Station Eleven: A Raw Story in its Last Moments

Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven” starts with the fatal heart attack of the 51 year old famous actor, Arthur Leander. His is not the only death in the story, though. Shortly after Leander’s death, a incurable disease, called the Georgia Flu, spreads throughout the world and in a matter of weeks, most of the human population is extinct. Arthur’s first wife, Miranda, is one of the many victims of the Georgia Flu. Miranda is first shown as a poor secretary, wearing clothes she thrifted, and living with a possessive boyfriend. Mandel uses Miranda as a symbol non materialism in the book.

The book follows the lives of multiple characters, some who died due to the flu, and others who survived it. The book often changes between before the Georgia Flu outbreak and after. Throughout the book the reader is shown that all of the characters are connected through one man, Arthur Leander. A main character in this book is Miranda. She grew up on the same tiny and isolated island as Arthur did and when she was old enough, moved to Toronto where Arthur also lived. We first see Miranda as a curious yet shy seventeen year old girl. Arthur after meeting Miranda is immediately interested in her, and for the next few years Arthur cannot get her out of his mind. The next time we see Miranda is 7 years later. She never has enough money, and she has dreams of creating a comic novel series. Miranda now is a young adult who is not happy with herself and has very few certainties in her life. She finds that with Arthur she is certain about one aspect of her life. She marries Arthur, and now as the wife of a very famous actor, Miranda is suddenly under the spotlight as well. Unlike others, Miranda never lets the fame get to her head, she stays the same. She as well becomes a successful executive at her job, but leaves time to do what she loves, working on the same comic book that she has worked on for years, called Station Eleven. Miranda could have become ever wealthier through her comic book, but instead she keeps it to herself.

Mandel, in addition to her strong character development, also uses thoughtful sentence structure to provide more vivid images for the readers. Mandel executes her writing very well and is talented at drawing the reader into the moment. “Outside the air was heavy and still. A greenish light on the horizon, the beginning of sunrise. A feeling of moving in slow motion, like walking underwater or in a dream. It was necessary to concentrate on each step. This terrible weakness.” (227) In this passage Miranda is dying from the flu on a beach in Malaysia. The author uses shorter sentences as if Miranda was running out of strength and could only think in little chunks. Mandel is describing how Miranda is feeling in the last moments of her life, she uses the short words so that the readers also pause when Miranda pauses to gain more strength. In the last moments of her life, Miranda sees “the seascape bleeding into confused visions of Station Eleven” (228). With almost no strength and life in her, Miranda finally succumbs to what is most important in her life, Station Eleven. Miranda was an executive at a firm, but when the world is ending, money and status don’t matter to her. All she cared about were the things most important to her.

Miranda during the book is constantly showing examples of real things that happen in life, that others cover up. Mandel writes a beautiful story with many different plot lines and intertwining characters. But she does not always execute it strongly. There are times in the book where the reader gets confused about when these events are taking place and to whom. Also there are many dull moments where it is easy for the reader to lose interest. The book starts coming together and gets interesting towards the end but the beginning seems like a long drag of words. Mandel seems to do this on purpose, to show how the story really doesn’t get started until after the world ends.

Mandel creates a masterfully crafted story that starts slow, but ends in a completely engrossing fashion. Her words mesh together to create an enduring vision of Miranda and the intertwined lives of the many characters. Miranda stands out throughout the story as a center of self preservation, reliance and non materialism. In the end, all Miranda needed was the thing she created.