Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is a story that is developed around the life of a man named Jeevan, the beginning of the story, which can be said to have been the most crucial part of the story is set in the Elgin Theater in Toronto. The story is being told in a limited point of view using the protagonist, which in this story is Jeevan. There are several characters being introduced into the story over time, but the more important ones are, Jeevan Chaudhary who’s the main character, Laura who’s Jeevan’s girlfriend, Kirsten Raymonde who’s a little girl, and Walter Jacobi who is a cardiologist. While I was reading through the first couple pages, I couldn’t really figure out who the protagonist or main character was. The reason for my confusion in the beginning is because of the introduction of a man named Arthur Leander. He was in a play acting as King Lear, an it was only when he passed away that I’ve realized I was wrong in assuming he was the main character.

As the story progresses, the reader finds out that Jeevan knew Arthur a bit more than perhaps a member of the audience, thanks to a flashback experienced by Jeevan. “Jeevan was thinking of the time he’d interviewed Arthur in Los Angeles, years ago now”(Emily, 5). Later on in the story, while Jeevan was speaking to Kirsten, we learned that Arthur had died doing the thing that he loved the most. We know this because while he was being interviewed by Jeevan, he mentioned “ I’ve waited all my life to be old enough to play Lear, and there’s nothing I love more than being on stage, the immediacy of it…” (Emily, 8). In the beginning of the story when the reader learned about the death of Arthur, it was seen as this sad thing that happened. Now because of this last quote, the reader’s view on Arthur’s death may change upon realizing the man died doing what he loved doing.

Arthur’s death can be said to have turned out to be not as bad as it seemed. First of all, the man died happy, and second, as he’s life was ending, that moment encouraged Jeevan’s idea about becoming a paramedic. “he’d wondered all his life what his profession should be, and now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic“(Emily,11). Because Jeevan was now convinced he wants to become a paramedic, he’s whole life is about to change, it is like he’s about to have a new life now, as if as Arthur’s life was ending, it brought out the final push needed in Jeevan’s life to become this new and fulfilling life he always wanted. ” he found himself blindsided by an unexpected joy ” (Emily, 11). There are these strange moments where death is no longer seen as an unfortunate thing, on the contrary, it is seen as this changing point in someone’s life. It becomes a moment where a person learns valuable lessons and it causes them to steer their own lives in a better direction.  Arthur’s death is one of such moments, it can be an horrifying experience or it can be the last push you needed before changing your life for the better.