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Figurative Language In Richard Preston's The Hot Zone

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Figurative language is sometimes used to make events have certain moods such as happiness, sadness, mystery, and suspense. The book focuses on a deadly virus that is highly contagious and is very oppressive. The virus had originated from the central rainforests of Africa, then had suddenly appeared in Germany. The book describes how Charles Monet bled out from the disease in the Nairobi Hospital waiting room, how monkeys contributed to spreading the disease, the effects the virus has on the body, and how the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID tested the virus on monkeys and tried to find a cure for the virus. In The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, the author uses figurative language such as foreshadowing …show more content…

When Dr. Musoke tries to treat his patient he tries to insert a needle in the patient, but his patient would not stop bleeding from the places he stuck the needle. Preston writes, “At every place in the patient’s arm where he stuck the needle, the vein broke apart like cooked macaroni and spilled blood, and the blood ran from the punctures down the patient’s arm and wouldn’t coagulate” (27). This proves the thesis because it is establishing the mysterious and suspenseful mood that is used all throughout the book. While the medical system may lower the outbreak, there are some cases where the medical system intensifies the outbreak. Preston writes in the text, “In some cases, the medical system may intensify the outbreak, like a lens that focuses sunlight on a heap of tinder” (98). This demonstrates how this quote is making the event more suspenseful and it sets the mood for the whole book, that as medical systems try to help and prevent the virus from reaching them, they in some cases make it worse. Finally, similes are used to establish the mood of the book and to make the event more suspenseful and mysterious. Foreshadowing and similes are used in The Hot Zone to create and establish the overall mood of the book and to make events that are happening suspenseful and mysterious. Richard Preston also uses other figurative language such as metaphors, allusions, personification,

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