Kirsten Raymonde Character Analysis Essay Example

recall watching television with her family in the pre-pandemic world (Mandel 120). Though Kirsten never openly admits to it, this coping method shows that she longs to remember not only her family but also technology. While raiding abandoned houses, Kirsten always searches for gossip magazines and celebrity tabloids to spark memories of her pre-pandemic life. This signifies how easy it is to lose important memories which can bring upon unanswered questions and terrible anxiety (Ginsberg 8). Diallo also asked Kirsten about a scar on her face to which she cannot explain due to the incident occurring in the first year of the pandemic. Before he died, Kirsten’s brother told her it was best if she didn’t know where the scar came from, adding to Kirsten’s unanswered pre-pandemic questions (Mandel 267). Kirsten attempts to make light of her incomplete memory in an interview with Francois Diallo. She says, “I can’t remember the year we spent on the road, and I think that means I can’t remember the worst of it. But my point is, doesn’t it seem to you that the people who have the hardest time in this—this current era, whatever you want to call it, the world after the Georgia Flu—doesn’t it seem like the people who struggle the most with it are the people who remember the old world clearly?” (Mandel pg 37). Kirsten is thankful for her incomplete memory because she cannot miss anything about the old world. She doesn’t know any different from life in the post-pandemic world. Despite her attempted optimism, Kirsten internally battles with her nonexistent memories of her childhood and family and what they could have been.

Another look into Kirsten’s

dark side is revealed when she admits to having killed for survival. At the beginning of the novel, Kirsten’s character is depicted as a survivor of the pandemic whose main goal is to keep the art alive by living on the road with the Traveling Symphony. With the symphony, she advocates the sustaining of art through music and plays. The author doesn’t reveal Kirsten’s violent side until she has an off-the-record conversation with journalist Francois Diallo. After being asked her thoughts on how the world has changed since the pandemic, Kirsten simply responds with, “I think of killing.” (Mandel 265). It is brought to the reader’s attention that Kirsten has taken the lives of others to save her own. Diallo also admits to having to kill for survival after being surprised in the woods. By the unspoken understanding between Kirsten and Diallo, it is revealed that murder had been normalized in the post-pandemic world where it had not been accepted previously. This violent societal change causes a shift in morals; one must bottle up their remorse and emotions in order to survive. After Diallo asks her how many, Kirsten responds by divulging two knife tattoos on her wrist. The reader is to infer that she has killed two people for survival. Between the vague confession of murder and the explanation of the knife tattoos, Kirsten’s self-actualized persona looks more like a coverup for her repressed violent memories. Kirsten is later faced with gruesome death when she has to watch her friend Sayid die and then witness the Prophet get shot in the head. In psychology, the Terror Management Theory accounts for a portion of unexplained human behavior

rooting from the unconscious fear of death (Taylor 1). Kirsten’s experience with extreme amounts of death and destruction could cause her troubled mentality behind her compelling character.

The author also shows Kirsten’s struggle to keep a peaceful mind with the use of art as a distraction from the violent world around her. After losing her parents and brother to the Georgia Flu, Kirsten joined the Traveling Symphony whose goal was to show people the survival of art despite the fall of civilization (Ginsberg 8). The symphony’s motto, survival is insufficient, is claimed by Kirsten to be her favorite line of text in the world and is tattooed on her forearm (Mandel 119). The tattoo acts as a reminder that basic survival- such as killing- is not what keeps humanity alive; the will to create and sustain art is what gives mankind its purpose of life. Kirsten also finds great interest in searching abandoned buildings, hoping to find clues about pre-pandemic life. She comes across an abandoned school where she stumbles upon a human skeleton. She acts unbothered by this discovery and reverts her attention to untampered collectibles. This is Kirsten’s way of putting up an uncaring front by fighting back negative feelings. Repression of emotions leads to the undermining of human relationships, which explains Kirsten’s frightening ability to persevere through unsettling events (Jeffrey 1).

The development of Kirsten’s character throughout the novel becomes more vulnerable as she continues to fight for survival. Her uncertainty to talk about violence and her constant wish to recall important old world memories shows Kirsten’s compassionate side. Behind the courageous act is an emotional and confused child, much like the eight-year-old girl Kirsten

was when the pandemic struck.