Fever 1793 Quotes

Almost every single day you start a task with the intent to finish it and then you don’t. You may give up because it’s boring, or too time-consuming, sometimes it’s not even your fault, stuff happens. But maybe you give up because it’s too difficult. Yet some characters in the Historical Fiction book Fever 1793, although it was too hard, continued to move forward. The book's protagonist, Matilda “Mattie” Cook, had to survive an epidemic that destroyed her city and life. After the fever broke out and more people fell sick, Mattie had to leave the city to save herself. After falling sick though she went back and waited out the fever until the first frost came, killing it and becoming the salvation everyone needed. Throughout all of this, the

Anderson uses Matilda’s loss of people and her determination to keep going to show her overcoming challenges during the yellow fever epidemic. In multiple situations, Matilda was shown being separated from the people she holds closest to her. The most noteworthy of these events was when she had to leave her mother behind in Philadelphia and venture to safer lands and when her grandfather died before her eyes. After her mom falls sick the Doctor advising her confirms that she does, in fact, have yellow fever, and while talking to Mattie’s grandfather says “‘I advise you to send Matilda out of the city at once.’”(pg. 73)Matilda strongly protests this saying that she should either stay behind

After she falls sick she almost dies but is saved and then wakes up in a hospital she was brought to. Despite being on the brink of death, Matilda made sure to make it known that she wanted to leave and go back to Philadelphia as soon as possible. Even getting mad at being treated like a child when a clerk suggested she move into an orphan house. After she collapsed out in a forest, Matilda was rescued and brought to a hospital, where she was then greeted by a woman who told her she “‘... beat the Grim Reaper, you have, lassie.’”(pg. 99) as she had barely survived the fever. Almost immediately she expressed concern about where she was and how she wanted to leave. Telling her grandfather “‘We must leave’... ‘We must leave.’” The only reason she backed off was because she was safe and desperately needed rest. Though after she recovered and was ready to leave she was told that she should go to an orphan house where she would be cared for. Outraged by this statement she “squeaked a protest. ‘I am not a child!’’(pg. 111) and was then eventually allowed to go back to Philadelphia with her grandfather. Regardless of the fact she was attacked by the thing responsible for the demise of countless people, Matilda showed not a shred of fear but instead had only one thought in her mind: getting back home. All the time she was recovering Mattie thought only of others and almost never herself, proving