Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Station Eleven, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death and Survival
Faith and Fate
Civilization
Memory
Art
Summary
Analysis
Miranda is at work for a shipping company when Arthur calls to reconnect. She works as an administrative assistant for Leon at Neptune Logistics, where she feels a little out of place. She thinks she doesn’t have the right clothes. Her boyfriend Pablo assures her the situation is only temporary until he sells more paintings, but the truth is that she likes her time at Neptune Logistics more than she likes being at home. Her work is organized and clean, and it doesn’t require too much attention or time, which allows her to spend her days working on her never-ending comic book project: “Dr. Eleven.”
Though Miranda feels out of place at her office since she doesn’t have the correct outward appearance, she relishes her time there since it provides organization and stability. It also gives her the space to work on her passion project and throw herself into her art, which takes the form of the graphic novel “Dr. Eleven.”
Themes
Dr. Eleven is a physicist from the future who lives on a space station called Station Eleven, which was stolen from a hostile alien civilization that invades earth and enslaves its people. Station Eleven is the size of our moon but designed to resemble a planet. However, its systems are broken, rendering it permanently in sunset, twilight, or night. On Station Eleven there has been a split; a faction who lives in the Undersea, a network of tunnels under Station Eleven’s oceans, wishes to return to Earth and face enslavement.
Dr. Eleven, like Miranda, is slightly out of place, as he lives on a broken space station that was never meant for humanity to live on. The comic’s themes of survival and the loss of human civilization mirror those of the novel as a whole, as characters in the comic must grapple with the realities of a new world.
Themes
Before Miranda meets Arthur again, she receives a call from Pablo, who is rude to her regarding how often she’s at work. During the call she is first detached, but she becomes enraged when she realizes that he’s called her at the office to verify that she is actually there. A fight with Pablo quickly develops, and Miranda hangs up the phone. She goes back to working on “Station Eleven,” when she receives a call from Arthur, who asks her out to dinner.
Pablo neglects the demands civilization places on Miranda (rent, money, etc.) and complains that she works so much. But at the same time, he has a lack of faith in her, as he doesn’t really believe she is working at all. In the face of this unkindness, Miranda retreats into Station Eleven, using art as a means of coping with her bad situation.
Themes
Miranda decides not to contact Pablo about the dinner, and as she works and sketches she ignores his texts. She remembers a conversation she once had with Pablo where he accused her of always being half on Station Eleven. He doesn’t understand her project, and Miranda doesn’t seem to care.
Miranda is fully aware that Station Eleven is an escape for her. She remembers this conversation not angrily, but with the knowledge that Pablo doesn’t understand her project and he doesn’t have to. She produces it for herself and the joy and benefits it brings her.
Themes
Get the entire Station Eleven LitChart as a printable PDF.
At the restaurant, when Miranda mentions her comic to Arthur, he seems genuinely interested. She tells him about the inspiration for the comic book, and the two leave the restaurant together. Arthur asks her if she’s still with Pablo, to which she explains “we’re breaking up.” The two begin kissing in a taxi and go up to Arthur’s hotel room. Eventually Miranda responds to Pablo and tells him she is staying with a friend. She feels giddy knowing she is making a major change in her life, and she thinks that Station Eleven will be her constant.
Arthur, contrasting Pablo, expresses interest in Miranda’s art, which helps foster the connection between the two Delano Islanders. Like when she moved from the Island, Miranda makes another big change in her life. She takes comfort knowing that she will always have her art as a constant. It will provide her with an escape, with pleasure, and with continuity from one stage of her life to the next, as she will always continue working on it.
Themes
Back in her apartment the next day, Miranda packs two suitcases and leaves. At work she says to herself in the mirror “I repent nothing.” In bed that night with Arthur she discusses if she is being dishonorable or heartless to Pablo. She plans to return to her apartment one last time the next day to retrieve a few more items. She assures Arthur that Pablo won’t do anything more than yell.
Miranda is slowly growing from the uncertain, out-of-place assistant to someone who acts decisively and proudly, evidenced by her message to herself of “I regret nothing.” Her assurance to Arthur that Pablo wont do anything dangerous is an example of dramatic irony, as Chapter 13 has already indicated to us that he is abusive.
Themes
