Blog Journal for Station Eleven

"I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on Earth" (Mandel 42).

I like this quote a lot because it is the first time we really see the Station Eleven comic books and their purpose in the story. It also draws a lot of parallels to the story because Kirsten is always looking at the aftermath of the Georgia Flu, though she still remembers her younger life and her memories with Arthur, who she loved.

"What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty" (Mandel 57).

This quote stands out to me because it is exactly what the Traveling Symphony is hoping to show people. Though everyone in the country has gone through so much at this point, they are still able to find a way to portray the beauty of a past time and prove that there is still good in the world.

1. In what ways do you think the motto "Survival is Insufficient" fits for the Traveling Troupe? - I think it fits for them because each one of them understands that they must do what they can to survive in a damaged world, and survival is always a concern, but they know that only living to survive is not fufilling to any of them and they need to do more.

They perform A Midsummer's Night Dream, a play that it turns out Shakespeare wrote during the great plague in Europe. Are there other parallels you see between the play and the story? - I big parallel I see that I only know because I've read the book before (spoiler alert) is the discussion of how Hamnet died during the plague and left behind a twin. This is excellent forshadowing, because this is the exact character of The Prophet, Arthur's son who was mentally and emotionally demolished by the plague and somewhat "died", only to come back as The Prophet (a twin).

2. In section two, the novel leaps ahead twenty years following the Georgian Flu. How has life changed for principal characters such as Kristen? - We see the world 20 years after the flu, and not an in-between, so it jumps to the aftermath of the deadly pandemic, which is a very interesting way to write the story. People are dependent on survival still as there are still dangerous people in the world, and not everyone has come to the same understanding of peace yet. There is an air around all of the characters now that there is less stigma or judgement regarding how people live their lives after the disaster.

3. In chapter twelve, the prophet makes his first appearance following the performance. Discuss his character. - He is obviously taking the spot in the story of the cult-leader. His way of dealing with the flu and the aftermath turned to religion, but seemed to have gone too far and turned into a cult. Because of the way the people in the town treat him, I get the sense that he is not peaceful truly, and can be very dangerous if wronged. He's now established himself as a major character in the novel.