Cloud Atlas - Keith David's Character Transformation

Keith plays many parts in the film Cloud Atlas. He starts off as a slave in the year 1849 working for Hugh Grant. Keith plays a house slave and is seen serving his master and his guests at the dinner table scene towards the beginning of the film. He is asked by Hugh Grant if he is treated good as a slave which I found humorous because it is like asking a prisoner if he enjoys being imprisoned, of course, Keith's response is not going to be a realistic or "honest" one but simply a response to make his master feel at ease. Keith David also plays the security chief at the nuclear power plant that Hugh Grant runs in 1973, which is interesting because it creates a connection between the relationship Keith David has with Hugh Grant in the slave time period and the relationship they have in the 70's, it seems that Hugh Grant is always the master and Keith the worker. In addition, Halle Berry is a slave during the 1849 period and in the 1973 period Keith David tries to protect Halle Berry from her attacker, which is a progression of his character moving towards the role of a liberator. Then in the year 2144 Keith David plays the leader of a resistance movement. And finally in the year 2321 he is a Prescient being working with Halle Berry. So, the people Keith David embodies, or in other words Keith David's soul, goes through a transformation journey. His soul transforms from one spectrum to another, he begins as a slave and ends up a liberator who crushes the chains of malevolent employers and corrupt governments.