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The Character Of King Arthur Leander In Station Eleven

Decent Essays

Arthur Leander is the first character to appear in the novel, and it is through association with him that the other major characters in the story are united. Although the story attempts to depict him as the protagonist, the novel is not really about him. To say he is the protagonist is perhaps a bit of a stretch. The same is true for Jeevan Chaudhary, a trainee paramedic, as well as for Miranda Carroll— the graphic novelist whose work provides the novel’s title and Clark Thompson— Arthur’s friend and a museum curator. Kirsten Raymonde, perhaps, receives more direct narrative attention than either Arthur or Jeevan, making her more likely to be the true protagonist of the novel.
Arthur Leander is the character serving as the focal point of the novel. Although his direct actions occupy relatively little of the story, it is attention to and association with him that serves as the point of unity for most of the significant characters in the novel. His name focuses this to some extent. It evokes King Arthur, who in Malory is less active and serves as a rallying and focal point for the other, more active knights. It also evokes the amorous Leander of Classical myth relating to the story of Hero and Leander and although he did not drown and his lovers did not commit suicide, …show more content…

The at-times heavy-handed foreshadowing and the incomplete lists of things lost in the Flu speak to it. In Chapter 26, as well, Clark’s work with executive profiles is couched in terms of people not appreciating what they have, simply subsisting rather than living. Chapter 42 sees him make the point more explicitly. Even after the Flu, the Traveling Symphony justifies itself with the argument that mere survival is not life, a comment usually meant to encourage appreciation of what is

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