The aim of this doctoral thesis is to examine how the contagious disease serves as a metaphor to the crises by comparing two novels from Europe and two from North and South America. It pursues a triple objective. First, we demonstrate, at the individual level, that each person plays an active role when confronted with a disease, both doctors and patients fight against the plague through inventiveness and resourcefulness. Second, we prove, at a social level that contagion can be used as an argument to stigmatize and to discriminate those who are considering threatening. At a political level, we emphasize the importance of individual and collective compromises when facing the risk. The novels illustrate the catastrophic consequences when states are unable to manage risk and to protect populations from danger. Some of these consequences might be: thefts, looting, scapegoat designation and killing innocent people.