Fever 1793 By Laurie Halse Anderson

Imagine walking down an empty, gloomy street deserted of people, engulfed with death, tingling with the sorrow for lost loved ones, and blanketed with the feeling of uneasiness and fear. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson describes this world that the protagonist, Matilda Cook, a fourteen-year-old, lives in during the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia. The book outlines her life and how her personality and feelings dramatically change during the few months of the fever. Towards the beginning of the book, she is lazy and does not enjoy working, but in a few months when the fever turns her life upside-down, she has to mature and work extremely hard to survive. Three crucial events that transform her are when “Grandfather” dies, when she finds

During the night, however, two robbers entered the house, and Matilda heard them whispering, murmuring in the dark. The short and squat man is scared of his work; while the tall and daring robber is the leader and stays to terrorize the family the whole time. The tall man slaps Matilda several times to find out where her strongbox is, but she refuses to tell and endures the stinging pain. Finally, Matilda’s grandfather trudges down the steps and tries to save Matilda by shooting the tall man. The short man runs away, but after grandfather missed, the tall man punches and strangles him. Matilda takes a sword and cuts a gash in the tall man’s arm, but Grandfather is already dying because he had a high fever and because of being strangled. His last words are, “Beautiful. Clever. My sweet Mattie…. Love you” (147; ch. 19). After watching the light fade out of “Grandfather’s” eyes, Matilda, walked down the dismal, somber, abandoned avenue. She came upon two unexpected girls who help her climb out of her deep, dark ditch of despair. As “Grandfather” died by leaving a window ajar, Nell was found by a misplacement of a step.