Throughout the course of the novel, the reader witnesses Mattie evolve from a self-absorbed 14-year-old girl to an aspiring young adult. These changes seen in her happen simply because she has no other choice considering the circumstances she is put in. During the year of the fever epidemic, Mattie’s stages of growth and development into a responsible young women are made evident through her experiences. In the beginning, we see “Teenager Mattie”. Mattie is kind of mean to her mother, sleeps in late, and when given some responsibilities, she usually has to be badgered into performing them. She is selfish and pretty self-absorbed - like most kids her age - unknowing of the hardships that lay ahead for her and her family. Next, we see “Victim …show more content…
But, things do get worse when Matilda witnesses her grandfather get attacked and killed by nasty thieves. These experiences cause her intense pain and suffering on a personal level. Then we see “Survivor Mattie”. She has seen and felt terrible things, but refuses to give up. She takes a little orphan girl named Nell under her wing because she knows what it’s like to be alone in the world and wants to give aid to others. This seems to be the point in her life where she takes a complete role reversal. She is no longer the careless teenager like we read about in the beginning, but a compassionate and strong-willed person. “Caregiver Mattie” - she finally learned to care about people in a big way. This is shown through her actions of learning to share and put others before her self. She has now appointed herself as the unofficial guardian of the orphan nell, and also begins working with Eliza and the Free African Society to nurse the citizens of Philadelphia back to health. Mattie is no longer a victim of the fever epidemic, but instead she is empowered by helping others in …show more content…
This novel falls into the category of historical fiction for many reasons. Of course, the fact that that the novel is based on the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia is one of them. Matilda and the other characters in the book are fictional characters, but some of the events taking place happened to real life people during this time period. In the story, Mattie witnesses her mother become ill with the fever, falls ill of it herself and helps take care of many others who are sick as well. The symptoms explained in the story are directly correlated with those that the real people of Philadelphia experienced when ill with the fever. When researching the epidemic, i learned that some of the third-phase symptoms of yellow fever are jaundice, vomiting blood, shock and multi organ failure leading to death. The author describes all of these things in the novel through the eyes of Mattie. She describes the symptoms when talking about her mother when saying that, “the fever had taken hold of her symptoms and she wept, calling my father’s name,” and when she describes her mother’s eyes as “cornflower blue eyes poisoned with streaks of yellow and red,” and when she talks about her mother being violently ill and vomiting blood all over the bed and floor. Although the fever itself is the prominent subject of the story, they're are many other things in this novel that tie this book accurately to the time period and make it a historical fiction novel. The fever took a toll on
In the beginning Grandfather refuses to believe there is a fever until it hit them mother falls ill and they are forced to flee Mattie try’s to stay but mother and grandfather and Eliza force her to go this kills Mattie. But she must go. Grandfather finds a wagon but soon they get kicked off. Mattie finds food but soon realizes that they need more then she falls ill. Mattie wakes in bush hill ( a hospital for the ones with fever) She insists on leaving but is not well enough to go.
PARA 2: Miss Eva Turner plays a vital role in Mattie's life by taking her in during her loneliness and destitution and treating Mattie and Basil as if they are her own family.
The stereotypes of the elderly are influencing Mattie's life. She is telling herself not to do things because of her age whether or not she is physically able to do them, simply because people associate age with inability and dependence upon others. Her family and friends are expecting and encouraging this dependence.
Uncle Matt, the main character in the story as previously mentioned, is described as somewhat of a loner. He rarely spent time with any of the children, and never displayed any sort of an emotional connection to them— that is, until that tragic event occurred (Saunders 77). The moment his emotions were agitated, he begins to take on several key roles that Dr. Bonn describes in his article. In the beginning, Uncle Matt asserts himself as a law enforcement official as he goes throughout the town searching for, and exterminating, the animals who were responsible for the death of Emily. However, this wasn’t enough. Uncle Matt wanted to completely eradicate the possibility of this ever happening again, so he set out on a campaign to destroy all of the infected animals, including those he suspects of having come in contact with the illness (Saunders 74). A method very similar to what law enforcement refers to as Criminal Profiling.
After her and Ethan Frome’s wreck though, she becomes what Zeena was and experiences what she went through. She becomes that resentful and despaired person, that the younger version of Mattie is majorly differentiated from. At the end, irony is displayed because Zeena seems to regain some of her health and beauty while Mattie lost all of hers.
