As
I read the last line to the last page of the book Cloud Atlas, I
cannot help but want David Mitchell to write a couple more pages on the meaning
of the sections altogether. This afterthought forced me to realize, the answers
to the question of the meaning of the book should not be given to me like a
beautifully wrapped present. Instead, I had to dig for the meaning and use a
useful tool that lives in my skull.
I
have no doubt in my mind that the book Cloud Atlas is AP
worthy. It forced me to take a lot of time to stretch my thinking process about
the hidden meanings of the book. In fact, I think it took me at least halfway
through the book to start grasping the connections throughout the different
sections. Small details of birthmarks, character struggles, and time periods
eventually started weaving together a large meaning. The reincarnation piece is
only mentioned twice in the second half of the book, although it is not
mentioned in reference to the connection of characters in the sections, but
rather as an idea that someone like the character Zachary from "Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' After" believes
in.
The
amount of allusions that I did not understand in this novel was more than my
hands and toes could count. A lot of the allusions were from the section
"Letters from Zedelghem". One musical allusion from that section was
when Zedelghem wrote "Scientific papers are coauthored, yes, and a
composer might work with a virtuoso musician to explore the boundaries of the
playable- like Elgar and W.H. Reed..." Now I had no idea who these people
that Zedelghem was alluding to were, along with many other allusions that were
made. I had to look up these people and found out that William H. Reed was a
violinist, conductor, and composer, who wrote about and used the paintings of
Edward Elgar, who was an English composer and painter. I was forced many times
to stop in the middle of a paragraph and look up names, songs, or any other
allusions Mitchell threw at me.
I
also had to constantly look up words in the dictionary. In the sections of
"The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing" many words that were foreign to
me were used. This resulted in lots of pausing and application of new words to
sentences from the book. I also could figure out lots of words by means of
context, which is very important for an AP student to do, especially on the AP
English test. Not only were certain words hard to understand, but entire
sections used language in difficult ways. The section "Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' After" slowed
down my reading a lot, because I found that I had to reread sentences and sound
out letters in ways I haven't seen them put together. An example of a difficult
sentence from this section is when Zachary says "Lady Moon rose an' gazed
o'er my busted'n'beautsome Valleys with silv'ry'n'sorryin' eyes, an' the dingos
mourned for the died uns". It takes a little bit longer to comprehend the
full meaning.
For these reasons and others, I believe that Cloud Atlas is an AP worthy book, and I recommend it as a fun challenge of a read for students who are enrolled in AP English, or just generally a good book all around.
I enjoyed your discussion of the challenge Cloud Atlas poses as quite the complex novel. I often found myself rereading passages as well. Your post made me consider the thought of rereading Cloud Atlas as many of the concluding passages made me desire to revisit their corresponding sections found earlier in the book. Do you think you would ever reread Cloud Atlas?
ReplyDeleteOk, so I agree with all your points about the time it takes to develop a sense of the book, allusions, and vocabulary. But as the first and last sections (chronologically) are theoretically the most important, do you think David Mitchell purposefully increased the difficulty (I know The Pacific Journal and Sloosha's Crossin' were the hardest for me to read) to slow the reader down and force them to focus?
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Lily, you gave strong reasons as to why you think the book is AP worthy and it was enjoyable to read. The quote from "Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' After" gave a good picture of how difficult some sections are to decipher. Were motifs frequently used in the novel?
ReplyDeleteFrom your description here and from others who I know have read this story, Cloud Atlas does seem like it is an AP worthy book. It seems like the reader truly has to read between the lines and to analyze the majority of what has been written. Were there any other literary devices besides allusions that were prominent through out the story that could be another reason for it being AP worthy?
ReplyDeleteDo you think it's just the complexity of the vocabulary and sentence structure that makes a novel AP worthy? Or is it the thematic ideas and techniques that the authors uses? For my money, that's the most memorable part of the novel, as it's Mitchell's innovations with plot structure, and how the structure relates to his themes that make it such a powerful book.
ReplyDeleteI also love the final paragraph, both for its realistic view of the problems of human nature and its suggestion of hope. It's a paragraph that has stuck with me.