Literary Analysis Of The Hot Zone By Ebola

Richard Preston’s novel The Hot Zone, was based on a true story about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, mainly the Ebola and Marburg viruses. It primarily focuses on the Ebola virus’ first documented outbreak during the 1980s. As you read The Hot Zone, you will notice that it has been divided into four individual segments. The first segment looks into the history of filoviruses, and how AIDS emerged. The novel begins with Charles Monet, an elderly man who travels to Kitum Cave in Kenya. After coming in contact with an odd liquid substance, he begins to experience symptoms of the Marburg Virus (abbreviated as “MARV”), which includes; headaches, backaches, internal organs failing, and excessive bleeding. Monet travels to the Nairobi Hospital and ends up infecting the young Doctor that treated him. Years after Monet’s passing, a young pathologist named Nancy Jaax is introduced. Her story was told in her point of view as she describes the Introduction to Viruses, Biosafety Levels, and

After explaining the danger and lack of means to prevent the spread of these severe ailments, Oldstone proceeds to go in depth about the aforementioned ailments. He begins with Lassa fever by describing the name, and then describing a case in which the fever presented on several different patients, effectively killing them in a very “The Last Stand” way. Oldstone repeats this in separate chapters about Ebola and Hantavirus, HIV, and Mad Cow disease, highlighting the complexity of the maladies of modern day and the effect they have on their

Chapter One of of Jim Murphy’s book, An American Plague, opens with the quote, ‘About this time, this destroying scourge, the malignant fever, crept in among us” (Murphy 1). This quote is accredited to Mathew Carey in November, 1793. The term scourge is defined as, “a person or thing that cause great trouble of suffering,” and the term malignant is defined as, “tending to produce death or deterioration.” These are very strong terms with extremely negative connotative meanings. The figurative language which is evident in the quote at the opening of Chapter One is personification. Carey’s quote give yellow fever an eerie, human-like quality when he writes, “the destroying scourge, the malignant fever, CREPT in among us” (Murphy 1). CArey’s word choices and use of personification help to create a powerful image in the reader’s mind of the threat looming over the city of Philadelphia.\

Fever 1793 is a historical fiction novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson. It takes place in Philadelphia, when the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 hit. Mattie’s family gets separated from each other, and some never come back from the illness. As a result, Mattie is left with hardships that would change her way of life. By using character development and the story’s epilogue, Laurie Halse Anderson tells the theme that hardships can actually help people’s personality and actions.

Fever 1793, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a historical fiction book that depicts the tragedy of the yellow fever virus outbreak in Philadelphia. Mattie Cook, the main character, deals with a tremendous amount of death and change throughout the book. The theme of the book, that people will do the right thing even if they know that risk, is supported by the author throughout the use of repetition and similes.

The average fatality rate of patients infected with Ebola is around 50% according to the World Health Organization. The nonfiction book titled The Hot Zone by Richard Preston takes readers through true events pertaining to an outbreak of Ebola in the late 1980’s at a monkey testing facility in Reston, Virginia. The author heavily emphasizes the danger surrounding ignorance and uncertainty in regard to the viral and morbid Ebola at the conclusion of the book. While Preston makes this point evident countless times, three particular quotes give a clear example of Preston’s intention.

The Hot Zone is a true story about the outbreaks of the Ebola virus at a monkey facility in Reston, Virginia. The beginning of the book takes place in Kenya in 1980, where Preston comes across the body of Charles Monet. Charles was a French expatriate who worked on a sugar factory in western Kenya. In the book Preston describes Charles in all of the phases of the virus. It was very gory and at some points, hard to read on. The book gives background information on the virus that killed Charles Monet. Then moves on to explain another Ebola like that spread in Sudan. This virus first infected a store keeper before infecting his whole city. Next, in The Hot Zone it explains a virus by the name of Ebola Zaire. This virus jumped from village to village due to the use of

It is vital to understand deadly viruses and their history in order to prevent future outbreaks. Ebola leaves very few clues after annihilating its victims, so it is incredibly important to analyze those clues. Ebola’s close relationship to monkeys contains key knowledge that could hold the secret to its success. Paying close attention to how Ebola is spreading and mutating could lead researchers to the answer for preventing the contraction of it. Discovering where and how the virus first emerged could lead to Ebola’s end.

