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Heroine

Sonmi-451 is the heroine of my story.

Plot Summary

The main character in "An Orison of Sonmi" is Sonmi-451. She is a ‘fabricant’ or a sort of clone, living in a futuristic version of Korea where society is divided into ‘pure-bloods’ or non-clone humans and ‘fabricants’, who serve pure-bloods and have no rights. In the story Sonmi “ascends” - that is, develops self-awareness, and is taken to be studied at the University. There, she meets a member of a revolutionary group (Union). The Union cell at the University is discovered, and she flees to an impoverished area of the city where her looks are changed so that she is no longer obviously a fabricant. She is also given a “Soul”, the mark of a pureblood. They then go to another city along the coast where Sonmi is shown what happens to fabricants when they are no longer useful - they are killed and made into “Soap,” which other fabricants use for food. Incensed, she writes a fabricant Bill of Rights. Just after finished this she is arrested. She is excepting this, having now realised that her entire ascension and journey was planned in order to discredit any possible real fabricant uprising. The story ends with Sonmi resigned to her fate. 

Departure

~Call to Adventure

The Call to Adventure is when Somni wakes in the middle of the night and finds her supervisor dead at his desk due to a Soap overdose. Although you could argue that it actually happened sooner, perhaps when Yoona-939 gained awareness and began to show Somni things or perhaps when Somni herself gained awareness, I think that this is the true call to adventure as it’s what signals that things are about to significantly change, that Somni is about to enter a new world. In this case, Somni’s dead supervisor could be seen to be acting as her Herald.

~Refusal of the Call

I think Somni’s decision to go back to the dorm room and pretend she never woke up after finding her supervisor dead is her Refusal of the Call. While she doesn’t explicitly do this to refuse anything she is aware of, I think her decision to try to keep things as normal by pretending she never woke up is in a way a refusal of the Call to Adventure - as it’s a sort of refusal to acknowledge the change. In Somni’s case, I think this refusal comes from fear - she knows she is likely to be killed if the supervisors realise she has ascended.

~Supernatural Aid

Somni’s magical helper is the chauffeur Chang. He helps push Somni over the threshold into the world above the dinery. While he doesn’t explicitly give her any objects, the sights and sounds she sees in this ‘pure-blood’ world will become important parts of how she starts to think about the world now it is not limited by the confines in the dinery, so could perhaps be seen as magical objects of a sort.

~Crossing of the First Threshold

The Crossing of the First Threshold in this story is when Somni and Chang take the lift to the world above the dinery. The dinery was all Somni knew before now, so this journey takes her into a completely new world.

~Belly of the Whale

This is when Somni emerges into the world above the dinery. This is completely new to her, she has no idea what most of the things she sees are. She is now inside the Belly of the Whale. 

Initiation

~Road of Trials

Sonmi’s road of trials is her escape from the city and subsequent journey to the University. It is also her process of trying to learn about the outside world that begins properly at the University.

~Meeting with the Goddess

The closest thing I can see to the Meeting with the Goddess is Sonmi’s meeting with, and subsequent friendship with, Taemosan - the fellow fabricant who brings her a sony, a device through which she is able to start her education properly.

~Woman as Temptress

Hae-Joo Im could be considered the ‘Woman as Temptress’ figure in this story, in that through taking her out to relax and socialise, and through the relationship he eventually develops with her, he tempts her away from her focus on education. It could also be the case that the temptress is actually education, with Sonmi focusing too much on it and too little on learning to ‘feel.’

~Atonement with the Father

This could be the meeting with the Union leader, who congratulates Sonmi and, in a sense, ‘initiates’ her. It could also be seen as coming earlier on, in the form of Professor Mephi who introduces Sonmi to the world of education officially, allowing her to start taking lectures.

~Apotheosis

This happens when Sonmi discovers the truth about what happens to fabricants after they have worked for twelve years and achieved their twelve stars - that is, that instead of going to live on an island as she had been led to believe, they are killed and used as food for the other fabricants as well as for customers at the restaurant she worked at, and to create new fabricants.

~Ultimate Boon

The Ultimate Boon in this story is Declarations, which Sonmi writes - a fabricant Bill of Rights. Although this does not provide literal immortality, it does mean that her words, and the memory of her will survive her - partially as a part of the document itself, and partially as a result of the Orison that is recorded of her because she did this. This Orison appears thousands of years latter, in the middle story of Sky Atlas, showing that in a sense Sonmi did achieve immortality through this boon.

Return

~Refusal of the Return

There is no obvious Refusal of Return in this story, as Sonmi is resigned to her fate. However, she does not go back to her original place in the dinery, so perhaps in a sense she is not really returning entirely, and that is why she does not refuse.

~Magic Flight

Sonmi ‘escapes’ returning to her original place through her ability to think (which is in a sense stolen) since because she can think they can’t send her back to the dinery. This could be seen as being, in a sense, Magic Flight- even though she isn’t able to escape her death.

~Rescue from Without

Perhaps the Rescue from Without could be seen as being from the person interviewing her for the Orison- and thus in a sense from Unamity, who have been her enemies all along, since although they will kill her she is still ‘escaping’ the fate of most fabricants, of working her whole life then being forgotten, through their help.

~Crossing of the Return Threshold

This is seen in her last request: to finish watching the movie she began at the University. In doing this, she is crossing the Return Threshold back to where she came from. She leaves behind the knowledge she has gained in the Orison.

~Master of Two Worlds

At this point, Sonmi is the Master of Two Worlds - she understands the world of the fabricants and the world of the pure-bloods.

~Freedom to Live

In a sense, Sonmi could be considered to achieve this in a seemingly impossible fashion - through her death. Since she is now dead, she no longer has to fear the past or the future, and the Orison she leaves behind is not capable of doing either.

Final Thoughts

My story does follow Campbell’s Hero Quest. However, in places it seems to be following it by a bit of a stretch. Perhaps this is because of its nature as a story with quite a sad ending, or perhaps it comes from being one smaller story that makes up part of a far larger one. This latter explanation would make a lot of sense, as I found that during the Return section of the project, I was having to consider things in the light of Sonmi’s role in the next story in order to fully make sense of it.

I see elements of the Monomyth in many other stories and movies: for example, in the Wind Singer series that was one of my favourites as a child, and in pretty much every Disney movie I’ve ever seen. I think perhaps it exists, to some extent, in all our stories - because it mirrors a part of being human.