Sonmi~451

Sonmi~451 is a fictional character created by David Mitchell and appearing as a major character in Cloud Atlas. Sony is a "fabricant", a.k.a. a clone bio-engineered to perform menial tasks for "consumers" in the dystopian future of Nea So Copros. Starting as a waitress in a subterranean fast-food, she will be the subject of an experiment which will elevate her intelligence and lead her to be the part of a revolution to bring down the Corpocracy.

Biography
As a "fabricant", Sonmi was born in a "womb tank" like countless other clones like her. Her number could suggest she is the 451th "Sonmi" in existence, and indeed she mentions the existence of other Sonmi during the course of the novel. While being identical to them, she does have a distinctive feature, namely her comet-shaped birthmark", referred to the other fabricants as "Sonmi's stain".

Film Adaptation
David Mitchell has expressed in an interview that Donna Bae's portrayal might be superior to her literary counterpart. His explanation is that Sonmi's lyrical and vibrant vocabulary sounds quite artificial if we take into account her slow intellectual ascension. Donna Bae's occasional difficulties to pronounce English in the movie had the unexpected effect of making her beautiful declarations more convincing and truer to the character, according to Mitchell.

Trivia
Sonmi's matricule, 451, is an obvious reference to the major 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Several intertextual links to the novel crop up in Cloud Atlas, notably Sonmi's love of culture during her ascension, seen when she devours several philosophical treaties while left alone in a university. In contrast, the world in which "consumers" live seems to be an endless and mindless entertainment society, reminiscent of the society criticized by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451.