Literary Analysis Essay on Station Eleven

Introduction

'Station Eleven' is a novel by Emily St. John Mandel. The story is based on a world crisis resulting from a flu pandemic and hence describes the means for survival. The author does well to portray her ideas and to appeal to the emotions of the reader even though this is a fiction book. In this case, it is necessary to analyze Station Eleven to elaborate the themes of death and survival and to relate the novel to reality.

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The novel relates to real life as it describes the importance of performance arts in bringing solace to individuals in distress. Personally, I am appealed by music and when in stressed out, I just set up my favorite playlist and wear headphones. In a way, this provides insulation and temporarily, all the life challenges seem to be solved. The author tells the story of an epidemic which results in millions of fatalities. Twenty years after the flu hit the world, political dynasties became disrupted, and hence, Canada and U.S no longer had a border. During this time, a group called 'Travelling Symphony' arose. This group consisted of actors and musicians who roamed around entertaining the survivors (Mandel, 2014). Such entertainment is crucial to give the people a will to keep on fighting even after losing their loved ones.

Station Eleven portrays the unpredictable nature of the World. It gives the reality that at one point, everything could be excellent and admirable then the next instance, everything changes for the worst. In this case, before the flu, there were stable economies. After the pandemic, all the privileges and the entertainment sector such as Hollywood became hampered. People were only left with memories but could not re-live their former lives. One of the most important characters is Kirsten who was present in one of the most exciting starts to a book. Station Eleven begins before the flu emerged and is set in a theatre whereby an actor playing the role of King Lear suffers a heart attack and dies on stage. Kirsten was at that time part of the acting crew and later on was lucky not to be killed by the flu. She tattoos her left arm with the words "Survival is Insufficient." These words describe the fact that she was still in pain despite being among the lucky human beings alive. I agree that survival is not enough, but instead, it is necessary to pick up the pieces and to begin rebuilding whenever we are faced with a calamity (Dekker, 2017).

The text addresses personal issues that I find essential to the world. For instance, the point of religion comes to light as the Travelling Symphony goes to St. Deborah. It was in this town that they had left a couple who were expecting a child together. It was then time to pick them up to rejoin the crew. St. Deborah had been turned into a different place, and everybody was under the hypnotism of a person identified as "the prophet." This shows the tendency of human beings to take advantage of calamities to manipulate the people into succumbing to fanatics. It is true that humans always try to find solace in the supernatural offered by religion. Any misguidance results in extremism, and this was the case at St. Deborah. The prophet urges people not to fear physical death as he says, "There's the death of the body, and there's the death of the soul. I saw my mother die twice" (Mandel, 2014). Therefore, in my opinion, this text passes the "Who cares?" test as the issue of religion is addressed practically and realistically.

Station Eleven is a novel which establishes a relationship between the different scenes. The title of the text is inspired by Kirsten who had the habit of collecting comic books by Dr. Eleven. The comics were popular when the world was still vibrant before the flu. It is also possible to link the author's fascination for work by Shakespeare. The death of Arthur on stage while performing King Leah is portrayed as the onset of the disaster. Shakespeare's life motivates the issue of survival. Mandel states that Shakespeare was the third born in his family, but the first to survive infancy" (Mandel, 57). She also elaborates how death followed Shakespeare's family as one of his twin sons died at the age of 11. In this case, the dark theme of death is motivated by Shakespeare and no wonders the Travelling Symphony performed Shakespeare's plays.

Conclusion

The novel is enjoyable, and as a reader, there is an urge to keep on reading. I believe that this book could in future become a reasonable basis for a blockbuster film based on apocalypse (Harris, 2016). My major problem is that the author chooses to use the Georgian flu to initiate the start of the demise of life. The quick impacts on social and economic activities are not practical. In my opinion, more likely situations such as war could have made more sense. Post-apocalyptic scenes caused by flu are a lot less anticipated in the 21st Century.

I am sure that I would enjoy reading a novel of the same genre anytime. The author's style of linking up the past and the present as well as creating memories of the characters in the story is also a motivation to find more work by her. Station Eleven has proved to be a creative text of fiction incorporated with an appreciation for art and particularly, theatre. It is for this reason that I would recommend the book to other people. It is also needless to emphasize that the text is well written and there is a chronological flow of ideas.

Works Cited

Dekker, Carolyn. "Survival is Insufficient: Northern Michigan as a Post-Apocalyptic Final Frontier." Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region 5.1 (2017): 61.

Harris, Emma Anne. The Post-apocalyptic Film Genre in American Culture: 1968-2013. Diss. Department of History of Art and Film, 2016.

St John Mandel, Emily. "Station eleven." London, Basingstoke, and Oxford: Picador (2014).