Station Eleven: What if an Epidemic Struck Today?

Tiffany Lin

 Station Eleven

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel has gotten nominated for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Mandel lives in New York City with her husband and has written four novels so far. Her most recent one, Station Eleven, is an ambitious story about what happened after a serious epidemic swept through the city. Mandel illustrates to her audience how the world will change when a deadly illness takes over.

The book begins with Arthur Leander, a famous actor, dying on stage in the middle of a performance of King Lear. Kirsten, a young girl, witnesses this death. Later that day, Jeevan, a man training to be a doctor, receives a call about the Georgia Flu that will kill 99% of its population. Years later, there is no electricity, air travel, cars, or stores. Governments have broken down. Kirsten, now a grown woman, is part of a Traveling Symphony. At each stop, the group entertains people with theatrical performances.

When Kirsten left an abandoned house, she remember the time when people lived a normal life in their happy homes. “That’s what it would have been like, she realized, living in a house. You would leave and lock the door behind you, and all through the day you would carry a key” (Mandel 199). This shows the characters reflecting on their past and recalling the peaceful life they had before.

When the outbreak occurred, there was a lot of change. Dr. Eleven, one of the few people alive, struggled with loneliness and isolation. “A line of text across the bottom of the frame: I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on Earth” (Mandel 42). His words spoke to those trying to remember what life was like before the pandemic. Throughout the book, Mandel shows the difference in the world, how it is reshaping itself, and how Kirsten deals with this collapsed environment. Surviving is not enough. As Kirsten looks into her vague memory of the time when there was electricity, gas, laws, and the Internet, one thing that will always stay clear in her mind is Arthur Leander. Mandel’s characters constantly reflect on their memory of the past.

Mandel creates a situation for her audience that demonstrates what life would be like if an illness so deadly were to be in our world today. However, when she describes the survivors, they do not seem to act or think differently than normal, day-to-day people.There is a sense of emptiness in the characters, but there does not seem to be any big struggle in maintaining a happy, healthy life. There are small signs of hope throughout the book showing that the new world will be better and safer than the last. A collapse might hurt the world, but it will not destroy it. The people remaining can still look optimistically at the path they have ahead of them.

Station Eleven shows its readers the possibility of what may happen if an epidemic were to strike Earth today. Feelings of loss, loneliness, and isolation will be more important than the collapse itself. However, Mandel explains that there is hope looking forward. The world will rebuild itself into an even better environment than it was previously.