Erpf Station Eleven: What It Is To Be Human

Mandel starts her novel off with the passing of Arthur leander, a famous actor, in the midst of his performance of “King Lear.”. Fifteen years later, the Georgia Flu pandemic has devastated civilization, and left humankind in a wasteland, in which a handful of survivors, all uniquely connected to Arthur Mandel, known as Traveling Symphony perform shakespeare and music for small outposts and settlements. During their adventures, they are exposed to the horrors that plague their anti utopian society, introspection that gives insight and a fresh perspective on what it means to be human, and the notions we cling to that define us as a society.

Despite the seemingly odd idea of having a performance arts group in a dystopian world, this aspect of Station Eleven is heavily influential in the book's overarching theme of life, identity, and what it is to be human. Mandel depicts the performers as a group of survivors who seek not only to find meaning in life beyond their own survival, but additionally seek to spread their art throughout post apocalyptic America. Mandel demonstrates this recurring theme throughout the novel, and utilizes a famous quote derived from Star Trek, “Survival is insufficient,”, in order to demonstrate the idea that humanity transcends necessity. Throughout the novel, Mandel explores this theme of why it is that humans strive to go beyond survival, even in a bleak and dead world. The Traveling Symphony is used as a symbol of the most important aspects of life, as their purpose goes beyond survival, and extends to the abstract ideas that characterize humanity, such as art, love, history, etc..

Further, she explores these themes not only in the wastes, but additionally, in the past, and constantly recounts the stories of the Traveling Symphony. These novelettes give insight to the audience concerning the motives, aspirations, and identities of the book's protagonist characters. Mandel’s incorporation of past and present is a captivating tactic and adds to the significance of the novel’s overall meaning and dominant impression through adding personality and life to each of her characters and the unique backgrounds from which they originate.

Mandel goes to the length of examining modern society through comparing it with her post apocalyptic dystopia, and draws the distinction between virtual identity and the true individual. She poses that virtual identity is only a semblance of real individuality, and that through media people create “avatars” that replace themselves as people, albeit, in the eyes of others. In other words, Mandel contends that through media people identify as the person that others see online, the avatar, rather than their true selves, the people you interact with in real life.  

Mandel uses a conversational tone in her commentary on the modern identity crisis which gives the audience an impression of authenticity, and reassures the audience of the narrator's credibility as a trustable, and personal source of knowledge. Her casual tone and the imagery, simply defining media as “cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates” as well as “plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires”, adds to the effect of simplifying the material she discusses, and highlights only the most important aspects of media and it’s effect on society. In addition, her informal tone enables the complex ideas this passage carries easier for the audience to understand and digest.

Her usage of repetition highlights the drastic change that “No more Internet.” has on society. Mandel uses this rhetorical device to quickly rattle off a plethora of seemingly unimportant and honestly truthful depictions of media, in order to quickly put the audience in the mindset that media is ultimately to the detriment of society. In her decision to employ repetition, Mandel cleverly convinces the audience through attrition that media invalidates one’s true identity.    

Station Eleven is a unique and interesting read among an overpopulated genre full of overused themes, plots, and characters (ie World War Z, Divergent) and is a fresh read in the post apocalyptic brand, and would remind you of the Hunger Games in its unique approach to dystopian society. Despite its individual approach, and Mandel’s ability to successfully integrate multiple characters into her story, her symbolism and her most prominent messages frequently appear blatantly obvious, which removes the audience from the story. Further, the omniscient narrator, though at times adds to the character of the novel, can often feel outright unnatural, and generally unauthentic, which throughout the book dis involves the audience, and takes away from the immersion of the reader. Albeit, convincing an audience of apocalypse is daunting task, Mandel struggles with this aspect in her writing the most, as even some of her strongest points feel overly drawn out, dramatic, and extensively hypothetical. Overall, lapses in the audience’s captivation as a result of Mandel’s uncommon style and plot are worth the pay off we get from the general vibe and message the novel provides. Station Eleven makes for an easy and entertaining read, and earns a 8/10 for plot, 7/10 for clarity, a 9/10 for voice, and a 9/10 for world, for an overall outstanding 8.5/10.