The Eleventh Plague Literary Analysis

1256 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The theme of death in literature

The Eleventh Plague is a science fiction novel in which Stephen, the protagonist, and his father have to survive the aftermath of a plague. Stephen is 15 years old and is very independent meaning that he does not like relying on others for help. Stephen is still young and has experienced losing many people in his family. But he kept moving on past this and created a happy life in Settlers Landing. The novel takes place in America where much of civilization is now gone. To describe this setting, the author uses lots of imagery. The theme is very depressing because civilization is gone now and a lot of characters pass away in the novel. Stephen lived his whole life in this depressing setting but managed to stay pretty positive. This goes to show …show more content…

Stephen must figure out how to keep himself and his medically ill father safe and he is not sure he can handle the big responsibility. Stephen is left to figure out what decisions to make to keep himself and his father alive. I believe for Stephen it was essential to move on from the fact that his grandpa just passed away and to acknowledge the fact that he was alone now. Stephen said to himself, “There was no one left. There was only me.” (Hirsch 39). This quote shows Stephen realizing that he was now alone. Stephen was still grieving due to the fact that he just lost his grandpa and now he felt like he was going to lose his father too. This is an example of strength because moving on from loved ones is hard. I think that the author is trying to teach its readers exactly this. Stephen moved away from the only thing that was slowing him down and that was his passed away loved ones. Stephen said to himself, “No one is coming. If I do nothing we die.” (Hirsch 41). This quote shows Stephen realizing that to move on, it meant moving on from passed away loved ones in his life. I believe that the author uses the central message to convey that moving on from passed away loved ones is essential to creating a happier

Show More
Related

  • Plagues And Peoples Chapter Summary

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plagues and Peoples written by William H. McNeill follows the patterns of epidemics and endemics within human history. It is within this history that McNeill finds parallels between diseases and humans in the forms of microparasitism and macroparasitism. Merely from the title, McNeill gives equal importance to viruses and humankind. In several instances, humans behave the same way viruses, bacteria, and parasites do in order to survive and to compete. Surprisingly enough, McNeill’s overarching theme can be summarized using his last sentence, asserting that “Infectious disease which antedated the emergence of humankind will last as long as humanity itself, and will surely remain, as it has been hitherto, one of the fundamental parameters and

    Read More

  • The Black Plague Historical Fiction

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Despite all, their love was not strong enough to fight against the plague. They had prayed every night for help for Alice, but shortly they all fell ill. Together they experienced nausea and violently vomited. They began to swell; hard, painful, burning lumps on their neck, arms and thighs then appeared. Their bumps had turned black, split open and began to ooze yellow, thick puss and blood. They were decaying on the inside; anything that would come out of their bodies would contain blood and soon puddles of blood formed under their skin. They slowing withered away together. The home became repulsing; the flowers in their yard could no longer mask the smells of their rotting bodies and revolting bodily fluids. Alice was the first to leave, then John, Mama, and Papa followed. Together they all fell victim to the Black Plague.

    Read More

  • Eleventh Plague Sparknotes

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    “He was trying to be calm, but I knew the hitch he got in his voice when he was scared. No announcement could possibly have been worse. One of Grandpa’s absolute, unbreakable rules was that if we saw other people, people we didn’t know, we were to avoid them at all costs. Other people meant trouble. Other people with a vehicle meant even more trouble”. This quotation shows that Stephan was following his grandfather’s guidance without even thinking about any other outcome on his own, making him an underdeveloped, uninteresting character. “This is how we got here in the first place, Grandpa would have said, sneering at the books. But then there was Dad’s voice, whispering to me that night in the plane as we watched a doomed woman and boy. Grandpa was gone.” This quotation later in the book shows that Stephan still thinks of what his grandfather would tell him, however, he makes his own decisions and judgments which perceive Stephan as a confident and different person than who he was at the start of the story. Character development is one of the most important aspects of a first person point of view book and Eleventh Plague accomplishes it very well through thorough description

    Read More

  • Bubonic Plague In The Elizabethan Era Essay

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    Is it little by surprise that the plague was the most dreaded disease in the Elizabethan era. Death is a terrible thing, especially when a person is getting executed. People died of many diseases in that era. Such as blood poisoning, and the bubonic plague which refers back to black death. It was a very violent disease to get, it was very contagious. The most dreadful punishments in this era were getting hung which lead into executions (Linda Alcin 1) .After you are half dead from getting hung they take you and cut you into squares and hang you up around the city of England .

    Read More

  • Plagues And Peoples Chapter Summary

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since Plagues and Peoples covers several subjects of knowledge, he helps the reader understand key concepts by fully explaining parasitism and its dependence on humans and animals. People in the field of history, which make up a majority of this books audience, would need more insight into epidemiology to grasp its key concepts. It would not be likely for a historian to be knowledgeable in a branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in populations.

    Read More

  • The Historical and Cultural Aspects in The Plague

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Plague." Novels for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 202-222. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Apr. 2011.

