyms aren’t always neatly interchangeable. Sometimes choosing word B over word A requires you to construct a different sentence to house it—and quickly, too, before your listener smells the stammering rat. (qtd. in Begley)

Having a speech impediment has made Mitchell more aware of language and sentence

construction, as he has had to circumvent stammer words throughout his life. This plays a role in Black Swan Green, Mitchell’s bildungsroman. Jason Taylor, the novel’s 13-year-old protagonist,

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struggles with his stammer, but manages to remain undetected as a stammerer by avoiding words that make him stammer. He does this by using synonyms and reworking his sentences, or in some cases, not speaking at all. Jason externalises his stammer by calling it ‘Hangman’, who renders Jason powerless through limiting his control over language (3). Remaining undetected as a stammerer is Jason’s top priority as he is aware that being unveiled as a stammerer will gravely damage his social standing with the other children in town. In this sense, Mitchell suggests control over language is directly connected to power. More generally, David Mitchell has claimed in the interview with Begley that ‘language is power’, and connects this to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. This claim that language is power echoes Foucault’s ideas on discourse, which will be explored in more detail in this thesis in relation to oppression.

Scholars have also discussed the function of language in Mitchell’s novels. Beth Katherine Miller argues that the narratives in Cloud Atlas are seemingly fragmented through language, however the characters are actually connected across time and space through

communal language (17-9). For example, as Luisa Rey hears Robert Frobisher’s Cloud Atlas Sextet for the first time, the music feels eerily familiar to her. This, according to B.K. Miller, is because ‘Luisa is part of a shared community through time, and she recognizes her own, or an element of her own, language when she hears Robert’s music’ (18-9). This reflects the way language

functions in Cloud Atlas: ‘although fragmented across time, it is formed by the experience of the voices coming together. The shape they make and notes they play overlap to become a shared narrative’ (20-1). This provides a rather hopeful view, as eventually, this accumulated and shared narrative can be so powerful that it may be able to change tides and make for a more optimistic future (25).

Casey Shoop and Dermot Ryan also provide a hopeful conclusion in their analysis of Cloud Atlas, in which they briefly touch upon the role of language in breaking the constantly repetitive and destructive cycle of man-eats-man that is prevalent in the novel. Shoop and Ryan argue that even though history seems to constantly repeat itself with a negative outcome each

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time as people are exploited again and again, language offers the possibility of minor changes and diversions within this endless repetition (100-1). According to Shoop and Ryan, this is

exemplified by how Sonmi-451 ‘hear[s] new words fly from her mouth’, reflecting that ‘language travels in spite of filters and surveillance,’ (CA 188; Shoop & Ryan 100). This suggests that language may also bypass the cycle of repetition. According to Shoop and Ryan, ‘The medium of language, as a field of signification at once mutable and persistent, carries all of the fragile and promissory hope of the novel’s titular metaphor, a cloud atlas, from which the storms of the future might be forecast and their disasters averted’ (100). In that sense, even though history is suggested to be an endlessly cyclical process in Cloud Atlas, language moves linearly and offers the possibility progress. In this way, B.K. Miller and Shoop and Ryan consider language in a rather optimistic light as it offers means of change.

Scott Dimovitz, on the other hand, argues that language functions as an oppressive and limiting factor in Cloud Atlas. Language is characteristic of human beings and therefore makes humans what they are: oppressive, predatory, and destructive beings. In order to avoid this, humans are required to find an alternative to language and break free of signification in order to come to terms with the real (88-9). According to Dimovitz, language has no role whatsoever in resisting against the endless cycle of destruction which humans constantly create; in order to break this cycle, the word should be avoided somehow. Language, according to Dimovitz, is a means of oppression as language is used to restrict and subject people in the novel (74). This contrasts with the views of B.K. Miller and Shoop and Ryan, who argue that language does provide possibilities for resistance. The role of language as a means of resistance is discussed extensively in this thesis.

The recurring theme of predacity signals the contemporary relevance of Mitchell’s writing, which addresses the cosmopolitan character of the contemporary world, and also explores contemporary concerns such as the rise of corpocracy. According to Peter Childs and

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James Green, the globalisation in literature1_{does not function as an aesthetic representation of} twenty-first century reality, but the fiction stemming from this globalisation creates an awareness of an ‘interconnected, interdependent, but unequal world’ (Aesthetics and Ethics 2). In Mitchell’s novels, this inequality is represented by the way human beings prey on each other and exploit each other. Mitchell uses textual mechanisms such as recurrence and fragmentation in order to express this theme of predacity, which is well-covered by scholars – in particular on Cloud Atlas. However, scholars have only partially acknowledged the socio-economic backdrop of the novels, which is nevertheless fundamental for exploring the representation of a globalised society and exploitation in the novels. This thesis therefore aims to examine exploitation in the novels by David Mitchell from a Marxist perspective. The two novels that are analysed are Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Whereas the social injustices in Cloud Atlas have been addressed by scholars in various ways as demonstrated, the socio-economics underlying these injustices have not yet been examined in detail. Exploitation in The Thousand Autumns, on the other hand, has barely received any attention by scholars, whereas it is a prominent theme in the novel. In addition, The Thousand Autumns puts forward the idea of language as a powerful force. In this thesis, the connection between exploitation and language is of interest.

This thesis argues that Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet both take place in a capitalist society, results in the exploitation of a lower class in pursuit of individual wealth of profit. In the novels, capitalism is portrayed as a degenerate system. Interestingly, however, the oppressed are unaware of their oppressed state. This is an important aspect of how exploitation is enabled in the novels, as this unawareness – or false consciousness – prevents rebellion against the oppression. This false consciousness is primarily maintained through

language. As the oppressed are limited in their control over language, they are also limited in their knowledge. Language is the means of oppression in the novels, but it may also be a means of resistance against it. Gaining knowledge through language proves to be a useful starting point for

1_{Childs & Green (2013) refer to the role of themes related to globalisation in contemporary literature, such as}

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resistance, as language carries knowledge and helps create an awareness of social standing. Becoming aware of the fact that one is being oppressed is the first crucial step in actually combatting the oppression. However, Mitchell’s novels remain ambiguous as to whether language-based resistance has a function beyond creating class consciousness, as various modes of exploitation recur time and again in the novels.

