Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
With six different stories come six different settings. Almost all of the settings are real-life locales you can explore yourself. Adam Ewing starts his journey in the Chatham Islands, off the coas...
Narrator Point of View
Cloud Atlas transitions between six different narrators, each from different time period, and none of them are reliable. Robert Frobisher doubts the veracity of Adam Ewing's journal. Luisa Rey's th...
What's Up With the Title?
Cloud Atlas paints a vivid metaphor of human souls as clouds, traveling across time. Sometimes they fade away and reform. Sometimes they combine into something new. Sometimes they look like bunnies...
What's Up With the Ending?
Which ending? Each of Cloud Atlas's six main plot threads has a different ending, and none of them gives us a real sense of closure. All except Adam Ewing's serve the purpose of leading us into the...
Tough-o-Meter
In its review of Cloud Atlas, the New York Times called the novel "a deliberately difficult book." Wimps. We're up for the challenge. This isn't so hard. Sure, we've got writing in the style of a 1...