    Read More

  • What Is a Life Worth: Steve Jobs

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steve Jobs is trying to say that you should live every day like it is your last. He knew his life had value to him and his family. He felt like life was worth living even though once in a while a hard choice would come along to toughen his life. Making a choice is very hard, but when making a choice it should be one that you will not regret later in life. Making choices is one of the hardest things in life so you must see all the good and all the bad to the outcome of your options. Live everyday like it is your last. Ebert says that life is a very precious thing. Hamlet wants to die, but him not knowing what is on the other side scares so he decides to live. Even though Ebert had to get surgery, he got through it and learned to still live his life with no regrets.

    Read More

  • Camus' The Plague

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plague affected people not only on a physical level but a mental one as well. The mental health of the citizens of Oran was amongst the plague's many victims, it suffered of exhaustion as well as being forced to handle mental confrontations. When the citizens dealt with these issues, some people lost their capacity to love as intently, but overall the general capacity of people to uphold their devotion remained resilient to the challenges the plague provided.

    Read More

  • Character Development, And Symbolism In Albert Camus's The Plague

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Camus’s The Plague is a novel about an ordinary town that is suddenly stricken by plague. A few of Camus’s philosophies such as the absurd, separation, and isolation are incorporated in the events of the story. The absurd, which is the human desire for purpose and significance in a meaningless and indifferent universe, is central to the understanding of The Plague. In The Plague, Camus uses character development and irony to show that even through the obvious superiority of the universe, man is in constant effort to outlive the absurd. The Plague is crafted around the belief that humans live life in search of a value or purpose that will never be revealed to them because it does not exist.

    Read More

  • The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirstch

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    .... In chapter fourteen Stephen says to himself “Dad laid before me, as still as ever ”. This was showing Stephen’s knowledge that he had to move on as he set his dad to rest then buried him. Stephen was very sad, but whatever he did from that point on, was for his dad.

    Read More

  • The Eleventh Plague Literary Analysis

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Think of a North America without electricity, no running water, no government, almost no buildings left intact, and ravaged by a Chinese manufactured plague, even though it’s hard to imagine that's what happened in Jeff Hirsch’s The Eleventh Plague. In Jeff Hirsch’s Eleventh Plague a family made up of the Dad, Mom, Grandfather, and son are trying to survive in a North America ravaged by a Chinese Plague , But then the mom and grandpa die and dad and Stephen are left on their own, but when the dad gets injured running away from some slavers, A Town named Settlers Landing that seems too good to be true takes them in. Then Stephen befriends a girl named Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends the town into chaos. A war is started and it is up to them to help stop it. I thought that The Eleventh Plague was a believable piece of Speculative Fiction because of Hirsch's use of elements of Conflict, Theme, and Red Herrings.

    Read More

  • The Black Death: A Fictional Narrative

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I think a rat just climbed up my leg, Dad. And I’ve got fleas, too.” “John, there’s all this Black Death and all you care about is a few fleas and a rat.

    Read More

  • Human Nature and Condition in The Plague by Albert Camus

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    Albert Camus was a French writer who was very well known all over the world for his different works but especially with the idea of “absurdism”. Camus believed that something that was absurd was not possible by humans or logically. It was beyond ridiculous and therefore impossible. This was the basis of one of his most famous works, The Plague. The Plague is a novel that explores aspects of human nature and condition, destiny, God, and fate. The novel is about a plague that takes place in Oran, Algeria that is fictional, but it’s believed to be relatively based on a cholera outbreak in the mid 1800’s in Oran that killed thousands of people. Dr. Bernard Rieux is the protagonist but also is the narrator. However, he doesn’t admit to being the narrator until the end of the novel. Camus writes in the beginning that the instances in Oran are being told by witnesses of the plague. In The Plague, Camus wants his audience to read the book unbiasedly not knowing the narrator in order to take sides with the characters that one wants to and not to be persuaded by the narrators telling of the events.

    Read More

  • An Essay On The Bubonic Plague

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death was a raging disease. Most people thought of it as the physical Grim Reaper of their town or community. The disease lasted about six years, 1347 to 1352. The Bubonic Plague was a travesty that has traveled throughout Europe and has raged and decimated both large and small towns, putting Europe through a lot.

    Read More

  • Religion and Stephen in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    As Stephen grows, he slowly but inexorably distances himself from religion. His life becomes one concerned with pleasing his friends and family. However, as he matures he begins to feel lost and hopeless, stating, "He saw clearly too his own futile isolation. He had not gone one step nearer the lives he had sought to approach nor bridged the restless shame and rancor that divided him from mother and brother and sister." It is this very sense of isolation and loneliness that leads to Stephen's encounter with the prostitute, where, "He wanted to sin with another of his kind, to force another being to sin with him and to exult with her in sin.

    Read More

More about The Eleventh Plague Literary Analysis

Open Document