The first chapter of this thesis presents a theoretical framework for analysis which draws on Marxist theory for the basis of the framework. The concepts of capitalism, class

consciousness, false consciousness and alienation provide the key concepts of the methodology that this thesis adopts. Foucault’s ideas on discourse and power are linked to these in order to examine the role of language in capitalist exploitation in the novels. The second chapter provides an analysis of Cloud Atlas while the third chapter provides an analysis of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. These analyses show that the novels criticise capitalist exploitation as it leads to alienation and suffering, and how exploitation occurs through language as language creates false consciousness. On the other hand, language can also create class consciousness and therefore can be used as a means of resistance. Finally, the discussion concludes with a comparison between the two novels which shows that the novels are quite similar in their treatment of language in capitalist exploitation, and which proposes connection as an additional means of resistance. The conclusion also briefly addresses the role of the contemporary novel as a vessel of knowledge and therefore as a means of resistance.

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Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework

The impact of Karl Marx’ ideas on social division have been significant to modern western thought; Marx’ ideas have influenced the fields of sociology, philosophy, economics, and cultural theory, including literary criticism (Leezenberg & De Vries 179; Habib 36). Karl Marx criticised capitalism as a system that thrives on oppression of the working class. Marx and Engels argue in ‘The Communist Manifesto’ that ‘the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’, meaning that throughout history, there has constantly been an opposition between oppressor and oppressed (3). This conflict between classes may be fought in the open, but it may also be invisible. Whereas there may occur social revolutions or reforms that replace their preceding social system, these simply offer new ways for classes to be in conflict and to oppress and be oppressed. Marxist theory provides a solid basis for the analyses in this thesis, as it enables an exploration of exploitation in David Mitchell’s novels in their socio-economic context. This chapter sets out to introduce the Marxist notions of class, alienation, false

consciousness and class consciousness. Michel Foucault’s ideas on discourse and power are also featured in this framework, as these support the discussion of the role language plays in false consciousness and class consciousness, and of power dynamics in general.

Capitalist exploitation

Marx calls the dominant system in modern western society capitalism. According to Marx, the main issue with capitalism is that the means of production are in the hands of one group. Capitalism is characterised by two classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (‘CM’). The bourgeoisie is the class that owns the means of production – for example, the owner of a bread factory. The people who are hired by the bourgeoisie to do the work for them are the proletariat. In this case, that would be someone who works in the bread factory. The worker sells his or her labour to the owner of the factory. The bourgeois have great power as the means of production are in their hands. After all, ‘the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same

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time its ruling intellectual force’ (Marx & Engels, The German Ideology 20). One could therefore say that they control the discourse, to use a Foucauldian term. The role of discourse in exploitation is treated more extensively later in the chapter. Thus, ‘generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it’ (20). As Habib puts it, the bourgeoisie can disseminate their ideas ‘in the realms of law, morality, religion and art, as possessing universal verity’ (36). This puts great power in the hands of the bourgeoisie.

Furthermore, capitalism has a strongly imperialist aspect, as in order to perpetuate itself, a capitalist society has to keep revolutionising ways of production (Marx & Engels, ‘CM’).

Additionally, capitalism has to spread over the world; in doing so, it urges other countries to adopt the same system and to, in the eyes of the bourgeois, civilise2_{. As Marx and Engels put it, it} ‘creates a world after its own image’ (‘CM’). In that way, capitalism will lead to oppression and alienation on an even larger scale.

Alienation

The state operates in the interests of the bourgeoisie, which leads to the oppression of the working class. The working class are reduced to mere commodities as the workers, too, may be sold and exchanged in a way that resembles the way goods are treated (Habib 36). The workers are valued merely for their contribution to the production process. Capitalism ‘has resolved personal worth into exchange value’ and even personal relations are reduced to money relations rather than emotional relations (Marx & Engels, ‘CM’ 5). After all, the main concern in a capitalist society is monetary. As such, Marx argues, capitalism leads to alienation: a worker is estranged from the product and the production process since the worker is reduced to a mere link in the production chain of a product that he does not possess (Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 95). The worker is working strenuously to manufacture an indiscriminate part of a product which is entirely alien to him and which he is ordered to produce. As a result, the

2_{See Lenin, V.I. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. 1916. London: Penguin, 2010 for an in-depth criticism of}

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worker is estranged from himself, as work is an important aspect of our identities according to Marx – one’s identity is formed by the work one does. However, in capitalism, ‘labour

is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his intrinsic nature; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind’ (Marx, EPM). Rather than working for self-fulfilment, a worker works for the bourgeois, and in doing so, loses part of himself and becomes estranged.

For example, in an ideal situation, a bread maker would be involved in the entire production process. The bread maker would produce bread to satisfy the needs of his own community and to serve as a kind of self-fulfilment. The bread maker’s work stays close to him and defines him. In a capitalist society, however, the situation is far from ideal as the bread making process is different, since a bread factory worker’s job may be to only add flour rather than being involved in the entire production process. In this way, the worker becomes alienated from his own essence and from the world around him. This alienation increases as the

production of objects increases, as one is surrounded by more and more alien objects. Erich Fromm comments in Marx’ Concept of Man that Marx’ ideas on alienation are perhaps now even more relevant than ever, regardless of the fact that Marx’ works were written almost two centuries ago: ‘Marx did not foresee the extent to which alienation was to become the fate of the vast majority of people’ (55-6). According to Fromm, the concept of alienation as presented by Marx is still very much applicable to contemporary society. Fromm illustrates this as ‘nothing could prove [Marx’] prophecy more drastically than the fact that the whole human race is today the prisoner of the nuclear weapons it has created’ (57).

