The stories as a history of conflicts, styles and expansion of themes.

I believe that David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, the novel, and its film adaptation, Cloud Atlas, by Tom Tykwer and The Wachowski Brothers/Siblings/Sisters, use a number of different levels of narrative conflict. Let me explain briefly: narrative conflict is the main story of any tale, it is the protagonist be they a hero or antihero struggling against something which they will overcome or not overcome depending on the tale being told. If a tale had no conflict, there'd be no problem or real sense of motivation or major change that happened in that story. Basically put conflict makes story. What is interesting for me is that there are seven types of narrative conflict, and each type of conflict moving from most internal to most external can be explored by the different tales that exist within the Cloud Atlas storyline.

Man vs Self (Inner Conflict): The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing

Also known as the Pacific Islands 1849 series, the novel and film depicts this story as told in the form of a journal (a tale told to oneself), expressing the inner thoughts and opinions of one Adam Ewing, played in the film by Jim Sturgess, a lawyer meant to legitimize a contract based on slavery. It is this concept, slavery that Adam Ewing in the beginning has little worries about it, but when he encounters Autua, played by David Gyasi, that he is able to connect with a slave and over the course of their voyage together over the Pacific Ocean, create a friendship and essentially saves each other's life. The name Pacific, also means peaceful or against war, pacifism, which is how Adam Ewing appears to us as readers and film viewers. He doesn't do a lot of big action things, and tries to be peaceful in his actions. It is only when his life is in danger by who was a trusted friend turns out to be a deceitful killer, and that he is saved by a slave does he see the inhumanity in white people, and see the humanity in slaves, thus breaking the sense of Other. The Other, the black man, the slave, Autua, is recognized as a human being, and this completes Adam's Journey where he ends up no longer quite as pacific, but intends to actually make an action and make a difference by joining the abolitionist movement, abolishing the slave trade. His inner conflict, depicted in his journal, shows how he is finally able to conclude in his own mind his fellow humanity with slaves, thus leading to him wanting to abolish slavery. This tale could be seen as a historical fiction, based on the early forms of novels, the travelogue, such as Robinson Corusoe (by Daniel Defoe), and Gulliver's Travels (by Johnathan Swift), written in the 18th century, when the novel began.

Man vs Man (Relational Conflict): Letters from Zedelghem

Also known as Cambridge 1936 (in the novel 1931), the novel and film depicts this story as told in a series of letters (also called epistolatory form), which is showing not a tale man is telling to himself (as in a journal) but is now conversing with another fellow human being, who in this case is the rogue bisexual composer Robert Frobisher, played by Ben Wishaw, writing to his lover Rufus Sixsmith from (in the novel Zedelghem in Belgium) but Edinburgh in the film. His tale has the conflict of a working relationship between Frobisher and elderly composer Vyvyan Ayres, played by Jim Broadbent. There is also the relationship between Frobisher and Ayres wife, Jocasta DeCrommellink, and in the novel Jocasta and Ayre's daughter Eva, who Frobisher in the novel thinks is in love with him, but turns out is not. The film also adds a sexual element in a feeling of love between Frobisher and Ayres himself, which is not reciprocated. It is this relationship that is ultimately parasitic from both ends, Vyvyan using Frobisher for new work ideas, and Frobisher in the novel free loading off Ayres and selling his books and sleeping with Ayre's wife Jocasta. It is in ridding himself of this parasitic and toxic relationship with Ayres does Frobisher realize that his only way of making his best work, Cloud Atlas Sextet, be seen as his and his alone, without any further marks on his reputation leads in the ultimate conclusion to his true love Sixsmith. The fact that letters are used between these two lovers confirm the continued relationship that is maintained between these two people, thus through the letters, as Adam learned through his own journals, does Frobisher become aware of whom he truly loves. This tale could be seen as a romance, but also resembling the Romanticism, where the story is instead not just a journey in the physical sense, but an emotional sense, with artistic links to music, nature and relationships that were common during the 19th century.

Man vs Society (Social Conflict): Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery

Also known as San Francisco 1973 in the film, in the novel it is closer to 1975 and in a fictional city called Buenos Yerbas, this tale is told in the form of a manuscript in the film, and as an airport novel in the novel. The film, but more importantly the book, shows us a society of a lot of different characters: the elderly Rufus Sixmsmith, Luisa Rey (played by Halle Berry), Bill Smoke, Lloyd Hookes, Joe Napier (and in the novel Alberto Grimaldi CEO of Seaboard Inc, Seaboard PR Fay Li, and also Isaac Sachs). In this time period a corporation, Seaboard Inc, is silencing its whistle-blowers by assassin Bill Smoke, Rufus Sixsmith being the next target, because of a report he has written about the new HYDRA B reactor being dangerous, and this leads to Luisa Rey becoming a target. Luisa Rey, being a reporter is fighting against the society of not only Seaboard, but also in the novel, a society of sexism upon her as a woman, even the society of Spyglass Magazine her employer which is sort of a tabloid rag. In the film the society of Seaboard Inc is the enemy, and has to work with the society within and outside the society of Seaboard in order to get the report to stop the HYDRA B reactor from going online. In the novel, many other characters are after the copies of the report, and in the events of the novel, side characters like Joe Napier, Isaac Sachs, Fay Li and of course Bill Smoke all converge, some being killed off, leading to a thrilling ride where ultimately one society will conquer, the corporation of Seaboard or the team of whistle blowers and Luisa Rey. It is important to notice that how the society as a scattered few are affected by one another and central events is this depicted in the novel by being told not just by Luisa's perspective, but in a third person of many characters, some of which is emulated in the film version by the scenes of Rufus Sixsmith, Sachs and Napier being shown as separate perspectives. This tale could be easily seen as a mystery or thriller, written in the Modernist style, where there are secure connections and sparse direct prose used, with less emotion and passion than the Romanticist movement, and more a subject of alienation which is also a Modernist piece, typical of that of the 20th century.

Man vs Nature (Situational Conflict): THe Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish

ALso known as London 2012 in the film, the man vs nature is not ultimately against nature by which the biological or ecological world, but the nature of humanity itself. In this case a situation, the murder of critic Felix Finch, the plotting brothers of the murderer against Timothy Cavendish (Jim Broadbent), and the situation of Cavendish being tricked into being locked up in an old folks's home, are used with the sense of absurdity of events, creating a situational comedy, or sit-com. It is through these humourous, albeit very black humourous, events that we see Timothy Cavendish go from situation to situation, told in the film and in the novel by Timothy's perspective. In the novel the tale is told as a memoir, which is told as a rambling series of events, linked partially by chance. These situations seem in the modern sense a satire or farce in the Postmodern fiction, where the events are linked by chance and caused in a chaotic sense, and where a lot of popular culture, such as the film version being linked to Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine, or in the memoir version with many popular culture references are also made such as an early event when Cavendish's Ingersoll Solar watch was mugged from three teenettes dressed as Prostitute Barbie. This Postmodern style of writing began during the late 20th century and continues into the 21st. Cloud Atlas itself could be seen as Postmodern, as it takes into account stories linked by chance (the readers of the next story having read the previous one), elements of pastiche (Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing is a pastiche of Herman Melville, Letters from Zedelghem a pastiche of Evelyn Waugh and Christoper Isherwood, Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery being a pastiche of Lester Del Rey (whom Luisa's father is named after), The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish a pastiche of One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest, An Orison of Sonmi-451 a pastiche of Philip K. Dick, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, and Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' Af'tr a pastiche of Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker", Cloud Atlas itself was inspired by Postmodern novel On A Winter Night's A Traveller by Italo Calvino). Postmodernism also takes into account that there are many versions of history and many different truths as there are people, which it also applies to the stories making up Cloud Atlas as a whole.

Man vs Machine/Technology: An Orison of Sonmi-451

Also known as Neo-Seoul 2144, this tale is told as the form of an interview between a clone (called fabricant) Sonmi-451, who has been accused and trialled of leading a rebellion by the group Union against the Nea So Corpos of Unanimity. It is here that we are shown the perspectives of Neo-Seoul (Nea So Corpos in the novel), by the Archivist (Park in the film), and the perspectives of an artificial technological creation (manufactured clone) called Sonmi-451. In this story we are asked as readers and film viewers who do we sympathize with, the Corpocracy Consumer-loving Enforcer-protected world of Unanimity or the terrorist-like Union and its rebellious technology, Sonmi-451 herself. There is the fact that both Unanmity, Union and Sonmi-451 are seen as manifestations of future technology, machine, that is the conflict that we are faced with as present-day readers and film-viewers. The idea of state-sponsored terrorism, as is suggested in the novel, is an expansion on the idea of the war on terror, the rule of corporations seen as the rule of capitalism in our present day, and the rights of clones is a present day discussion. In the novel the corporations are said to have exercised so much power that certain items are called by their corporate creators, cars are fords, shoes are nikes, coffee is starbucks, computers are sonys, cameras are nikons, much like how in the present day the word kleenex is used instead of tissue. The novel not only uses this corporate-speak but is written without any external descriptions or anything else than what is said in the recorded dialogue of the interview between the archivist and Sonmi-451. The name Sonmi-451 references Ray Bradbury's Farenheit-451, after whom Michael Moore's documentary Farenheit-911 was named after as well. In Farenheit-451, books are no longer read, most forms are banned, and television has replaced most forms of entertainment and is used as a way of social control. Likewise the orison and the interview is meant to depict a world that is post-novels, post-books, and more based on electronic versions, such as podcasts, social media and even posts and boards such as this one on IMDB is becoming the new form of communication between distant peoples, the once writing of physical letters replaced by e-mail and texting and emojis. This represents a future form of how a tale may be told in the form of electronic media, and is already becoming used in our early 21st century as a way of telling stories. Films such as Youtube and drones are becoming our new ways of communicating, along with Skype, Facetime and other such methods. Films are linking different stories through hyperlinks, which can be expressed in such films like Babel, Traffic and of course Cloud Atlas itself. The film Cloud Atlas is a form of hyperlink cinema, linking one historical period and tale to another historical period and tale through a completely visual style. Most tales of man against technology is considered science fiction, and this style of electronic media is already with us today, and will probably be the new way of communicating with others in new forms.