In the book, Mattie starts out as a lazy teenager who needs to be told what to do by her over controlling mother, but throughout the story, she becomes more responsible and adult-like. For
Fever 1793 is a historical fiction novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson that describes how Yellow Fever affected lives of everybody during the three months of sickness and panic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Life today is more straightforward than it was in 1793 because of the technology. Fever 1793 is a story about a young girl, Matilda “Mattie” Cook, who faces challenges surviving in a Yellow Fever- struck city (Philadelphia). Mattie loses her grandfather on her journey of survival and her mother is nowhere to be seen, leaving Mattie to grow up and survive her journey alone. If the story was taking place in modern times, Mattie and the rest of Philadelphia would not struggle as much as they did in the story. The modern day technology that is here today allows this generation to progress through life smoother. Today’s technology would have a significant, positive impact on the community during 1793. If the people of Philadelphia had the knowledge of symptoms and treatments of Yellow Fever, they would have known for sure if the fever was occurring in the beginning and they would have also known how the fever was to
At the beginning of the story, Mattie is a normal girl living in the glorious city of Philadelphia. Soon a fever outbreak appears and starts to frighten the people of the capitol. “ Some doctors warn we may see a thousand dead before it's over. There are forty thousand people living in Philadelphia, William. Can you imagine if one in forty were to die?”(59). Clearly the people of Philadelphia were terrified. As the story moves along, this fever begins to create a devastating mess in the city of Philadelphia, “ They say bodies are piling up like firewood” (64). This illustrates the nervous fear of the
Mattie is a fourteen year old girl, who has the responsibilities of an adult, which was expected of people that age in this time period. “[Mattie] kept his books for him”(keeping the books means keeping track of the money) said Mattie when she was explaining why she knew how much money her father had (Portis 15). This quote is interesting because it exhibits the amount of responsibility that was put upon her even at a young age. Also, Mattie seems to have the best math skills in her family despite having a mother and father much older than her. Mattie told Yarnell, (who is an African American that works for Mattie's family) “Yarnell said ‘you can't stay in the city by yourself’ [Mattie] said ‘It will be alright’” (Portis 26). Mattie is going to stay in the city by herself without her mom knowing when she will return, or what her sleeping arrangements are. It is strange because she is a young girl in a city alone with nobody to protect her, and her mother has no idea what is going on. Mattie told the sheriff “[I’am] looking for the man who shot and killed my father” (Poti 59). Mattie is not asking the sheriff to find the man and bring him to
Matilda Cook is an adventurous and independence seeking 14-year old girl. Although she always being pestered by her mother, Mattie loves her mother dearly and worries when her mother does not return home after going the the Luddington’s farm. Mattie struggle with
Anderson teaches many lessons in her novel but among the most important is taught by showing the many steps Mattie took to reach full independence. She began as a bratty teenager with her head in the clouds, and ended as an independent woman with dreams and aspirations. She discovers her identity and while her situation is out of the ordinary, she proves that aging and revealing your true personality can make the difference between life and death. In the beginning of the novel, Mattie feels that she should be praised whenever she does something for someone else. For example, in the beginning of the book on page 3 it says, “I made a face at the doorway. I had just saved her precious quilt from disaster, but would she appreciate it? Of course not.” This demonstrates that Mattie wants perpetual praise from others, an expectation that children often possess. Mattie is also too young to understand the responsibilities that come with adulthood. This is evident in the novel when Mattie is dreaming of a future with no responsibility. Mattie
Mattie does not beat around the bush when it comes to justice. She has a fixed view on how law should be carried out against Tom Chaney and stops at nothing to achieve this. Put simply, Mattie wants him dead, and she wants him to know that he is dying as a result of him killing her father. This view and interpretation of justice closely resembles the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” philosophy of the Code of Hammurabi where the life of Tom Chaney must be payed for
Edith Wharton uses Mattie to express isolation and being lonely. She comes to the country with ribbons in her hair and more joy in herself. She wanted to free Ethan from the terrible society he lived in. Life in Starkfield is bleak and boring. No one comes outside or enjoys themselves. This is mainly why Ethan wants to escape the barren and poor neighborhood. Ethan is also isolated as well. He opposes society mainly because he cannot be with the one he loves and he doesn’t want to ruin his marriage to Zeena as well. When Zeena falls ill, she goes to the doctor for a couple of days and returns only to find her expensive china now ruined. Angry, she tells Ethan that she needs more hired help and plans to send Mattie away. Upset, Ethan did not know what to do . He decided to write a letter to Zeena telling her to run the farm and be by herself. However, he
Mattie is the older character in this book that was owned “Jesus is Lord Tires” and was a character that acted as a mother to multiple characters. “She looked at me the way Mama would have,” (Kingsolver 252). This quote was found near the end of the book that signified Mattie looking at Taylor and Taylor observing that look and thinking that it is similar to her real mother’s. Mattie gave some money to Taylor for the trip and Taylor refused to take it, so Mattie said that it was for everyone in the car and gave her the look that reminded Taylor of her biological mother. “’I’ve got some peanut butter crackers,’ Mattie said leaning over Turtle. ‘Will she eat peanut butter?’,” (Kingsolver 252). Mattie seemed worried about Turtle and offered her something to eat. She acted as a mother figure to Turtle because she fed her and gave her more food when Turtle hinted for it. Mattie was the one that fit as a mother figure to a lot of characters in the book. She was the person that led a sanctuary and was the one who took care of the many.
Mattie is now in the initiation step of the journey, where she will go through four parts; the first part is the challenges and the second is the abyss. Anywhere that Mattie went she faced challenges as how the hero’s journey’s writes, “Whichever direction the voyage takes… [she] puts [herself] more and more at risk, emotionally and physically…. always seem to strike the initiate’s greatest weakness: [her] poorest skills… [Her] most vulnerable emotions” (Harris and Thompson 51). A challenge that we see Mattie puts herself at risk and show her weakness is when see faces Tom Chaney and says,