Class consciousness and false consciousness

If the oppressed wish to overthrow the bourgeois rule, the proletariat first has to become aware of their actual position in society. Marx and Engels delineated two stages of becoming aware: class being in-itself, and class being for-itself (The Poverty of Philosophy 188-9). First, the

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workers must realise that they have something in common with each other and therefore acquire a sense of being part of a group. What they have in common is their shared suffering under bourgeois rule. This realisation is called class being in-itself. Once the workers develop an awareness of the fact that they are a group that actually opposes another group (i.e. the

bourgeoisie), they can form their own sense of being a class and can become aware of their social position. This is called class being for-itself. Thus, what distinguishes these two steps is that being for-itself requires an awareness of being a group and being opposed by another group, which allows the group to act in its own interest. Based on this, György Lukács developed the concepts of class consciousness and false consciousness in History and Class Consciousness (1923). Here, being aware of to which class one belongs and how this class is oppressed or oppresses is called class consciousness. This awareness would be the first step in overthrowing bourgeois rule. Lukács also addresses the term false consciousness, which entails that one thinks he or she has an awareness of to what class he or she belongs and what this entails, but in reality this is false. The bourgeois, who, as mentioned, play a large role in shaping the discourse, can deceive the

proletariat by letting them believe that the state acts in their interests, too, rather than merely acting in the interests of the bourgeois, or can let them believe that the proletariat possesses more power than they actually do. After all, class consciousness would threaten the bourgeois rule.

Discourse

The idea of creating false consciousness touches upon discourse. According to Marx and Engels, language should be considered a social practice rather than an independent system (‘GI’). This means that language arises from the relationships between people and their environments. Furthermore, ‘the production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of real men’ (‘GI’ 154). This includes language, as language can be considered the vessel for ideas and knowledge. According to Habib, this is one of the aspects later critics have been inspired by:

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‘Insights [of Marxist theory] into language as a social practice with a material dimension, its awareness that the truth is an interpretation based on certain kinds of consensus, its view of the world as created through human physical, intellectual, and ideological labour, (…) its insistence that analysis of all phenomena must be informed by historical context have contributed to later critical theory and philosophy’. (38)

Michel Foucault, for example, has written extensively about how all knowledge,

perceptions, and assumptions are inherently subjective social constructs that are determined by discourse. Discourse can be explained as ‘ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them’, meaning that discourse entails the ways people view truth and authority, and in fact shapes all thinking and meaning (Weedon 108). However, as Weedon writes,

‘discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the ‘nature’ of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern’ (108). In other words, discourse determines meaning and influences the way people think or act. The way people consider the world and what they find acceptable or normal is determined by discourse. Perceptions of what is acceptable may change through time with changes in

discourse – after all, it is dependent on culture.

If knowledge, assumptions, and perceptions are all subjective and shaped by discourse, who then shapes the discourse? Power here plays a large role. The authorities – those in power – form the discourse (S. Miller). Science, for example, is an example of such an authority. People generally attribute the concepts truth and knowledge to science, which therefore has the power to shape the discourse through disseminating certain knowledge among people – who accept this knowledge because science is viewed as a reliable source – which in turn shapes how people view the world. This also makes truth and knowledge highly subjective. Turning back to Marx, the bourgeoisie has a large role in shaping the discourse – after all, they are in power. The bourgeois, as they are in power, control both the means of production in terms of the material, but also the

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‘mental’ – ‘the class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it’ (Marx & Engels, ‘GI’ 20). According to Habib, in The German Ideology it says that ‘what passes as “truth,” then, is not eternal but institutionally created’, an idea that is reflected in Foucault’s notions of discourse and power (39). Consequently, truth is arbitrary. This also means that the power that is attributed to the authorities is not absolute.

Language can be argued to play a large role in the struggle against capitalism. Fairclough and Graham emphasise the importance of language-based resistance against capitalism: ‘if the socio-economic order is discourse- and language-based in this sense – and we must assume it is – understanding of it, resistance to it, and struggle against it must also incorporate a significant discursive element’ (3). In this way, literature can also play a role in ‘the cultural emancipation of the masses’, as Marxist critic Terry Eagleton puts it (Walter Benjamin 97). After all, Marx called language a form of social practice, thus literature is as well (Eagleton, Literary Theory 110-5). From this follows that since power and oppression are based on discourse and thus on language, the resistance against it must also be language-based. Again, this relates to B.K. Miller’s and Shoop & Ryan’s articles on David Mitchell’s novels, as they argue that language indeed provides

possibilities for change, whereas Dimovitz argues that language is insufficient precisely because it is the means of oppression.

In order to assess the ways in which capitalist exploitation occurs in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, special attention is paid to how capitalism is portrayed in the novels and in what ways language is involved in the oppression. In order to do so, the degree to which the characters are alienated and are subject to false consciousness is taken into consideration. The creation of false consciousness through discourse is also examined. Furthermore, the ways in which characters offer resistance to this oppression are analysed with reference to the ways in which characters use language to break false consciousness and achieve

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class consciousness. Lastly, the effectiveness of the means of resistance against the oppression is assessed.

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Chapter 2: Cloud Atlas

At the end of Cloud Atlas, Adam Ewing declares that:

If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. (508)

Ewing here suggests that, in order to overcome social injustice, wholeheartedly believing that it is possible to overcome these injustices would suffice. This statement feels ambiguous: on the one hand, it displays hope since it suggests that redirecting the course of history to a more optimistic future is indeed possible. On the other hand, throughout the six narratives, which span from the nineteenth century to a dystopian future, humanity has not transcended barbarity, races cannot share this world peaceably, leaders are not just, power is not accountable, and riches are not shared equally. This chapter sets out to pinpoint these injustices in the light of the theoretical framework, and subsequently show how characters are exploited and how they may attempt to combat this exploitation. The capitalist system is at the root of the injustices in Cloud Atlas, as people are exploited in order to maintain the capitalist system, which is portrayed as degenerative. The exploited group is oppressed through language – on one level, deprivation of language is symbolic of deprivation of power. On a deeper level, language is a powerful means in its own right as it is connected to discourse and power, since language carries knowledge and therefore power. The established order creates false consciousness through deprivation of knowledge via language. This also means that the oppressed can attain the knowledge they have been deprived of through language, making language a means of resistance. The question remains whether this is as effective as it seems.

