Elements of Dystopian Science Fiction in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas: Generic and Ontological Implications

The present research aims to study Mitchell (2004) Cloud Atlas from a narratological point of view for its generic hybridity which makes it a significant work of postmodern literature. David Stephen Mitchell (1969) is one of Britain's foremost contemporary writers who won prominent literary prizes including 2004 and 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. This research analyzes the novel's narrative style and particular conventions which lead to a certain genre to investigate the implications and their relation to reality. It tries to unsettle the following questions: Are there any significant elements of dystopian science fiction in the novel? If yes, what are the political, philosophical, and moral implications of such categorization? To answer the questions narratological approach particularly genre criticism is applied to the novel. After the "Introduction", in the "Discussion" section, key words are introduced and defined; the elements of dystopian science fiction are searched for in the novel; and the implications of those elements will be discussed. In the "Conclusions" the genre and its ontological significance will be touched upon. This article shows that Cloud Atlas is a science fiction as it depicts a future advanced in technology, economy, health, transportation, and communication. Also the dystopian attitude is dominant because the pictured world has failed to consider societal and ethical issues and for its capitalism, genetic manipulation, and ignorance of and towards human and humanity. The ontology of the story has its own kind of reality whose characteristics can be generalized to the real world out of the novel. The issues fictionalized in the novel have roots in the present time problems of the world. It is concluded that the novel tries to warn people and the ontological solutions given to these problems are considered to be useful in the reality. Mitchell's dystopian world in "An Orison of Sonmi-451" is not the hopeless end of everything. He thinks that there is a chance to save the world by reading about other societies and creating a balance between nature and science.