Why are here? What is the meaning of our lives? Are they futile? Such questions have been pondered upon ever since people were capable of intelligent thinking. Many schools of philosophical thought have tried to answer them, each in their own ways. Most of these philosophy sects have tried to explain, from their perspective, what the point of existence is. The Atzecs said that the ultimate meaning in life was to live a perfectly balanced life between nature and humans, and to allow ‘energy’ to flow from generation to generation. On the other hand, the Tibetans have said that the goal of existence is to end all suffering. In Station Eleven, by Emily Rand, characters struggle to find a common ground on why they are living. While for some, living is simply survival, for others, such as Kirsten, living needs to be more. In the post-apocalyptic wasteland presented in Station Eleven, and in general, I think that the very point of life is to find that common ground between you and others. In Station Eleven, one can argue that the members of Kirsten’s band, The Travelling Symphony, share a common meaning in life: keeping alive the last remnants of humanity, art. But one can quickly …show more content…
In the event of catastrophes, some people must make choices one would not be able to make under normal circumstances. This is shown most clearly in nadirs of human history, such as the Holocaust. In the Holocaust, these choices often revolved around leaving a person to die in order for oneself to survive. While one dies, the other is reborn. These are exactly the kinds of choices that persons in a post-apocalyptic situation have to make. But this draws down to perhaps the oldest instinct in any living being: survival. In that sense, the people making these choices certainly remain their humanity, but only to a degree, as that instinct is animalistic, and we humans often find ourselves above