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‘The weak are meat, the strong do eat’: Capitalist exploitation

The first narrative, ‘The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing’, points to the novel’s central theme of exploitation immediately. Ewing meets surgeon Henry Goose on a beach in the Pacific, where the doctor notes that ‘in days gone by this Arcadian strand was a cannibals’ banqueting hall, yes, where the strong engorged themselves on the weak’ (3). This image of cannibalism is a strong and interesting one, as cannibalism is usually associated with primitivism and savagery. According to Lynda Ng, people generally presume that society has progressed past this primitive act of cannibalism. However, the theme of cannibalism recurs throughout the novel, which ‘undermines this rhetoric of progress’ (Ng 115). Indeed, this ‘engorging oneself on the weak’ is not merely a practice of the past; predacity merely occurs in a different form in Ewing’s age. As Dr Goose is discussing cannibalism, he wonders about transmuting the teeth he finds on the beach to gold and selling them to the Marchioness Grace of Mayfair, who then would wear ‘cannibals’ gnashers’ without being aware of it, which would please Goose as this would humiliate her (3). This pinpoints modern predacity in a twofold manner: firstly, Goose would profit from selling the Marchioness the teeth both in coinage and in taking delight in her

suffering. Secondly, the Marchioness herself would symbolically resemble a cannibal as she wears the same teeth the cannibals have used to feast on weaker people. This may seem like an

incongruous picture – a noble lady called Grace with cannibals’ teeth. However, as we will see throughout the rest of this chapter, the idea of people in power as predators is not so farfetched.

In the modern age, manifestations of predacity have become less overt and are

institutionalised in the form of capitalism. In this case, ‘modern’ refers to the timespan covered by the narratives in the novel – from Adam Ewing’s nineteenth century to Zach’ry Bailey’s post-apocalyptic future – as opposed to the ‘days gone by’ of Goose’s cannibals. This chapter will mostly refer to Adam Ewing’s narrative, ‘The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing’, and Sonmi-451’s narrative, ‘An Orison of Sonmi-451’ as these are contrasting in several ways. Firstly, Ewing’s narrative is set in the past, whereas Sonmi’s narrative is set in the future. Furthermore, these two

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narratives feature seemingly different manifestations of capitalism: colonialism and corpocracy, respectively. It would be interesting to see how these different narratives treat exploitation, alienation and resistance in similar ways.

Let us first consider capitalist exploitation in Adam Ewing’s narrative. Ewing is on a trading ship called The Prophetess, which sails from Australia to Hawaii via the Chatham Islands. This trading ship itself represents colonialism and imperialism – its relation to oppression in a general sense requires no further explanation considering the obvious connection to slavery. Furthermore, the Moriori people, who are discussed extensively in the narrative, have suffered from invasions by the Maori tribe and from European colonisers. The English claimed the Chatham Islands and sealers and whalers settled, ‘turning the surf pink with seals’ blood’ (12). This symbolises the destructiveness of colonisation: the coloniser goes as far as to slaughter animals for money, until there are barely any whales left. Interestingly, whales are generally white and often depicted as being white and blue – two colours associated with purity and innocence. In addition, the sea was turned from blue to pink with the whales’ blood. This symbolic

corruption of these pure elements underlines the corruptive character of colonisation. Colonial expansion is mentioned as a manifestation of capitalism, as explained by Marx and Engels in ‘The Communist Manifesto’ and Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, as capitalism

constantly expands itself. The English went on to claim an impressive amount of farmland, causing the Moriori to lose power over the islands as the English used them for generating profit (12-3). Later, the English aided the Maori in slaughtering and colonising the Moriori (14-5). This exemplifies how colonial expansion occurs at the expense of the native society: they are often subjected to the oppressive rule of the coloniser, who has generating profit as its main goal. The degenerative character of exploiting people in this way is symbolised by the whales.

The later chapters, in particular ‘Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery’ and ‘An Orison of Sonmi-451’, take place in a society where capitalism has a corpocratic character. This relates to the concept of late capitalism, a term that has been used by Ernest Mandel to describe the period

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in the history of capitalism which lasts from the end of the Second World War until now (Jameson 165). Increasing dominance of multinational corporations and globalised markets are important characteristics of Late Capitalism (Jameson). Two of the narratives in Cloud Atlas reflect this. ‘Half-Lives’ is set in the USA in the 1970s and ‘Sonmi-451’ is set in a dystopian future Korea, now called Nea So Copros. In ‘Half-Lives’, a new nuclear reactor is unsafe, putting

thousands of citizens at risk of a nuclear disaster, yet the corporation behind the nuclear reactor, Seaboard Corporation, attempts to conceal this information in order to keep the plant operative and therefore generate profit. One of its former employees, Rufus Sixsmith, wants to expose Seaboard by releasing a report that will lead to the shutdown of the reactor. However, he is murdered by an assassin affiliated to the company before he can do so. In the narrative, several people try to get their hands on the report to either release it or destroy it. Seaboard Corporation is willing to sacrifice lives in order to protect the company, both by silencing people who have inside-information that may expose the corporation, and by putting the lives of thousands of citizens in danger. The reasons given for this are ‘money, power, the usual suspects’ (132). Thus, money gains priority over the safety of thousands of people; if the plant is shut down, the company will be unable to generate profit. Putting lives in danger is preferable over putting the company in danger. In this way, the novel again highlights the theme of predacity and criticises the exploitative character of capitalism.

