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
Three days after Kirsten and August are separated from the Symphony, Kirsten wakes up from a nightmare. The pair decides to wash up and get on with their journey toward the airport. Soon they see road signs for the airport, but as they are getting moderately close, they hear a dog bark.
Regular bathing is another taken-for-granted aspect of modern civilization. They are near the airport, but the dog barking indicates that the prophet might be near as well.
Themes
After hearing the dog, they see a deer fleeing and realize that something followed it; there is someone close by. Then down the road, they see Sayid, along with two men and a boy. The boy carries a machete, one man carries a gun, and the other wields a bow and arrow. August whispers to Kirsten, “I have the gunman, get the archer,” and he throws a rock into the air. The men react to the sound of the stone as August shoots an arrow into the gunman’s back. While the boy runs away, the archer tries to shoot Kirsten, but she has already thrown her knife into his torso.
By chance or fate, Kirsten and August are met by a captive Sayid and some of the prophet’s men. Though the prophet’s men are armed, August and Kirsten are also prepared for a fight. With a clever distraction, they kill the two men while leaving the young boy to run away. This scene exemplifies the harsh necessity of taking a life in order to survive, or in this case save a friend.
Themes
After the violence, August and Kirsten run to Sayid. He tells them that the prophet is behind them with the dog and two men. They realize that the archer is still alive, and question him, asking why they took Sayid. The archer answers that it was because the Symphony took something of theirs, referring to Eleanor, the intended fifth bride of the prophet. Kirsten learns that the clarinet got away, but Dieter is dead. As the archer continues spewing the prophet’s teachings, Kirsten pulls the knife from his body and he dies.
The archer has become totally indoctrinated by the prophet’s teachings, believing that a trade of kidnapped victims for the child bride of the prophet is perfectly reasonable. Though the clarinet has escaped, Kirsten learns the brutal news that one of her closest friends has died while captured by the prophet.
Themes
Sayid says that the night they were taken they heard a whimpering in the forest. When they went to investigate, rags were pressed into their faces and they passed out. Sayid woke up in the woods, but Dieter just never woke up. Sayid isn’t sure exactly how it happened, but no one was able to save Dieter once they realized he was ill. After his death, the prophet had his men kidnap the clarinet.
Sayid explains that Dieter’s death wasn’t intended, but that he simply never woke up after the prophet’s men drugged him. The prophet’s men presumably wanted him alive, as they tried to save him, but they failed, and kidnapped the clarinet to replace Dieter as a live hostage.
Themes
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