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Descriptive Language In Fever 1793

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Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel, Fever 1793, appears in the city of Philadelphia. Matilda Cook, a young girl, lived in a coffeehouse with her widowed mother and grandfather. Soon disease breaks out and clears the streets of Philadelphia. Using descriptive language and inner thoughts Laurie Halse creates a message that when there are hardships in life you change.
In the book , Fever 1793 , by Laurie Halse, the theme of the story appeared to be that when there are hardships in life you change. Before yellow fever took on the lives of the citizens of Philadelphia Mattie, the main character, was naive and reliant on her family but later changed into a more independent being. For instance, when Mattie’s friend Polly died Mother did not want her to go to the funeral. Matilda’s response to this was “She was my friend! You must allow me. Why must you be so horrid?”(16). Rumors of fever were spreaded throughout the city and Mattie was ignorant and was oblivious on getting the fever. Later on in the story she gets yellow fever and it slowly alters her personality. This illustrates that in the beginning Mattie only cared for herself. While some might argue with her caring …show more content…

An example would be when Mattie and grandfather came back to the coffeehouse. “The front room was jumbled. Tables and chairs lay helter-skelter... Broken pottery covered the floor.” (122) (123) Even though Grandfather was ill and the coffeehouse was in a horrible state Mattie still took charge. This shows she has grown more independent and thoughtful. Laurie Halse not only shows the theme with descriptive language but also with inner thoughts. When Mattie found Nell she thought, “ Now what? I couldn’t care for Nell; I could barely care for myself… I had to find someone to care for her.” (163) Knowing that Mattie knew she had to assist Nell even though she could barely care for herself demonstrates her caring nature and

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laurie halse anderson conveys many positive and inspirational messages in Fever 1793. One theme which one can interpret from fever 1793 is the value of fortitude. It is quite impressive to relize how much pain and suffering young Mattie endured and how, through it all, she persevered and never ever gave

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This illustrates how Mattie feels confident, annoyed, and frustrated, and these feelings lead her to stepping up during tough times and taking charge. Anderson’s amazing story, Fever 1793, shows the theme that stepping up during tough times is important. It is seen how this is possible through the the way the theme impacts the characters and the different author’s craft moves the author

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In the novel, Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson, we follow our main character, Matilda or Mattie Cook, as she grows to maturity throughout the course of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Mattie is shown as being immature. Infact, one of the first lines in the novel is Mattie’s mother yelling at Mattie to wake up, and that she’s quote, “...sleeping the day way. ”(1). Mattie then, after getting up for a second time, decides to clean her face later or, “...perhaps next December,”(3).

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After watching her mother have yellow fever, being thrown off a wagon in the middle of nowhere, and getting yellow fever herself, she has managed not to cry. For her to cry over her house being wrecked would make very little sense, so the reader can only infer that she was not shedding tears because of her house only. She has been holding in a cluster of emotions since the fever began, and hasn’t let it out until now. She made an effort to regain her self control again, get her anger out, and show matureness by “scrubbing the tear away.” All in all, with her actions and dialogue, Mattie has manifested herself to be fearless and bold, as a young women would act in those

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In the story, the yellow fever hits Mattie and her family hard, causing the loss of her grandfather. Although this was very hard for Mattie, she later comes to build up her life and is able to put her dreams into action. She is able to reopen the coffeehouse with Eliza, which was her dream from the beginning. Without the fever hitting Philadelphia, Mattie would have never acquired the amount of independence and responsibility that she needed to run the coffeehouse and fulfill her dreams. For example, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson has Mattie state, “Looking down the peaceful street, it seemed no one could imagine the terror we had all endured. ...

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