In the succeeding narrative, ‘Sonmi-451’, Nea So Copros is ruled by large corporations with monopoly positions such as MediCorp and OrganiCorp, which creates a stark division between rich and poor. The lower classes live in slums after they have fled from the inhumane conditions of the Production Zones, where the factories they used to work in are situated (316). The dangerous slums ‘reek of waste and sewage’ and are populated by people mutilated by the acid rain (316). These people fled from the ‘malaria, flooding, drought, rogue crop genomes, parasites, encroaching deadlands’ of the Production Zones (316). In this way, the novel paints a harrowing picture of life under corporate rule. While the corporations’ funds and power increase,

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the quality of life of the masses decreases. This reflects the classic Marxist idea of capitalism as empowering and benefitting the bourgeois, the upper class, and exploiting the proletariat, the lower working class. That ‘Nea So Copros is poisoning itself to death’ as ‘its soil is polluted, its rivers lifeless, its air toxloaded, its food supplies riddled with rogue genes’ underlines the corruptive character of capitalism.

In all of these cases, monetary profit is the highest priority; commercial gain has

precedence over the lives of the Moriori in ‘Adam Ewing’, profit from a defective nuclear reactor has precedence over the safety of a considerable amount of people in ‘Half-Lives’, and profit has precedence over human wellbeing in ‘Sonmi-451’. Other examples of exploitation for personal enrichment are found throughout the novel. For example, Adam Ewing is poisoned by Dr Henry Goose. Goose lets Ewing believe he is sick and claims to give him medicine whereas he is

actually poisoning him in order to steal his money as he dies (‘Adam Ewing’ 503-4); Vyvyan Ayrs claims that the music which his amanuensis Robert Frobisher has written is actually his, and threatens to blackmail Frobisher if he protests (‘Letters from Zedelghem’ 445-6,); and publisher and editor Timothy Cavendish makes enormous profits off a book he has edited after the author has died (‘The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish’ 153-5). This shows that both on a macro level and on a micro level people are exploited for personal enrichment. On a macro level, for example, large groups of slaves are oppressed by the great trading companies (‘Adam Ewing’), and on a micro level one individual may exploit another individual (‘Zedelghem’).

‘A Soul’s value is the dollars therein’: Alienation

This large-scale capitalist exploitation causes individuals to become alienated. Labour here results in unhappiness rather than fulfilment as we can see in Luisa Rey, Robert Frobisher, and Joe Napier. Rey expresses that she feels she has a ‘misspent life’ as she is a gossip columnist and would rather fulfil another role (94). However, a gossip columnist is what the magazine requires (94). Performing labour which does not give her fulfilment has far-reaching consequences for her quality of life, as it causes her to feel she actually has squandered her entire life. This relates to

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Marx and Engels’ comments on alienation in EPM, as labour has become external to her in the capitalist system and does not come from within herself; Rey performs labour which has no connection to her personally, leading her to become estranged from her work and unhappy. Robert Frobisher, furthermore, is also alienated, as he works for the money rather than for artistic expression. This artistic expression would come from within himself and connect to his identity, whereas working for Ayrs, which brings him money rather than fulfilment, renders him unhappy. Frobisher has to set aside his self-respect as Ayrs continually behaves condescendingly to him and his artistic prowess: ‘[I] remembered my monetary difficulties and bit my lip’ (57). Eventually, Frobisher feels incarcerated and unhappy in his current situation and commits suicide (468-71). This demonstrates that on an individual scale, too, living and working in a capitalist society can lead to deterioration through alienation.

The most striking manifestations of alienation are found in the narrative of ‘Sonmi-451’. In the cities of Nea So Copros, life revolves around mass-consumption. The lower-class

purebloods (i.e. humans as opposed to clones) are referred to as ‘consumers’, reflecting the focus on mass-consumption: ‘How the consumers seethed to buy, buy, buy! Purebloods, it seemed, were a sponge of demand that sucked goods and services from every vendor, dinery, bar, shop, and nook’ (227). Purebloods are ordered by law to buy goods, as ‘consumers have to spend a fixed quota of dollars each month (…) Hoarding is an anti-corpocratic crime’ (227). In this way, humans are dehumanised to consumers; they are identified only by their functionality to the capitalist society. To support this, Machinal points out that the consumers carry a chip called a ‘Soul’, which allows the consumers to be traced as it keeps track of their commercial behaviour (140). I would argue that this, in addition to the consumers’ identity being determined by their function in the system, underlines the idea of alienation. The consumers physically carry the system in their bodies through the chip, which resembles the idea of the human as a link in the commercial chain; they are embodiments of commodity. As Machinal writes, ‘the human body and soul have entered the exchange circuit’, which also reflects this dehumanisation (140).

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Furthermore, that the chip is called a ‘Soul’ signals how the capitalist system has appropriated their essence. The soul is often considered the core, the essence, of a human being – the

corpocracy has seized that what is essential to humans and has re-appropriated the concept ‘soul’ as an artificial device that belongs to and functions solely to benefit the corpocracy. In this way, a human being becomes quite literally estranged from his essence, in reference to Marx and Engels. Within the system, these humans referred to as ‘consumers’ are no more than animate piles of money which maintain the system through buying goods and thus circulating the money.

