Themes In Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel

Throughout the plot of the 2014 novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, many themes appear and affect the characters and the book as a whole. One of the themes that seems to have the greatest affect on the characters is the question whether remembering or forgetting the memories they made before the Georgia Flu hit is the preferable option. The novel switches back and forth between before and after the Georgia Flu, allowing the readers to see the characters in both situations. The novel starts with the play King Lear, which is being performed before the pandemic kills ninety-nine percent of the population. This play turns out to be a significant event in Kirsten’s life, one of the main characters of the novel whom was very young when this play occurred. Arthur Leander, the actor who played the main character in the play, has a heart attack on stage. Another significant character that was affected by the outcome of this event was Arthur Leander’s son Tyler, who later becomes more religious and becomes the Prophet. Not long after this major event occurs, the novel switches to after the Georgia Flu has occurred. It then introduces the reader to the Traveling Symphony, a group that performs Shakespeare plays to people in the area. The novel continues in this pattern and follows the characters who make up that group, back and forth between the past and the present pandemic-ridden world. The thoughts and rationales of the characters are provided through the explanation of a