Fever 1793

Fever 1793

Laurie Halse Anderson

Prezi by Sophie Griffin

D Period

Characters

Mattie is the narrator of the book. She is fourteen years old, and she lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the time of the Yellow Fever. She is an independent girl, and likes to do things her way. A good example of this is on page 26, when Mattie persuades Mother to let her go to the market.

Lucille Cook is the widowed owner of the Cook Coffeehouse in Philadelphia. She is Mattie's mother, and can be strict sometimes. Examples of this is on pages 1,3, and 10, when Mother yells at Mattie to make her get out of bed and do her chores.

Grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and served under General George Washington. He is fond of Mattie, shown on page 19, when Mattie says "He tried to instill some military training in me, but aways sweetened it with candy."

George Washington

Nathaniel Benson is an apprentice to the Peale family (a family of artists). Mattie and Nathaniel like each other, and on page 208 you can tell, because Mattie is thinking about Nataniel. Also, on page 188, Nathaniel Benson throws daisies out the window to Mattie.

The Peale Family

Nell is a young fever orphan that Mattie finds huddled outside a house in the abandoned streets of Philadelphia. Mattie takes her in, and mothers her. Because of that, Nell loves Matties dearly like a mother. Nell is still young, and hasn't been taught all the basic life skills yet. That is made obvious on page 178, when Nell wets the bed, because she doesn't know how to wake herself up in the night in order to use the chamberpot.

Shmoop Editorial Team, "Fever 1793 Theme of Transformations"

Shmoop.com

Shmoop University, Inc,

17 February, 2012

The point of view is the angle from which a story is told.

In "Fever 1793", the story is told from a first person point of view. I can tell, because the book is told using first person pronouns (I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours). Mattie is the character telling the story, and that is another way I know the point of view.

Laurie Halse Anderson (the author of "Fever 1793") has a distinctive writing style. She uses epigraphs, which is a short quotation at the beginning of a chapter. She also uses lots of dialogue, and figurative language (metaphors, similes, hyperboles, etc). Some examples of figurative language she used is "It followed and rubbed again, like a damp piece of burlap," (209). And on page 210, she says "a gentle kiss of the sun." Also in chapter 26, on page 211, she writes "their prices dropped as quickly as the tempature." A hyperbole she used was on page 209, when Mattie says to Silas "I haven't slept in years." Laurie Halse Anderson also wrote an appendix, which is something that not all authors do. An appendix is like an article at the end of a book, that explains real things/events/people in the book.

Nathaniel Benson

Mattie (Matilda) Cook

Mother (Lucille)

Nell

Grandfather (Captain William Farnsworth Cook)

Theme

"Along with the usual teenage transformations, Mattie is caught up in some larger transformations that will really jumpstart her journey down the road to adulthood."

Example 1: Mother wants Mattie to find a suitable man to marry, and so on pages 46-53, she goes to the Oglevies.

Example 2: Grandfather dies (page 147) and Mattie is left to care for herself.

Example 3: Mattie finds Nell on the streets and decides to take her in (page 163). She takes care of Nell and loves her like Nell was her daughter, which is a very grown-up thing to do.

Grandfather dies and Mattie is left on her own

Theives break into the coffeehouse and hurt Grandfather

Mattie finds orphaned Nell

Mattie finds Eliza

Mattie and Grandfather return to the coffeehouse

Grandfather carries Mattie to Bush Hill, where she recovers

Mattie is introduced to Eliza's brother and his family

Mattie contracts yellow fever

Nell, Robert, and William get yellow fever

They get kicked off the cart and left in the road

The children are moved to the coffeehouse and recover

Grandfather and Mattie start their journey to the Ludingtons with a farmer and his cart

Mother gets sick with yellow fever

The first frost comes

Mattie meets Nathiel Benson at the market

Mother returns, but is still very frail

Mattie goes to the market

Polly dies

Plot Map

We are introduced to Mattie

Mattie and Eliza co-run the coffeehouse together

CONFLICTS!

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Self

Mattie wants to go to Polly Logan's funeral, but Mother diagrees and says Mattie can't (page 16).

Mattie doesn't know whether to stay with Grandfather under the Oak tree, or go to get him help (Page 93).

This is a conflict because Mattie is fighting with herself about what to do. She doesn't want to leave Grandfather because he is so sick, but she knows that they need to find food.

This is a person vs. person conflict because Mother and Mattie are arguing back and forth whether or not Mattie should attend Polly's funeral.

Person vs. Society

Person vs. Nature

The two theives break into the coffeehouse and try to steal things (pages 138-146).

Philadelphia is suffering from the yellow fever epidemic (throughout the book).

This is a person vs. nature conflict because yellow fever is a disease, and disease is a part of nature. Plus, yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes, which are animals.

This is a person vs. society conflict, because stealing and breaking into places is against the law, and breaking the law is going against the society.

MOOD

There were a couple different moods that I felt while reading this book.

1) Sad. Sometimes the book made me feel sad, like when Grandfather died, and when people said that Mother wasn't going to come back. Also the fact that a lot of Philadelphia's population died was sad.

2) Worried. I felt worried when Mattie got Yellow Fever, and when the theives broke into the coffeehouse. I mostly felt worried for Mattie, like when Grandfather died, and I was worried that Mattie wouldn't be able to care for herself.

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Example 1: (page 1) "I woke to the sound of a mosquito whining in my left ear and my mother screeching in the right."

Example 2: (page 6) " As soon as I stepped into the kitchen, Mother started her lecture."

Example 3 (page 11) "I sighed loudly, put my dishes in the washtub, and tucked my hair into my mob cap."

Blurb

In "Fever 1793" the main character (Mattie) must go through a series of changes in order to try and adapt to the fever epidemic that has broken out in Philadelphia. I loved this book, because the author incorpated real events in history into a fictional book, and made it exciting. I liked how Laurie Halse Anderson wrote, because it hooked me in. This book was predictable in some ways (I could guess that Mother was coming home), but in other ways thing were completely unexpected (I had no idea that Mattie would find Nell). I thought tht it was smart of the author to first present Mattie as a stubborn, hardheaded girl, but to then make you realize that Mattie's independence was one of the things that helped her to survive.