The people of Emily St. John Mandel’s post-pandemic world in her novel, Station Eleven, struggle with the decision of whether or not it “make[s] sense to teach kids the way things were” (269) because they don’t know if remembering the previous world makes living in the new world any easier. When they “walk[ed] out of one world and into another” (304), to survive some chose not to remember. Mandel uses Diallo’s attempt at creating a newspaper and Clark’s Museum of Civilization to express the idea that remembering the past is not only painful but also a reason for “the world [to wake] up” (264).
In the settlement of McKinley’s school, a teacher unintentionally told the students that “life expectancies were much longer before the Georgia Flu” …show more content…
While Jeevan explains that he “[doesn’t] want to let go” (270) and exemplifies a character who chooses to remember, Kirsten’s brother never wants her to “remember it” (304). Kirsten’s brother was “plagued by nightmares” (304) of their first year walking out of Toronto. Along with her first year, Kirsten couldn’t remember much of the past world, like “her street address, her mother’s face, or the TV shows” (40). In fear of the experience of waking up in the middle of the night terrified, Kirsten avoids any attempts to remember that “unremembered year” (304) or the years before. Kirsten sees what it does to her brother, takes his advice, and chooses not to remember. When Diallo asks how she believes the world had “changed in [her] lifetime,” (132) Kirsten doesn’t answer. She can’t remember much of the past to speak about what has changed, but she also does not want to try to think of things in the past that are different from Year Twenty. Although Kirsten could not recall a lot …show more content…
Diallo began his own newspaper in hopes of “understanding history” (115) by creating more than just a newspaper. Diallo wants to “create an oral history” (108) of the time they live in and “an oral history of the collapse” (108). He believes that they’ll be able to “understand what happened when” (114) the old world fell to the Georgia Flu if they know more. The creation of a library would allow people to understand both the former world and the new world, but to Clark, newspapers and a library signified the beginning of not only a new world, but a new civilization. When Clark got his hands on Diallo’s New Petoskey News by a traveling trader, “Clark stopped breathing” (264). Clark wondered what else was out there “if there were newspapers now” (264). He knew he wouldn’t see “an airplane” (332) in his lifetime, but it gave him joy thinking that “the world was waking up” (264). He hoped that decades from now, civilization would take advantage of the new start they were given and move forward in the new world. Clark realized the importance of remembering the past to foster hope and began his Museum of Civilization with his
In the settlement of McKinley’s school, a teacher unintentionally told the students that “life expectancies were much longer before the Georgia Flu” …show more content…
While Jeevan explains that he “[doesn’t] want to let go” (270) and exemplifies a character who chooses to remember, Kirsten’s brother never wants her to “remember it” (304). Kirsten’s brother was “plagued by nightmares” (304) of their first year walking out of Toronto. Along with her first year, Kirsten couldn’t remember much of the past world, like “her street address, her mother’s face, or the TV shows” (40). In fear of the experience of waking up in the middle of the night terrified, Kirsten avoids any attempts to remember that “unremembered year” (304) or the years before. Kirsten sees what it does to her brother, takes his advice, and chooses not to remember. When Diallo asks how she believes the world had “changed in [her] lifetime,” (132) Kirsten doesn’t answer. She can’t remember much of the past to speak about what has changed, but she also does not want to try to think of things in the past that are different from Year Twenty. Although Kirsten could not recall a lot …show more content…
Diallo began his own newspaper in hopes of “understanding history” (115) by creating more than just a newspaper. Diallo wants to “create an oral history” (108) of the time they live in and “an oral history of the collapse” (108). He believes that they’ll be able to “understand what happened when” (114) the old world fell to the Georgia Flu if they know more. The creation of a library would allow people to understand both the former world and the new world, but to Clark, newspapers and a library signified the beginning of not only a new world, but a new civilization. When Clark got his hands on Diallo’s New Petoskey News by a traveling trader, “Clark stopped breathing” (264). Clark wondered what else was out there “if there were newspapers now” (264). He knew he wouldn’t see “an airplane” (332) in his lifetime, but it gave him joy thinking that “the world was waking up” (264). He hoped that decades from now, civilization would take advantage of the new start they were given and move forward in the new world. Clark realized the importance of remembering the past to foster hope and began his Museum of Civilization with his