John Mandel Station 11 Analysis

Ever-changing Happiness

According to new statistics, only one in three Americans are truly happy. That is, if there are nearly 319 million people in America, only 106 million people will achieve true happiness, despite the fact that everybody has the ability to control it; This idea is prominent in the book Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. Station Eleven is about people and their ability to manage and navigate through the “new world” put upon them after most of the population is killed from a terrible disaster. The book is essentially split into three parts – the time period prior to the collapse, during the collapse, and after the collapse. In each of these sections, characters unlock new levels of happiness, however the stimulation

of the joy was never because of the same reason. Factors that effected their happiness throughout each part of the book included things like society and the amount of resources that were available. One could definitely see the differences in the things that stimulated the joy that the characters were feeling during the different time periods. This goes to show that the meaning of happiness is constantly changing, effectively giving one the ability to control it.
Sometimes, happiness is based off of how much you have in terms of belongings, or if you have found something of importance.

This is seemingly the case in the time period prior to the collapse of society. For example, when a character named “[Jeevan] reached Allan Gardens Park… he found himself blindsided by an unexpected joy. Arthur died… there’s nothing to be happy about. But there was… now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic” (11). When Jeevan finally realized what he wanted to be, his true calling, he was overwhelmed with joy. Even though somebody had just died, all he could feel was happiness because he found something within himself. When Arthur was beginning to reflect upon his life, “He stared at his crown and ran through a secret list of everything that was good… Dancing with Clark when he was eighteen… Tanya sipping wine, her smile… Riding in his father’s snowplow when he was nine, the time [he] told a joke and his father and his little brother couldn’t stop laughing, the sheer joy he’d felt at that moment” (327). All of these different things brought Arthur happiness and eventually sadness at some point in his life, showing that nothing can keep you happy forever. The meaning of happiness is ever-changing. Since happiness was based off of how much you had, people had the ability to manipulate it by obtaining more

assets.
Other times, happiness was as simple as when someone you cared for didn’t die from the flu, or when more people were found. Jeevan, a prominent character in the book “thought of Hua as his closest friend, though they rarely saw one another” (17). Hua was a doctor who started treating the flu from the start and although Jeevan didn’t see him a lot, the thought of their youth together brought him happiness even though Hua had just informed of the epidemic. He was also happy that he heard about the breaking news from a close friend, who had remembered about him, rather than the television. For days after the collapse, Jeevan had no human contact, “But on the fifth day he saw three people far ahead on the shore and his heart leapt” (192). Jeevan thought he was dreaming as he had not seen a human for days, but at the same time he was ecstatic because he stumbled upon them. During the collapse, happiness was significantly simpler yet in some cases harder to obtain, making happiness in this circumstance different than others.
Happiness in other times, is appreciating your survival and that you have a sufficient amount of materials to live on. People became especially happy when more hope was found. Kirsten and others came to the conclusion that “What was lost in the collapse [was]: almost everything, almost everyone, but there [was] still such beauty” (57). Although they realized and acknowledged that almost everything they knew was gone, they still saw they beauty in the whole situation. These thoughts brought them joy and happiness as they also realized that not everything was lost in the collapse and that they could make the most of it. When Kirsten was called to see something supposedly amazing, “She followed the line of [Clark’s] finger… ‘It’s the most extraordinary thing’… ‘It isn’t possible’… In the distance pinpricks of light arranged into a grid. There, plainly visible… a town…whose streets were lit up with electricity” (311). This discovery gave Kirsten and the rest of the Traveling Symphony hope, as there was no electricity were they were. When they saw that there was in fact electricity remaining, they were overwhelmed with a mix of happiness and disbelief. All that they were doing for the years after the collapse up until then was preparing themselves for a world without electricity, but there it was, and not far from them. This brought them joy and a reason to continue. As shown, the meaning of happiness can change even within a short time period, so you can conclude that it is constantly going to change.
Furthermore, the meaning of happiness is never constant and will continue to change depending on different circumstances. From this, we can learn that you can only have happiness and joy if you are content with your environment and the things that are in it. Considering this, you can essentially control your level of happiness. Studies show that countries with the highest poverty levels tend to be the happiest countries because they are happy with what they have, even though it may not be much. This goes to prove that you can be happy in any situation, and that the meaning of happiness is constantly changing for people as well as society as a whole.