The other group in ‘Sonmi-451’ that is severely alienated are the fabricants. The

fabricants are clones who are in the most literal sense defined by their labour. They are bred to perform a very specific type of labour; in Sonmi-451’s case, she is designed to work in a restaurant. Everything a fabricant does is related to their labour:

At hour five we man our tellers around the Hub, ready for the elevator to bring the new day’s first consumers. For the following nineteen hours we greet diners, input orders, tray food, vend drinks, upstock condiments, wipe tables, and bin garbage. Vespers follows cleaning, then we imbibe one Soapsac in the dormroom. That is the blueprint of every unvarying day. (185)

A fabricant working in the restaurant will never leave their subterranean workplace for the twelve years that they work there. The fabricants are told that they will be transported to Hawaii, where they can spend the rest of their lives in freedom after these twelve years. In reality, the fabricants will be slaughtered after their years of labour and their remains will be made into Soap. When Sonmi-451’s interviewer asks, ‘what would be the purpose of such… carnage?’ Sonmi-451 answers by pointing out that this unsettling procedure takes place to maintain ‘the economics of corpocracy. The genomics industry demands huge quantities of liquefied biomatter, for

wombtanks, but most of all, for Soap. What cheaper way to supply this protein than by recycling fabricants who have reached the end of their working lives?’ (343). This underlines that the fabricants are no more than links in the production chain of corpocracy, again highlighting the

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idea of alienation. Their function within the system is the only constituent of their identity. In addition, that the fabricants are humanoid clones, raised in so-called ‘wombtanks’, by definition rids them of a part of their humanity and removes them from their essence3_{. One could say that a} fabricant is conceived out of economic necessity as opposed to conceived out of an act of love, like children are traditionally conceived, again invoking the idea of alienation as the fabricants’ manner of conception is removed from human essence.

‘His back was a vellum of bloody runes’: Oppression through language

The previous sections have shown how capitalism is presented as the dominant socio-economic system that lies at the root at the theme of predacity in Cloud Atlas. The novel presents capitalism as an exploitative system that gives rise to degeneracies and alienates characters. The current section will focus on the twofold function of language in exploitation. On the one hand, language represents power in a metaphorical sense, as deprivation of power is symbolised by a deprivation of language. On the other hand, language plays an important role in creating false consciousness.

Firstly, the control over language is synonymous to power in Cloud Atlas. For example, in ‘Adam Ewing’, the Moriori Autua’s ‘pidgin delivered his tale brokenly’ (29). Autua is in a

powerless position. He is a black stowaway on a boat manned by fifty white men, fleeing from his fate as a slave to the Maori (26). In this way, his powerlessness is reflected in his incomplete language. Furthermore, after Autua is flogged by his Maori slave master, ‘his back is a vellum of bloody runes’ (6). Here language is symbolic for oppression, as the one who has power over him – his slave master – marks him with language. Autua is inscribed with violence. This can also be seen as symbolic of oppression in a larger frame: Autua could be said to represent slaves in general, who bear the marks of their oppressors and carry their trauma over to their descendants.

3_{Even though they are clones and seen as inhuman by the purebloods, the fabricants do possess the emotional and}

intellectual ability of humans and are in no way inferior to them in that respect (Cloud Atlas 186-7). One could even argue that the only thing that distinguishes the clones from humans is that they grow in wombtanks and look exactly the same, however they ‘are as singular as snowflakes’ and each clone has an innate personality (187). Therefore, the clones are treated as humans in this thesis.

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On a smaller scale, the inscription of the oppressed by the oppressor can be seen as exemplary of how language plays a role in oppression.

Another example of deprivation of language functioning as a symbol of deprivation of power is found in ‘Sonmi-451’, as the food the fabricants are forced to take, Soap, makes them more submissive, by repressing their innate personality and curiosity, but also restricts their vocabulary (186-7, 198). Through restricting their vocabulary, the fabricants are incapable of conceiving certain concepts. Yoona-939 starts using words unknown to the other fabricants as a consequence of her so-called ascension, a process which is initiated once a fabricant stops consuming Soap. To the ears of the other fabricants, ‘Yoona’s sentences were filled with noises devoid of meaning. She sounded, in a word, pureblood’ (188). As her ascension starts to occur, Yoona-939 starts using words that are repressed in the other fabricants. The words represent concepts which display independent thinking; for example the word ‘secret’ (190). These words make her sound human, Sonmi-451 remarks (188). This relates to the fabricants’ alienation: their limited command over language represents that they are stripped of their humanity. Interestingly, the word ‘soap’ refers to cleansing; in this analogy, the fabricants are rid of their undesirable features such as voice, individuality, and identity. These features are undesirable because independence would pose a threat to the oppressors. Soap wipes away those things that might stain the economic system. As long as the fabricants do not know words related to revolt, for example, they do not know the concept and therefore are unable to revolt. In this way, command over language is directly connected to power.

Another way in which language plays a role in the power dynamics is through discourse, which creates false consciousness. Discourse and power are strongly interlinked, as explained in the previous chapter. The ruling classes shape the discourse and therefore possess great power. An example of this is that the fabricants in ‘Sonmi-451’ are subdued through their belief in Papa Song. The fabricants are being told that Papa Song is the one who takes care of them and constantly invests in the fabricants’ wellbeing, and therefore the fabricants need to work hard in

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return (191, 196-7). Papa Song is worshiped as a deity in sermon-like meetings. This structure, which resembles religion, allows Papa Song Corp to uphold the productivity of the fabricants and to counter subversive behaviour. For example, after Yoona-939’s attempted escape, the

fabricants have to attend a sermon that serves to correct the fabricants’ behaviour:

The challenge before us, Papa Song concluded, was to work harder than ever to earn back that trust. Therefore, we must be vigilant against evil, every minute of every day. This new Catechism was more important than all others. If we obeyed, our Papa would love us forever. If we failed to obey, Papa would zerostar us year after year and we would never get to Xultation. (196-7)

In this way, Papa Song Corp maintains the fabricants’ obedience. They wholeheartedly believe that Papa Song acts in their best interests, whereas the corporation only acts to serve its own interests – to generate money. In order to generate money in the most efficient and productive way, Papa Song Corp needs to ensure that the fabricants are willing to work as hard and as much as possible, without the fabricants revolting. Thus, the Corp lets the fabricants believe that it is in their own interests that they work hard: if they do so, they will be rewarded and loved by Papa Song.

