Living the Moment during Pandemics with Reference to Jack London's The Scarlet Plague

Living the Moment during Pandemics with Reference to Jack London's The Scarlet Plague

Dr. Nouf Abdulhameed Alkhattabi

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals have been forced to cope with high stress, fear, and anxiety, focusing on living in the moment as a way of coping. The current COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences on social, economic and political levels. Applying the narrative analysis methodology, the study here interprets the story in Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague and draws a comparison between today’s global pandemic and that in the novel. It examines the vulnerability of humans, community and civilization. It also emphasizes how both pandemics caused great panic among people destabilizing their normal ways of living and exposing the fragility of life. The Scarlet Plague has been published in 1910 more than one hundred years ago reminding us that another pandemic is likely to appear in the future. Hence, the researcher suggests executing further studies on how pandemics modify human behavior and effects them.

2021

coronavirus, covid-19, Pandemic, jack london, scarlet plague

International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies

Lasting Impressions Press

Language and Literature