Greed Quotes in Cloud Atlas

Setting the first part of the novel against the backdrop of the Gold Rush is a subtle way to illustrate how the world is tilting toward greed on a massive scale.

This is Frobisher's thought after he comes into a sudden windfall. Is this this truth, or is it the voice of the nouveau riche? Does money buy anyone happiness in Cloud Atlas?

This is the nicest thing anyone can say about Alberto Grimaldi, who orchestrates a cover-up of a potential nuclear disaster, putting millions of people at risk so that he and his corporation can continue making money. Yeesh. Good thing that kind of thing never happens, right?

In case you're unfamiliar with the word, a plutocrat is someone with buckets of money. Corpocracy has taken such a hold that the poor, fallen rich people are given a memorial. Note—they haven't done anything for society, like other people commemorated with statues, such as war veterans; they just had gobs of cash. Excuse us while we don't shed any tears.

This line reminds us of Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market." Consumers are hungry to go buy, buy, buy. Rampant consumerism, buying for the sake of buying, is sucking, sucking, sucking any sort of intrinsic self-worth from this society.

The corpocratic government demands that consumers spend so much money a month. How would you feel if you were required to spend a certain amount of your money per month? Who would this spending benefit most?

In other words, retail therapy is a sham. Does buying things make you feel fulfilled, or are you just left wanting more? So who's at fault here: the corporations for duping people into just buying things all the time, or the consumers who are too busy shopping to find anything truly meaningful in life?

This echoes Timothy Cavendish shouting about Soylent Green a few sections before this. But this isn't just a clever allusion; it's also a metaphor saying that putting profit over quality of life is equivalent to cannibalism.

Here, Lloyd Hooks—a greedy corporate plutocrat—utters a statement that is the opposite of Frobisher's earlier opinion... after he's just paid to have a whole airplane of people blown to smithereens. Do you believe either man is making an accurate assessment, or is happiness related to money at all?

No, this unnamed speaker isn't talking about a presidential election; he's talking to Luisa Rey. In the 60s. What do you think would happen if business ran the country? Who would benefit most?