This more of an assignment then an essay to help people who are reading the Hot zone. Diction: choice of words Tone: The attitude of the speaker or writer as revealed in the choice of vocabulary. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston General Tones: Caution, fear, and uncertainty Example one: Once a virus hits the net, it can shoot anywhere in a day-Paris, Tokyo, New York, Los Angles, wherever planes fly. Charles Monet and the life form inside him had entered the net. Richard Preston mentions all these cities to show how dangerous the virus could be.
Many people could be affected in New York alone Ebola could have a global impact. The plane becomes a host it is carrying the virus in a sense. Example two: Both species, the human and the monkey, were in the presence of another life form, which was older and more powerful the either of them, and was a dweller in blood. (Pg 57) Richard Preston is use of the word older makes creates uncertainty. No one knows how long the Ebola virus has been. The “life form” (viruses are neither dead or alive) could have mutated many of times make it powerful.
Then to make if worse it is a dweller in blood so it can move from animal to animal. Example three: The black vomit is loaded with virus. It is highly infective, lethally hot, a liquid that would scare the daylights out of military biohazard specialists. (Pg 12) Black vomit is scary as is but when it is loaded with virus everyone should be afraid. This is what Preston tries to accomplish with “lethally hot”. “Lethally hot” means instant death a kind of sickness people don’t return from. Example four: His only luggage is internal, and it is a load of amplified virus.
Monet has been transformed into a human virus bomb. (Pg 15) The words of “load of amplified virus” has serious implications. The virus has the same danger as dynamite just waiting to be set of. When Preston uses human virus bomb he is tying to get the reader to imagine how a dangerous a person who is infected with Ebola is. Example five: Both animals had small amounts of blood in their intestines. What could do that? Preston asks “What could do that? ” to get the reader to think. Not many other viruses have such an effect on blood that almost all the blood in the intestine would be gone.
Example six: So maybe it really was Ebola Zaire or something closely related to-the dead woman’s blood “knew” the virus, and reacted to it. (Pg 152) Preston uses the word “knew” to mean many things. “Knew” could mean that the blood had seen the virus before so it reacted to it. Knew could also mean that since the blood was reacting, the whole case of the monkey house should be handled with caution. No longer is it a simple case of monkey sickness now something more grave has appeared. Example seven: This emerging virus was like a bat crossing the sky at evening.
Just when you thought you saw it flicker through your field of view, it was gone. (Pg,180) Richard Preston compares Ebola to bat because there are so many strains it can have. At this point in the story the biohazards specialists have to deal with the fact that the Ebola in the Reston monkeys might be different. There past dealings with the Ebola virus will have very little help just when they had identified one strain a new one appears. Example eight: The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection of the human parasite.
Perhaps AIDS is the first step in a natural process of clearance. (pg 288) Preston brings an interesting point out we humans are parasites. We destroy the planet with our actions just like Ebola destroys bodies. If the Earth is “reacting” with different diseases then people should be afraid. Example nine: Charles Monet had been the Exocet missile that struck the hospital below the water line. Preston comparison of Monet to a missile is to show how unprepared the worlds health care system is for an Ebola outbreak.
It wouldn’t matter if the hospital had been in America instead of Africa it would of still struck below the water line. Example ten: The monkey bounded toward her. its terrible eyes fixed on her-and the needle flashed and went into her suit… She woke up in her barracks room. (Pg 243) This is why people compare The Hot Zone to a horror novel. Preston is able to describe a scene that brings fear. A monkey with a needle is a deadly thing epically when it is angered about being in a cage.