In addition, the sermon mentions that ‘we must be vigilant against evil’, referring to defiant fabricants. Here, ‘we’ emphasises that Papa Song Corp and the obedient fabricants are the opposite of evil, strengthening the idea that Papa Song is good for them and is on their side. However, in reality, Papa Song Corp exploits the fabricants and actually is the evil that the fabricants should be fighting against, not against defiant fabricants that resist against the corporation. This is an example of how the ones in power – Papa Song Corp in this example – can shape the behaviour of their subordinates through discourse. The above fragment also highlights the prospect of going to the Hawaiian resort Xultation after twelve years of working underground in the dinery. This is also a lie, as the fabricants will actually be murdered and recycled as soon as they leave the dinery. The fabricants, however, do believe that they will enter

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paradise as soon as they retire. This also allows control over the fabricants, as any undesirable behaviour can lead the fabricants to lose a star, which means that they will have to spend an additional year at the dinery (191).

While language serves to instil false consciousness in the clones, similar discursive

structures also ensure that purebloods do not challenge the exploitation of fabricants. Purebloods believe that the inhumane treatment of fabricants is perfectly acceptable, because they believe that fabricants do not have personalities and therefore are inhuman. ‘To enslave an individual troubles your consciences, Archivist, but to enslave a clone is no more troubling than owning the latest six-wheeler ford, ethically,’ Sonmi-451 tells her interviewer, who is a pureblood (187). After all, ‘popular wisdom has it that fabricants don’t have personalities. This fallacy is propagated for the comfort of purebloods’ (187). This ‘popular wisdom’ is discursive; that it is generally believed that fabricants do not have personalities justifies the maltreatment of the fabricants. Fabricants are considered to be no more human than a car, a ‘six-wheeler ford’. This false knowledge is assumed to be the truth, without question. As Sonmi-451 says, this also ensures that the purebloods do not question the cruel treatment of the fabricants, which is essential for maintaining the status quo. As long as people do not find the circumstances of the fabricants inhumane, this will not pose a danger to the perpetuation of the economic system that is based on slavery.

In these ways, discourse is used to create false consciousness. The oppressed are actually not aware of the powerless position that they are in and how the ruling class uses them to benefit their own agenda. To reiterate, the fabricants are convinced that Papa Song Corp acts in the best interests of the fabricants, whereas the corporation is actually acting in their own interests: maximising profit. Discourse justifies the exploitation of the oppressed and makes the exploitation invisible. This is false consciousness. In a similar way, in ‘Half-Lives’, Seaboard Corporation, in collaboration with the government, manages to create false consciousness. The government uses its authority to make people believe that the pollution limits are safe and that

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there is no radioactive waste in the food, whereas the opposite is true (124). All the government has to do is to confirm that everything is safe; this will not be questioned as the government has authority and therefore a claim to knowledge.

‘Is this doom written in our nature?’: Possibilities for resistance

As language and power are so strongly connected, resistance against it can be argued to also require language. This works in multiple ways. Firstly, language-based resistance in the form of a declaration or a similar type of text might serve to raise class consciousness. As Hester Van Zandt mentions in ‘Half-Lives’, ‘…Write about radiation levels in seafood, “safe” pollution limits set by polluters, government policy auctioned for campaign donations, and Seaboard’s private police force, and you’ll raise the temperature of public awareness, fractionally, toward its ignition point’ (124). This indicates that publishing an article that highlights the ‘societal wrongs’ will raise public awareness and thus class consciousness; people will become aware of the ways in which they are being deceived by the established order through being told that pollution limits are safe, for example, which they are actually not, or by how people are tricked into eating radioactive food. Rey is able to make people aware of this by publishing articles, or through exposing the Sixsmith Report. Thus, Rey spreads different knowledge than the status quo. By doing this, people may come to realise that they are being deceived by the established order and see through this deception. For people to protest and act against the nuclear plant, they first have to know about its dangers. The exposure of the Sixsmith Report achieves this end.

In this way, resistance against the established order begins with class consciousness. First of all, in order to resist oppression, the oppressed group must become aware of the fact that they are oppressed. At the same time, the development of class consciousness poses a danger to the oppressed group; after all, the established order perceives this as a threat, as it might mean that they cannot sustain their economic system which is based on exploitation. This would lead to the loss of money, which has been demonstrated to have priority over innocent lives. As Autua mentions in ‘Adam Ewing’, when Adam asks why he was being treated so harshly by his

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superiors, ‘I seen too much o’ the world, I ain’t a good slave’ (29). As Autua has too much knowledge, he is a threat to the system, which relies on the obedience of slaves. If a slave then shows to have knowledge and therefore awareness of the situation he is in, this makes him less likely to be obedient and more likely to resist. More specifically, this makes the slave more likely to realise how he is actually being oppressed and to make him realise that he is able to resist. The real danger to the upper class here would be in numbers; after all, the oppressed group is usually a relatively large group controlled by a small number of overseers who are directly responsible for them. If one person of the oppressed group develops class consciousness, he or she will feel compelled to spread this knowledge, such as Rey, who wants to expose the Sixsmith Report, and Sonmi-451, who feels compelled to asks critical questions to her former co-workers as she visits Papa Song’s after her ascension (231). As such, one rebel in a group of obedient slaves could be able to turn the group of obedient slaves in a group of rebels through language.

Texts show to be particularly effective means of creating class consciousness. Texts are easy to copy and distribute, making the text an effective medium for spreading information and consequently breaking false consciousness. Examples of these are Sonmi-451’s Declaration and the Sixsmith Report. The novel itself is comprised of six written accounts. The first is a journal which is found in the second chapter, the second a set of letters which is found in the third chapter, the third a novel which is found in the fourth chapter, the fourth a movie script which is found in the fifth chapter, and the fifth chapter is a recorded interview which is found in the sixth chapter. This points out that these language-based accounts transcend time. For example, Sonmi-451’s Declaration has survived the fall of civilisation and is still known in the

post-apocalyptic ‘Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After’. Sonmi-451 underlines the power of language in resistance, as ‘my ideas have been reproduced a billionfold. (…) No matter how many of us you kill, you will never kill your successor’ (349). Indeed, in ‘Sloosha’s Crossin’’ her words still remain.

