Literary Essay: Fever 1793 The historical fiction novel by Laurie Halse Anderson Fever 1793 took place in Philadelphia, 1793. Mattie the main character of the book works in a coffeehouse that her mom owns. One day she has to do the work for her friend Polly because she didn’t show up to work. She does not know why she did not show up to work, but she does the work anyway. Later they find out that Polly died. They do not know why but notice a lot of people in Philadelphia are dieing. Further in the book they find out it is a fever that is killing everyone. After the fever goes away Mattie decides to open the shop back up with who used to be the cook - a free black woman, Eliza. This shows that Mattie is “striving for greatness”. The author shows this by using description. While some might argue that she is not striving for greatness, and is responsible. They forget that in the text it says that Mattie just wants …show more content…
It starts when Mattie wants to open the coffeehouse back up. The thing she does that relates to striving for greatness is when Mattie asks Eliza to be her coffeehouse partner.(quote here) It tells that Mattie just looks at everything from a business standpoint. She does not look at the fact that Eliza is a free black. She looks at her as family, and as a partner. This basically shows that Mattie will go against society by having a free black working with her, and the both of them being women. Some people might interpret this to mean that Mattie is just a kind person. But she clearly is just striving for greatness trying to be good at what she does because she wants to continue the shop from where her mom left it off. So she wants people to start to come back to the coffeehouse like they did before the fever epidemic. This is significant because if someone “strives for greatness” it means that they will do anything they have to, to be the best at what they