Reference no: EM133391963

Assignment:

This response question is in reference to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.

I'm having trouble answering it.

In the many interviews that he gave after this novel was first published, Mitchell claimed over and over again that the novel is about "consumption," though he rarely claimed what he meant by this term. For this response, I would like you to choose one specific scene from the novel and explain how it is about "consumption." What is being "consumed" in this scene, and what are the larger social, political, and/or cultural effects of that "consumption"? What is driving people to consume commodities, nature, and/or other people? Equally important, how does your particular example of "consumption" relate to the workings of time? Do objects and people become "used up" as they are consumed over time? Or does the novel hold out any hope of there being an end to consumption, or a possibility of renewal after consumption?

Obviously, you can treat "consumption" here in many ways: from the literal digestion of objects, to the buying of commodities, to the using up of different types of "resources," both personal and environmental.