54 pages • 1 hour read
Jeff HirschThe Eleventh Plague
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Genre Context: Postapocalyptic vs. Dystopian Literature
While often conflated, postapocalyptic and dystopian literature are distinct but related genres. Dystopian literature focuses on political structures and themes concerning oppression and injustice, whereas postapocalyptic literature takes place in a world so radically altered by disaster that governments may have collapsed, leaving people to govern themselves. Dystopian settings typically demand resistance and the overthrow of a dangerous system or government, while postapocalyptic works examine survival and often emphasize humanity’s “true” nature, whether cooperative or combative. Furthermore, dystopias often originate in human activity, like the institution of oppressive laws or the development of dangerous technology, while postapocalyptic literature features the aftermath of external forces like plagues, floods, or alien invasions. Both genres experienced a boom in the 2010s, particularly in the YA genre, which correlated with a rising interest in speculative fiction and an overall greater awareness of world issues among younger readers.
Ultimately, The Eleventh Plague is postapocalyptic in its overall themes—in particular, Individualism Versus Communalism as Survival Strategies. However, the setting of Settler’s Landing introduces elements of an early dystopia; it is a seemingly idyllic but actually oppressive society that expels those who do not fit its standards. The community ultimately chooses to deviate from its dystopian path, and given the broken-down society and reduced population size that characterize post-Collapse America, the choice of a single community has disproportionate consequences. This book also features the typical teenage protagonist of YA dystopian and postapocalyptic literature; this both appeals to an adolescent readership and represents the hope for the future typically present in YA novels in these genres.
Cultural Context: Pandemics, Societal Breakdown, and Contemporary Fears
Pandemics have been a source of fear for centuries. Works such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales discuss the influence and fear of the Black Death, one of the earliest pandemics, and both the postapocalyptic and dystopian genres originated partially in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, which involves a plague wiping out nearly all of humanity. The interconnectedness of the 21st-century world has led to a revival in plague literature and postapocalyptic fiction in general; the rise of COVID-19 deepened these fears, and plague literature adapted to reflect the specifics of that pandemic. The Eleventh Plague was written before COVID-19 but taps into the same fears that have driven people throughout history to write about cataclysmic plague events that destroy society as we know it. Many postapocalyptic works tap into fears about what humanity would do without government or the strictures of society. The Eleventh Plague seeks a middle ground; some of its characters act inhumanely, while others try to treat others well even at a cost to themselves.
Though The Eleventh Plague calls the P11 virus a pandemic, it is unclear whether it was a pandemic—a sickness that affects the entire globe—or an epidemic, which affects a more limited area. While some pandemic literature capitalizes on the fear of global collapse, Stephen does not know if other countries experienced the same disaster America did. Regardless, the American setting of The Eleventh Plague reflects not only the fact that it is aimed at American audiences but also its interest in Tradition Versus Toxic Nostalgia in American Culture.