Man vs Supernatural (Paranormal Conflict): Sloosha's Crossin An' Ev'rythin' Af'tr

Also known as Big Island 106 Winters After The Fall, is set in a world where connection with spirits, such as the demon Old Georgie, or with the spiritual world through dreams such as that by Zachary (Tom Hanks) and by the Abbess (Susan Sarandon), relates this tale as being more like a fantasy world with magic, like in Lord of the Rings. What is also interesting is this tale is set after the fall of civilization, or is what is also called post-apocalyptic. There are many forms of futuristic fantasy that is set after the collapse of modern civilization, such as in books like The Passage, or Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. The supernatural are a force to be reckoned with as goatherder Zachery was tempted to hide from cannibal Kona raiders, who killed his bro-by-law Adam and his son, in the novel Adam is his brother stolen for slavery and his father is killed by the Kona. The technologically advanced Prescients who arrive at Big Isle in Hawaii, is also a representation of a science fiction author the late Arthur C Clarke that "any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The technology of the Prescients with their swiss-army-knife-like handheld unit which is a viewer, a smart rope firer, a flare and a gun, appears as magical to the primitive valleysmen. The idea is also suggested that these spiritual or magical abilities could be the effects of mutation caused by radiation from nuclear war. Note that Meronym (played by Halle Berry) talks about lands being dead-landed, like the tropical attols used to test nuclear weapons in the 20th century, and her boss (David Gyasi) talking about Rad Levels, which are nuclear radiation readings. The idea of Meronym using the last communication network to save her and all humanity from the approaching death of nuclear radiation, creates the quest, and the fight against the Kona cannibals and warriors, being like any scene out of Tolkein. In the novel the story is a bit simpler, the communication tower is in fact the Mauna Kea observatories, which Meronym is trying to learn from as the Prescients are essentially looking for a new home, and are studying Big Isle to see if it is suitable. The novel is written in what is considered a mutated version of English, written in the way that when it is read it recreates the accent or dialect of this mutated English spoken by the valleysmen, and is basically thus a written version of an oral form of storytelling, which is what we'd be left with if our technological electronic society were to be destroyed, either by war, global warming or solar flares. This oral storytelling recalls the myths, legends, folklore and epics that were the first forms of literature to be recorded by being written down. Thus this tale can be considered a fantasy tale, which can be either a form of oral storytelling in the distant future, or even suggestively from the distant past. The supernatural as entities, or even hallucinations, are what Zachery and his people have to struggle with if they are going to work together to survive the constant irradiation of the planet. In the novel it ends with the story being told, and how the orison of Sonmi's story is shown to still show her testimony, which brings us back to The Orison of SOnmi-451, which goes back until we end at The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing and its conclusion.

Man vs Fate/Destiny/God (Cosmic Conflict) - The Film Prologue and Epilogue

SEt on a distant, perhaps terraformed, or technologically transformed into an earth-like world, off-world colony. Mankind is shown as having survived earth's destruction by spreading life to other worlds. Man is now the creator of new worlds, and has in this sense become the new gods. The fact it is set on another planet makes this a cosmic conflict. The idea of man becoming god-like, the creator of new worlds and new life and thus perhaps new religions, is seen as a potential destiny or fate that humanity has to do in the far future. Ultimately this could be a metaphor for the fact that we know that either by human hands, natural disaster or the eventual death of the sun five billion years from now, life would end on earth, thus would mean that our only way of surviving would be to move to another world and thus begin again in a "new heaven, and new earth," as our planet is consumed by the sun or "lake of fire". Man would by now have reached the heavens, or is in heaven. We have become god-like, or become a new heavenly being spreading our knowledge of our previous existence to a new generation of human beings, hopefully learning from our past mistakes. This is considered sometimes science fiction, such as space opera, or science fantasy, but is also in mythology the realm of the gods, the elohim, the creators of the world, and as some believe could be those of ancient aliens.

As you can see, as we move from inner conflict to cosmic conflict we go from our most internal problems to our most external, showing a growth of human focus over time, and how the question of what is a person and one's duties as a person, how we should treat one another and so on, has been the entire question that Cloud Atlas has brought to us. The question is, what do we do now?

Thanks for reading this.