Pain And Suffering In Fever 1793 By Laurie Halse Anderson

With a little pain and suffering, there’s always something good afterwards.

In the story “Fever 1793” Matilda “Mattie” is a normal girl in Philadelphia who lives in a coffee shop with her Mother and Grandfather. When a terrible disease called Yellow Fever strikes Philadelphia by surprise Matilda is forced to leave. Matilda shows extreme bravery, and commitment to helping others in their time of need. In the book “Fever 1793” by Laurie Halse Anderson the story suggests that without suffering, we wouldn’t know the good parts of life.

In the beginning of “Fever 1793” Matilda “Mattie” Cook is just your everyday average girl living in Philadelphia. She lives with her Grandfather, and Mother in the coffee shop in which they own. Matilda looks

But Mother forces Matilda and Grandfather to leave, and travel away from her. When Matilda and Grandfather are traveling to the border they are scared to leave, but also are somewhat “giddy” to get away from all of the people with the fever. When Matilda and Grandfather enter the border and they get checked for the Yellow Fever a Farmer of Philadelphia tries to leave also with his wife and baby and lies about Matilda and Grandfather to the people at the border and tells them that Grandfather and Matilda have the fever and the border people believe him, and so Matilda and Grandfather do not make it through. "They aren't my family," the farmer said as he motioned for his wife to climb aboard. "They only rode in back the last mile

While hiding out someone breaks into their coffee house that they are in and Grandfather tries to stop him, the man fights back and hurts him. "Let go of him!" I shouted. The man ignored me. His hands were around Grandfather's throat. Grandfather weakly hit back at the man, but it had no effect. The man struck Grandfather's head against the floor. Grandfather's eyelids fluttered, then closed. "Nooo!" I screamed. I swung the sword and gashed the thief. He howled and rolled to the side, grasping at the bloody wound. "You cut me," he said in disbelief. "The wench cut me with the sword." "Get out of my house, before I cut out your heart." I raised the sword and ran at him.”(19.72) Now it's Matilda who's playing the part of the soldier. She has Grandfather's old sword out and is ready to kill the intruders to save him. Matilda has just seen their coffee house be robbed, her Grandfather beaten, and she stabbed a man. Now Matilda is watching out for her family and tries to help out some since Grandfather isn’t doing very well and eventually dies. “I wandered up one street and down the next. The printer's words haunted me. Thousands dead. I saw Grandfather's empty eyes. No food. I saw Mother order me to leave her. No hope. I saw people weeping the doorways and did not stop. I heard the death carts rattling in the street and did not look up.” (20.160) The idea of an epidemic