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The question then remains whether resistance in this way proves to be effective. After all, Adam Ewing promises to resist by joining an abolitionist cause as early as the nineteenth century, Luisa Rey exposes the Sixsmith Report, and Sonmi-451 writes her Declaration, whereas the post-apocalyptic society in ‘Sloosha’s Crossin’’ still depicts one tribe preying on the other. The novel problematises the issue, as on the one hand, the increasing power of the corporations is

destructive, both on a personal level as it leads to alienation, and on a broader level as it leads to the eventual destruction of civilisation. On the other hand, after the apocalypse, the cycle starts over as there are still groups preying on each other – there has been no significant change in the course of events. Lynda Ng argues that the novel indeed emphasises this cyclicality through its motif of cannibalism. Through its constant structural and thematic reiteration of the motif of cannibalism, the novel resembles the mythical ouroboros in that it eats its own tail. Ng here refers to Jung, who proposed that the ouroboros functions as an archetypal symbol for

destruction and renewal (107). In Ng’s reading, this means that civilisation will repeatedly rebuild itself until it eventually consumes and destroys itself, after which it will rebuild up again, with no ultimate diversion from the constant cycle in which humans prey on each other.

In contrast, Childs and Green (‘The Novels’) argue that although it may seem as if the novel indeed offers no possibilities for change, the constant renewal and duplication offers the possibility for progress. Childs and Green refer to the so-called butterfly effect, where one almost imperceptibly small action may cause a ripple in the universe which amplifies itself and may have far-reaching consequences (36). Furthermore, they argue that ‘the final lines of Adam Ewing’s journal … articulate the possibility of opening up new paths of becoming, away from seemingly localized misery and exploitation’ (37). This, in concordance with the butterfly effect, does mean that there is progress possible in the constant reiteration of the past. Each small and seemingly insignificant action of attempted change in the novel, for example Rey’s and Sonmi’s acts of resistance against the status quo, may not appear to create any major changes in the course of

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history. However, the cumulative history of small acts of change may eventually amount to significant change.

According to Shoop and Ryan, it is language which provides possibilities for change in the chain of eternal recurrence. Shoop and Ryan argue that the novel hints at this in several instances, when Sonmi-451 reflects that ‘a dinery is not a hermetic world: every prison has jailers and walls. Jailers are ducts and walls conduct’ (Shoop & Ryan 328; Cloud Atlas 188). Sonmi notices that new words keep flowing from her mouth as she is ascending, and therefore is becoming more independent. This shows that ‘language travels in spite of the filters and surveillance – one cannot close one’s ears’ (Shoop & Ryan 328). The filters here can be interpreted as the strict structure of recurrence. As such, language is the means that carries the hope for eventual change (328). Language, and therefore knowledge, can develop whereas the cyclical structure of recurrence remains unchanged. Consequently, the accumulated knowledge can incite change.

Scott Dimovitz takes an opposing stance, as he argues that real change requires us to step beyond the limits of language, as language functions as a limiting factor in the novel. Since language is the means of oppression, it cannot be the means of resistance. Language is what defines us as human beings and distinguishes us from animals. However, it is also that which human beings use to oppress and exploit their peers, as the novel demonstrates. Language is integral to human beings and it makes them who they are, but it also destroys them: therefore, in order to avoid disaster, it is necessary to somehow circumvent language (89). This, however, seems like an impossible feat as that would require silence. Dimovitz concludes by remarking that proposing to avoid language would be a rather difficult project for a novel to undertake,

considering a novel is comprised of language and that would be ‘literature at its extinction’ (89). It is clear that language can be used to break false consciousness to a certain extent, but the question remains whether language has a function beyond this and can eventually ignite real change and avert disaster. The novel does partake in the act of making the reader aware of the

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situation they are in through its textuality. Machinal argues that ‘through his elaboration of the social, political and environmental facets of this posthuman world Mitchell asserts the necessity of pondering the future of humanity and explores what it means to be human’ (127-8). This indeed invites the reader to question their own situation in the world, which in essence is an act of creating awareness.

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Chapter 3: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Predacity returns as a theme in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. However, the theme is less conspicuous than in Cloud Atlas. The first pages of the novel immediately point to the novel’s preoccupation with language, as Orito Aibagawa, a Japanese midwife, and a Japanese surgeon discuss the birth of a child in Dutch and constantly refer to Dutch texts (3-4). This immediately draws attention to different cultures sharing the same space, which is also a feature of our increasingly globalised world. Language here, too, is symbolic of power. Like Cloud Atlas, The Thousand Autumns features exploitation in pursuit of individual enrichment. Similar to the previous chapter, this chapter aims to pinpoint how the theme of predacity is addressed in this novel and shows how the capitalist system leads to exploitation and other forms of degeneration. In this case, too, language is a means of oppression and discourse is used to create false

consciousness. Furthermore, the role of language in the breaking of false consciousness and in the resistance against oppression is of addressed. Moreover, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet proposes connection as an additional means of resistance. In this way, The Thousand Autumns adds to Cloud Atlas.

‘Men of commerce, sir, for the most part, had their consciences cut out at birth’: Capitalist exploitation

The Thousand Autumns displays how a capitalist system may lead to exploitation. One of the manifestations of capitalism in the novel is colonialist expansion. The Dutch, and the other European countries with them, attempt to expand their capitalist empire. Through colonialism, the Dutch and the other Western colonisers venture to increase their economic influence to gain profit and in doing so spread the capitalist system to other parts of the world. The Dutch have a trading post in Japan called Dejima, an artificial island connected to Japan through a bridge, which the British aim to take over in the third and final part of the novel. All the involved parties strive to make money. This pursuit of commercial gain, however, happens at the expense of

Resisting Exploitation through Language