Red Bluff: A Short Story

The catholic church and doctors came up with some very weird cures for the plague. Even though they didn't work at all it provided hope for the people. You wouldn't want to be told that there isn't a way to cure it . Some of the cures included putting cooked onions on the buboes, taking a live frog putting on it until the frog burst. They thought the frog would absorb the poison and once the frog burst all the poison would have been absorbed. They also cut the buboes open and drained the fluid out.

`Later on a reporter named Boccacio wrote: “ Some say that the plague descended upon the human race through the influence of the heavenly bodies, others say that it was a punishment signifying God 's righteous anger at our wicked way of life.” Later on after Boccacio seemed that all the advice of physicians and all the power of medicine were profitless and futile. Perhaps the nature of the illness was such that it allowed no remedy; or perhaps those people who were treating the illness, being ignorant of its causes, were not prescribing the appropriate cure.” Since the virus was spread from just breathing on someone, I would agree that they

In the 1300’s, the plague first started in Europe. After the plague killed many people, they changed their culture and the way they lived to stop it from spreading. Everyone had many ideas on what causes it but it was mainly from rats and pollution. There was waste in the streets and the water was polluted.Also the houses were so crowded together that if one person got the disease it would spread fast. They also thought it was a punishment from God. So they tried magic spells,charms and talismans to try to remove their sins. People also burnt herbs because they thought the smell of the dead bodies caused the disease. Everyone had different opinions on what caused it and there are many ways it could have happened (The Black Death).

With lacking medical knowledge, people never really grasped the concept or the cause of this epidemic; therefore, they did not know what to do to help cure or stop the spread of it. “In spite of only sketchy medical knowledge, the epidemiology of the plague was fully understood by the 18th century. It took many years of research, after the fact, to finally comprehend all the ins

Some people may not realize that the plague to abolish about one third of Europe's population, is still infecting humans. In the 2000s, over 20,000 people became infected by the bubonic plague, but now because of the medical advancements since the medieval times, it doesn't take as many lives. During the 13th through 14th century, when the pandemic had reached its all time high, it had came through fleas biting humans and many had to suffer through the agonizing symptoms. Then it had finally simmered down, but there were long lasting effects from the plague.

Some people thought the disease was spread because the city was unclean. Doctors had very different ways of curing the disease. Some ways required fresh air and lots of fluids. Some people soaked rags with vinegar and put it in their nose! Some even tried firing guns

The plague has gotten a very long history as it spread through the world killing millions. The

"Running away again Julia?" The guy at the front desk asked as she walked in, wet and dirty from the rain. Julia didn't ask how he knew her name, she was a legend around here, and she knew it too. She nodded and he led her to the back where a foster care official stood, his usual place at the end of every month.

There was many ways for the Bubonic Plague to be spread in the 14th century. It was spread around by fleas and rats; for a human to contain this disease is for them to get bitten or scratched by a flea or rat. This disease could also be spread by human contact just the same as flu. There was many people in risk of this disease especially if they tried to help someone who had it. This could have been

This means that it spreads by someone coming into contact with someone else that has the plague. If this happened today, it seems it would be almost impossible not to get the disease. We interact with so many other people daily. It is very normal to go to school, the grocery store, and participate in other activities with multiple people. In order to prevent getting the disease we would have to eliminate all contact with people, which seems near impossible! Also, if doctors are trying to cure the disease or help a patient that has the disease, he too could easily catch the disease. If doctors were afraid to catch the disease, how could they help find a

It was believed in the middle ages that this disease was caused by poor hygiene, bad eating habits, corrupted humid air, and a lack of rest. Once a person was thought to be infected the doctors would move them to a non-infected area thinking that this would heal the persons illness instead this transported the disease even further than normal. In modern times we have made leaps and bounds to control this illness. One of the main problems of the plague is that it is not treatable until the victim gets tested and confirmed that the plague is the illness. Once that is done they will start receiving high doxycycline doses and many other types of antibiotics. The mortality rate for someone that is not treated is 50-90% compared to treated cases of 1-15%.

Her mother, Helen, is a former actress turned teacher, whose beauty and theatrics are still resonant in her being. Her father, Joel, is a hardworking doctor who specializes in high-risk births and still dedicates time to his family. Julia is an only child, a fact that indicates almost all of her parents’ attentions and affections are devoted to her. As the slowing proceeds to seep into the cracks in her world, Julia’s mother begins to grow sickly. Not much is known about the gravity sickness, yet its symptoms include dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and fainting. All of these symptoms begin affect Julia’s mother, only getting worse as time passes and days lengthen. Joel attributes this illness to fear or anxiety, and does not sympathize with Helen. This lack of trust and understanding causes a rift in their relationship. Then one day, something horrible happens as her mother is driving; she faints while behind the wheel. Julia recalls, “…the sudden slackening of her body, the rolling of her head, the way her hands fell from the steering wheel” (Walker, 143). During the short lapse of time, her mother strikes a man lunging into the street. Julia recounts how “Eyewitnesses reported seeing a bearded man, dressed in robes, howling Scripture on the side of the road” (Walker,

Medieval doctors thought the plague was created by air corrupted by humid weather, decaying unburied bodies, and fumes produced by poor sanitation. The recommended treatment of the plague was a good diet, rest, and relocating to a non-infected environment so the individual could get access to clean air. This did help, but not for the reasons the doctors of the time thought. In actuality, because they recommended moving away from unsanitary conditions, people were, in effect, getting away from the rodents that harbored the fleas carrying the infection. However, this also helped to spread the infection to new areas previously

She replied by saying, “My affection… I 'm remaining to help you and the other people who may come here, however don 't reveal to them I can see” (Saramago, 40). This quote proves that she is a very nice and kind person who is always there for the people she loves and cares about. She would take the possibility of catching a disease where one can only see white in order to remain with her husband who is ill. By staying with her husband while he is in desperate need of help, she proves that she is one of the kindest characters in the novel. However, as the book progresses, her trait of kindness quickly fades away after experiencing an atrocious situation. A group of people, formed in the hospital, were collecting all the food from the patients, and the only way the people had a chance of retrieving it was by making the women have intercourse with the men of the group. When the doctor’s wife was forced to have intercourse, she was traumatized, and knew that she needed to find a way to end the catastrophe. In order to do this, she decided to kill the leader of the group, and stabbed him in the throat with a pair of scissors. The author describes the wife at that moment by writing, “she had blood on her hands and clothes…but she knew that if it were necessary, she would kill again” (Saramago, 192). This quote shows the readers how much the wife has changed because of one event that occurred. She went from

Her body shook, her eyes twitched. Her breath ceased, as she suffocated for oxygen and exasperated for life. She trembled, but she could breathe no more without the feeling of death nearing her soul. she was left poisoned, stung, suffocated with nowhere to go but stay at her home, the place where she lived all her life. As her eyes came to a close, she wondered what had happened, how it happened, as the home that gave her life, now turned into a poisonous mansion that stole her soul in the most cruel manners.