Life Is Worth Living: An Archetypal Analysis of Station Eleven

Station Eleven became unbelievably more interesting in the second third of the novel as Mandel begins to bring the characters together.  The plot gets more complicated as new perspectives are added from the past and the present; as a result, I get more immersed in the themes and characters. The Travelling Symphony starts to lose some of its members and Kirsten and August separate from the entire troupe. Thus, begins Kirsten and August’s heart-stopping adventure to find their friends. Section 5 re-introduces Jeevan who elaborates on his life after the Georgia Flu pandemic. Further, he embarks on his own journey to find safety and heads for what seems like the Museum of Civilization. In section 6, Miranda’s life after her divorce from Arthur is shown. After the pandemic, Miranda falls victim to the flu and dies. Moreover, this section elaborates on Clark’s life after Arthur’s death but before the collapse. Throughout the novel, a lot of symbolism is present within the various events that take place. Many of the characters encompass the traits of archetypal literary theories based on their personality, actions, lifestyle and individual journey.

From an archetypal perspective, Kirsten was one of the main protagonists who specifically embodies the proto-feminist flawed hero archetype. She was a female hero who embarks on a journey to find her friends at the Museum of Civilization. She has a tragic past and lives in a state of wanting to remember life before the collapse but also pushing to move on.  I think that Kirsten is a strong female hero like Katniss from The Hunger Games but lives with regret in her heart. In an intercut of an interview between Kirsten and a librarian, when asked about the knife tattoos on her wrist, she replied, “I won’t talk about it…you know better than to ask…” (Mandel 132) When August and Kirsten went to an abandoned house for shelter and discussed parallel universes, she wished for a “…parallel universe where I have no knife tattoos…” (Mandel 203) The knives may represent deaths she caused in order to survive, but she regretted her actions. Katniss also felt this way when she killed two tributes during the first Hunger Games, but she had to survive. Katniss had to live with the memory of their deaths, especially when they came back as mutts. Although Kirsten tried to forget painful memories like her family, she can never escape her past. I think she’ll figure out the truth of her life before the collapse later in the book and how she’s connected to Arthur.

Arthur Leander is another main character is the story and embodies the tragic hero archetype. This video about explains and gives examples about how this type of hero is unique and varies from other similar types such as "the antihero." The journey of Arthur within the novel encompasses those very milestones of the tragic hero, as he lived the majority of his life in vain. He struggles greatly as an amateur actor, however, he eventually rises to fame in Hollywood. As a celebrity, he no longer values his possessions or the people close to him. His narcissistic flaw is shown when he uses his friend Clark to further his status by inviting him to dinner. During the dinner, Clark realizes that "Arthur was performing... [he] wasn't having dinner with a friend... [he was] having dinner with an audience"(Mendal 112), the audience refers to the people in the restaurant.  When his closest friend Victoria betrays him, it is ultimately a consequence of the way he treated her.  Victoria publishes a book compiling all the letters Arthur wrote to her and he states that he deserved it because “treated [her] like a diary. [he] stopped thinking of her as a human being reading a letter,” (Mandel 211.) Even though in Hollywood he was seen as a hero, his hubris causes his success to being short-lived.  Arthur had a son, Tyler, with his second, of three divorced wives, but never spent any time with him because he was so consumed with himself. Near the end of his life, Arthur began to turn his values around and tries to insinuate himself into Tyler’s life again but just as he began to do so, he died from a heart attack onstage one night during a play production. For these reasons and more, Arthur is the tragic hero of the story.

Aside from the characters in Station Eleven, there are many archetypal symbols throughout the novel that also hold a large significance. The most prominent archetype is music as it ties the present characters with one another and with the new post-epidemic world. In the novel, music is sung, played, composed and performed, each of which is symbolic in the context of the book. In general, music can be defined as timeless; it is created and performed to last and be incorporated in cultures. In the post-flu world, there are scarce remains of the 21st century and what begins to prevail at the center of the new culture is music. In Station Eleven, music expresses the character’s longing of the past but hopefulness of the future, as it represents both the little they have left from before the outbreak and what they want to bring into the future. This archetype truly ties together the entirety of the novel and its themes, changing and adapting alongside each of the characters.


When the Symphony began to disappear, I noticed that Mandel used a lot of dark imagery to signify mystery and future danger. The sky was “low and dark by late afternoon…” when Sayid and Dieter disappeared (Mandel 133). At night when August and Kirsten were on watch duty, August felt like someone was in the forest because he heard a sound later. He and Kirsten went to check, but an owl appeared. An owl represents death and misfortune, which was increased the suspense of possible dangers in the forest. It was later found that Sayid and Dieter disappeared without any trace. When the Symphony disappeared, a thunderstorm and dark imagery was described as the “sky was darkening…” (Mandel 142). Later, the Symphony disappeared, too. I think the recurrence of dark archetypes was foreshadowing evil and dark events. Some deaths may occur as this dark imagery repeats.


Along with character archetypes, I noted the archetypal journey of saving people and finding safety in the final destination. To save themselves from a potential perpetrator, the Prophet, The Traveling Symphony believe that they’ll find safety at the Museum of Civilization in Severn City. Severn City is “the promised land” in this situation. I believe that the journey's of characters such as Kirsten and Arthur, The Traveling Symphony, Clark and Jeevan will climax and end in the Severn City whether they intentionally go there or not.

Severn City Airport: The promised land

Overall, throughout Station Eleven, many archetypes are explored among both the characters and through archetypal symbols that are very important to the development of the novel. Analyzing the text this way is also very beneficial to the reader as it helps to interpret the text to the fullest extent and depth. I am anxious to read about what will happen in the end as Emily St. John unfolds the plot in Station Eleven.

Work Cited

Mandel, Emily St. John. Station Eleven. HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.