The Ghost Map, written by Steven Johnson, is a story about the cholera outbreak in England around the mid-1800s. Cholera is a bug, after ingested, it multiples on the intestinal wall, tricking the cells to release water instead of absorbing it. The disease killed much of the population. Johnson used many techniques to show how serious the disease was during that time period. From imagery to irony, he used it all, but which were the most effective? The book is an excellent example of how paying attention to little details is key.Not only did he include a plethora of figurative language, he also used a lot of detail.
The Ghost Map starts with the actual description of London at that time. Johnson mainly focused on describing the lower class. Mainly everyone's job occupation had to do with …show more content…
Finally, the real story begins when Sarah Lewis is introduced. She is a hard working- class woman who is also raising her daughter on her own. It then tells of Sarah and her daughter who died due to the disease and many others the follow. By September, ten percent of the neighborhood's population had died due to cholera. Dr. Snow starts to test ways of how the disease began to spread and why. He tested the miasma theory, but didn't think it was it. He felt certain that the disease had spread through the water. There was one problem, how? He investigated nonstop to figure out the question. He even risked his own life while doing so. Edwin Chadwick has arrived in the story and he had brought forth a few important ideas. Chadwick believed that the disease was coming from the smell of the London at that time, which smelled more like a town of sewage. To help the problem, Chadwick closed all private cesspools and made the Thames River a giant cesspool. During that time, the Thames River was the main source of water for the citizens. Whitehead and Snow both try to figure out why this such thing
The Ghost Map starts with the actual description of London at that time. Johnson mainly focused on describing the lower class. Mainly everyone's job occupation had to do with …show more content…
Finally, the real story begins when Sarah Lewis is introduced. She is a hard working- class woman who is also raising her daughter on her own. It then tells of Sarah and her daughter who died due to the disease and many others the follow. By September, ten percent of the neighborhood's population had died due to cholera. Dr. Snow starts to test ways of how the disease began to spread and why. He tested the miasma theory, but didn't think it was it. He felt certain that the disease had spread through the water. There was one problem, how? He investigated nonstop to figure out the question. He even risked his own life while doing so. Edwin Chadwick has arrived in the story and he had brought forth a few important ideas. Chadwick believed that the disease was coming from the smell of the London at that time, which smelled more like a town of sewage. To help the problem, Chadwick closed all private cesspools and made the Thames River a giant cesspool. During that time, the Thames River was the main source of water for the citizens. Whitehead and Snow both try to figure out why this such thing