The Meaning of Progress
Cloud Atlas cycles not only the characters’ struggles and the interwoven natures of their stories, but their relationships as well. From Adam Ewing to Meroynm, the reader can see a cycle of oppression and survival, of predator and prey, the constants that remain regardless of how the environment changes. Erin Pellarin questions what, exactly, is the idea of “progress,” if for all our technological advancement we are never able to remove ourselves from our basest natures.
