Rituals In Richard Preston's The Hot Zone

The Hot Zone, an extraordinary novel with chilling events, was significantly amusing in copious ways. The fast paced spreading of infections, the grueling deaths, and the race against time to find a cure; stopping the viruses in their tracks. These main concepts are the greatest points that contributed to the storyline. These factors that Richard Preston stated specifically, came together to create a thrilling novel.

In the novel, The Hot Zone, many new superstitions become significant due to the fear of epidemics. This connects to the many rituals that were performed and charms that were held. During the outbreak for Ebola and Marburg, people began to fear the virus. They feared they would get infected as everyone else. This fear lead to rituals being performed and lucky charms being held. In the novel, each person who worked in the biohazard lab always “performed all kinds of small rituals before they entered that steel door” (74). Outside of the novel, people performed rituals and held good luck charms for many reasons. For “luck, happiness, or health” (Jordan). Not only that,

The argument that all viruses are deadly is incorrect. In the Hot Zone, Preston explained how Ebola and Marburg caused an epidemic that killed over hundreds of people and animals. In the novel, Preston also mentions smallpox and malaria. Being diseases, there are cures for all of them which overtime will eventually prove to be not deadly. Although hundreds of lives were lost against the virus, there came a cure later on. It leads to the virus becoming a simple illness in the future rather than a sickness with the power to take many lives. The argument that all viruses remain deadly has been proven false through the novel itself. However, Preston wanted to show the deadliness of the disease. Through his explanation of the disease, he unintentionally pointed out the fact that such a gruesome virus may be cured