Although Ebola was first reported in 1976, little news was released on the outbreaks which had occurred in Sudan and Zaire and which had taken away the lives of 434 people. Then in 1989 there was the Reston incident, where monkeys shipped to the United States from the Philippines, died in large numbers due to what is now known as Ebola Reston, and the virus killed all monkeys. Fortunately that particular strain was not found to be deadly to humans. For now, the Ebola virus appears again and causes large damage in Africa. The horrible disease failed to appeal to those media institution which results in the information interruption, the public do not have an access to the newly information concerning Ebola. The study on the relationship between

Preston begins the story in 1980 where he tells the devastating tale of a man he dubs “Charles Monet” who lived near Mount Elgon, (an important location in the story and for virus research) a good location for exploring wildlife and nature. After a visit to a place called Kitum Cave, Monet begins to suffer some very outlandish symptoms and becomes very ill. He is taken to Nairobi Hospital in Kenya where he infects some of the doctors and nurses who are treating him for the mysterious illness. A man named Dr. Musoke is helping to treat Monet when Monet suddenly vomits and the vomit gets into Musoke’s mouth. Since the symptoms are not yet diagnosed, he doesn’t think much of it until a couple days later where Musoke too becomes very ill. David Silverstein, another doctor practicing in Africa, hears about the odd outbreak in Nairobi and he decides to look more into the issue. Soon enough, he and his team find out that it is an agent called Marburg (previously discovered in Germany but had traveled to Africa). Once Marburg is identified as the agent, the novel switches the scene over to Thurmont, Maryland, where a woman

The book starts in Kenya in 1980, where Preston explains the death of French expatriate Charles Monet due to the Marburg virus. Preston portrays Monet’s symptoms and death in great detail(tmi in my opinion), providing the reader with an immediate sense of the virus as a predator with the potential

interviewing doctors who went to Africa to help the people there. These accounts show the true

“The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston is a famous nonfiction thriller detailing the vivid history of the Ebola virus and the terrifying consequences of its infections. Using a rich vocabulary to add as much imagery as possible, the novel immerses you in Ebola’s history and keeps you glued to the edge of your seat with suspenseful chapters that fill you with dreadful expectation. The novel is mostly well executed in it’s aim at keeping the reader engaged while still remaining true to science though it achieves most of its power by using what seems to be cheap scare tactics and over dramatization. To a reader without a scientific background “The Hot Zone” will be an exhilarating ride, but to others, it may be a slightly overwritten drama that tries

The Hot Zone is a true story that begins with a man named Charles Monet in 1980. Charles was a French expatriate living in Kenya that began showing symptoms of a Marburg Strain within days after a trip with a girlfriend to Kitum Cave. The symptoms include: constant headache, throwing up blood, bleeding from the anus, lost of spine control, expelling of intestinal lining, then death. Charles had these symptoms and eventually died. This virus became known as Ebola Sudan because it was discovered in Sudan and ninety percent of those who come in contact with it die. In the next chapters, Richard Preston describes accounts of the Ebola virus such as the death of a nurse in Zaire. A group of missionaries were giving medicine to the local tribes and as a result, the nurse and hundreds of others die because of the use of dirty needles. Afterwards, Preston tells of an exposure in a monkey house in Maryland. All the monkeys started dying so scientists were asked to come take some samples. The virus was identified to be a new strain of Ebola that was very similar to Marburg. A secret operation was set to contain of the monkeys before the virus could spread. Later, tissue and blood was

Richard Preston starts of the non-fiction novel with a story that engages the reader into learning about anthrax and the fears surrounding it. He later brings up stories about smallpox which are vivid and the paranoia around terrorists getting their hands on the virus. Preston describes the smallpox symptoms as vivid and painful. Preston writes, “As the end approaches, the smallpox victim can remain conscious, in a kind of frozen awareness -- 'a peculiar state of apprehension and mental alertness that were said to be unlike the manifestations of any other disease,' in the words of the Big Red Book. As the cytokine storm devolves into chaos, the breathing may end with a sigh.