Fever In Fever 1793 By Laurie Halse Anderson

Do you think you could survive the yellow fever? Matilda “Mattie” Cook could, and did in the historical fiction book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. First her mother got sick with the fever and sent Mattie to a farm outside of town, with her Grandfather. Soon afterwards, Matilda caught the fever and Grandfather carried her to a hospital in Bush Hill. After struggling at home for a while to find food, thieves came and Matilda defended the house with Grandfather. Soon afterwards, Grandfather passed away. The next morning Matilda looked around town and found their coffeehouse cook, Eliza, her brother, and nephews. Eventually, Eliza’s nephews and a lost homeless girl, Nell, got sick and were taken to the coffeehouse. Once the frost came

Surviving the yellow fever was a big experience for Matilda to go through. It really opened her eyes to the world of life and death. For example, the death cart man at Bush Hill said,
“She looks dead.” (97) For somebody to think you are dead is a very bad sign. Matilda must have been in really bad shape. Although to survive is a very eye opening experience. Matilda’s nurse in Bush Hill, Mrs. Flagg. “You’ve beat the Grim Reaper, you have lassie... we weren't sure you’d make it through the night,” (99) Matilda was so sick that doctors didn’t know if she would survive the night. Beating the Grim Reaper was an astonishing feat for anyone to do. Seeing all of this evidence made it very clear that surviving the yellow fever attributed to Matilda becoming a young adult. Another thing that helped with Matilda growing up is all of the people dead around her.
One short quote, said by Matilda’s mother was extremely important to the story, “Matilda,
Polly’s dead.” (13) First, it was the start of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Second, Matilda knew Polly pretty well, as a servant and a friend. To lose her first must have been

Then the next morning, it seemed more real to Mattie. Lastly, much later, Matilda learned to accept all of what had happened. During the book Matilda learned to accept death of friends and family much better. In closing, all of the people dead and dying around Mattie contributed to her maturing and learning how to deal with grief. The last thing that demonstrated Mattie’s growing up process is handling all of the work of running the coffeehouse. This is said by Matilda’s mother about going shopping. It is, “No Matilda must stay home. I shall go.” (25) This quote is important to the story because it shows that at the beginning of the book, Matilda was not even allowed to go shopping for the coffeehouse, much less run it. She wasn’t nearly as respected as she became. My second quote was from the end of the book, when Matilda was running the coffeehouse. The quote is thought by her, here it is, “Free samples were proving to be a clever way to get customers to eat more.”
(228) Once she started running the coffeehouse, Mattie learned all of the tips and tricks to getting more money. She really became the owner after that. After the struggle of getting it up