Aimee Gundlach
Prof. Wendy Sumner Winter
2/10/10
Reflection Essay
The Hot Zone
“A hot virus from the rain forest lives within a twenty-four-hour plane flight from every city on earth”(Preston 16). This horrifying account, “The Hot Zone”, tells the true story about a viciously contagious disease that spread around the world. Preston’s factual evidence was obtained by emerging himself into the setting. The gruesome imagery and style of writing that Preston uses completely consumes the reader as they essentially relive this horrible epidemic. Each anecdote that Preston includes allows the mind to feel the pain and suffering of the poor and innocent victims of the Marburg and Ebola infections. The first victim that Preston includes, Charles Monet, experienced the most unthinkable pain and sickness only ending in a slow death. The subject of this novel reminded me of, “Fever 1793”, which was about the epidemic of Yellow Fever that originated from mosquitoes killing thousands of people in Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War. The descriptions of the sickness and process of death from both novels are very similar. They both use imagery that sticks throughout the whole story. Emotions and feelings of pure anxiousness surfaced as I read about Nancy Jaax’s experience of entering an enclosed room filled with infected monkeys being tested for the infection. The pain and suffering of the animals was even a little difficult to read. Her risk of being infected by the deadly sickness was so high she was constantly checking herself and fellow partners. The fact that Richard Preston, himself, travelled to the cave where Monet obtained the disease proved an incredible sense of dedication to his writing that I appreciate very much after having read this book.
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