The story Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, is a story about the breakdown of civilization, but it also explores, actually what drives civilization today. Through the contrast of society before the collapse to depictions of life after it, Mandel is able to explore…
Essays on Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Essay Examples
Essay Topics
Brief overview
Memory can bring back those joyful moments, in times of great tragedy; in Station Eleven there are a lot of moments where having memories of the previous world can be comforting. This Doomsday book Station Eleven by Emily Mandel is about how memories can impact…
In Emily St John Mandel?s science fiction, dystopian novel Station Eleven, the majority of the population has been wiped out due to a Georgia-flu spreading and causing an apocalyptic world. In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Arthur Leander. He is a…
One of the most timeless and universal concepts in our existence is art. Even cavemen, the most primitive of our species, used art to express themselves, even before a spoken language, and far earlier than a written one. Arts including singing, dancing, drawing, painting or…
Station Eleven is about survivors and overcoming serious events. Emily St. John Mandel went through a series of different themes in the book, some maybe she didn’t realize she included. Themes of death and survival play a big part of the storyline and create a…
On a snowy Torontonian night, the production of King Lear commences. On the same night, a swine flu pandemic known as the Georgian Flu commences as well. It is Year 0, the flu spreads rapidly in the city, killing the majority, “There was the flu…
Thousands of decades ago, civilization created a language, symbols and cultures all over the world and the moment this all appeared researches have called it “the cultural big bang” (UAAU,Ollivier Dyens, 2014). The reason the world is what it is today is because humanity has…
One of the most timeless and universal concepts in our existence is art. Even cavemen, the most primitive of our species, used art to express themselves, even before a spoken language, and far earlier than a written one. Arts including singing, dancing, drawing, painting or…
Some would argue that the most important thing in this life is to survive, to live and breathe each day. But others would argue that survival is simply just not enough. The Traveling Symphony has it painted on the side of their caravan and Kirsten…
The Importance of Art Art is all around us. Art exists in the architecture of the buildings we enter and the homes we live in. It exists in the design of the car we drive and in the music we listen to while driving that…
Station Eleven: The Undying Past The past identifies people, whether it is good or bad, whether people want it to be forgotten or remembered, the past stays with people throughout their entire lives. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is about a post-pandemic world…
In the modern world today people are able to take many things for granted. How people get their food, how peoples houses stay warm, and how the masses get from place to place are all examples of things everyone takes for granted. In Station Eleven…
When viewing the reestablishment of a society through an outside perspective, such as presented in the book Station Eleven, one can recognize and determine the most important components of a society, community, and culture. The foundations of a society often center around its ability to…
Best topics on Station Eleven
The Station Eleven novel by St. John Mandel feels more relevant than ever as the world is fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Writing a Station Eleven essay today is an interesting
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task. You can either compare the plot with the current situation in a world or let yourself analyze the way the characters see the world. Written in a dystopian style, this particular book is not easy to analyze, so do not wonder if you find it challenging. You can check our essay examples as a bit of assistance to help yourself start and get one's thoughts in order. Always start with an outline that lists your essay’s thesis and a list of ideas to discuss as you write.
Date
2014
Author
Emily St. John Mandel
Type
Novel
Genre
Theater fiction, fantasy, adventure, drama
Major Characters
Kirsten Raymonde, Jeevan Chaudhary, Arthur Leander, Frank Chaudhary, Clark Thompson, Miranda Carroll, Tyler Leander
Based On
Faith, fate, community, purpose
Symbols/Motives
The novel has been adapted into an HBO Max miniseries, which aired during 2021 and 2022.
Influence
A mysterious flu starts spreading rapidly and blows into a pandemic. Kirsten, a child actor, becomes part of a nomadic group called Traveling Symphony. Twenty years after the pandemic started, the group performs classical music and Shakespeare plays throughout the Great lakes region.
Plot
After witnessing a real pandemic, this novel doesn’t seem like science fiction. It tackles a realistic question: what would happen after the civilization as we know it collapsed?
Main Ideas
In the face of a social collapse, most people turn to fate and hope.
Key Quotes
- “The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?”
- “No more Internet. No more social media, no more scrolling through litanies of dreams and nervous hopes and photographs of lunches, cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates with heart icons whole or broken, plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires, pictures of babies dressed as bears or peppers for Halloween. No more reading and commenting on the lives of others, and in so doing, feeling slightly less alone in the room. No more avatars.”
Interesting Facts
The novel has sold 1.5 million copies as of 2020.
Arguments For
Now that we experienced a real pandemic, it’s interesting to contrast it with a fictional presentation of the same issue. Novels that strip away the world as we know it are tricky, but this author avoided the most common pitfalls. It’s an adventure-packed, fast-paced book that’s fun to read.
Arguments Against
The book is a good representative of the literary fiction genre, but it’s not something that every reader would enjoy.
