She only wakes up to the sound of Mother yelling at her.Throughout the first few chapters she refuses to do most things around the coffeehouse even though she saids she would like to be treated more like an adult. As a teenage girl, Mattie should be spending time exploring her feelings and desires, but she is soon going to be forced into much bigger life-and-death questions. Fever 1793 Mattie is the main character in Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. There were also limited ways to share news and information, which led to gossip and hearsay quickly taking over. 11, which demonstrates that they think of her as a child. I don't remember being taught anything about the yellow fever epidemic that consumed Philadelphia in 1793 so I was really interested after reading the description. Mattie knows that Nell doesnt know what is happening so she takes her. Fourteen-year-old Matilda "Mattie" Cook is the teenage protagonist of a young adult novel. Matilda "Mattie" Cook is a fourteen-year-old girl living above a coffeehouse in Philadelphia with her mother, grandfather (a former military man), a parrot named King George, and an orange cat named Silas. The Puritans would approve The Naturals due the their pursuit of self reliance, their dedication of hard work, and their law-abiding personalities. People refused to take money for helping strangers. Matilda also begins working with Eliza and the Free African Society to nurse the citizens of Philadelphia back to health. As Mattie tries to process this loss, her mother frets about her health and makes it clear that she does not want Mattie to go anywhere near the Logan house in case she also falls ill. Mattie is very angry that she will not be allowed to attend the funeral of her friend. To which war is she referring? Together, they try sorting through every document they could get to figure out who the killer was. George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. This was the situation in the book The Naturals, where Cassie, Dean, and Michael are trying to crack cold cases and they came across Cassies mothers case. The novel makes us think about what we would do in such a state of disaster. WLX Spanish Greetings & Goodbyes. Fever 1793 Chapters 11-20 Review. In 1793, Philadelphia was the capital of the country. While Mrs. Cook has worked hard to build a life for herself and her daughter as a single mother, she is also clearly supported by a close-knit but conventional family structure. Mattie is further heartened by an apparent secret message from Nathaniel, whos quarantined at the Peale house. Teachers and parents! . Rush want the black people to help care for the victims? Of course not. This demonstrates that Mattie wants perpetual praise from others, an expectation that children often possess. But as soon as they reached the orphanage, Eliza said: Seems she is better off with you Mattie (183). she felt they did not care about the suffering they had endured. Eliza was born a slave and her husband saved up for years to purchase her freedom. Mattie's grandfather decides it is time to flee the city. This happens when she finds Nell and cares for her. The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. She wishes to own an entire city block with stores that carried fine fabrics. I think that these problems that Mattie has faced have helped mature her into an adult, I stood so quickly that the seams under my arms ripped open with a snarl. 1. Yellow Fever Fact SheetInformative fact sheet on yellow fever from the World Health Organization. She clenched the man by his shirt and proclaimed that her grandfather was a great man and a captain in the Pennsylvania Fifth Regiment. Mattie thought how she couldn 't take care of Nell when she could barely take care of herself. What do Mattie and her grandfather discover when they enter the coffeehouse for the first time? Matilda hits a number of stages, each important to her developmental arc (um, that means her process of growing up). The orphanage was so crowded and had so many children that Eliza realized that she would be better off with her special person. Fever 1793 is based on the actual yellow fever epidemic that hit Philadelphia and wiped out some five thousand people. Either that or my bizarre attraction to books centered around plagues and epidemics is to blame. Mattie helps care for Elizas nephews and Nell. Imagine being in the FBI, playing a game of cat and mouse chase with a murder. The close relationship between Mrs. Cook and Eliza shows that Mrs. Cook can see beyond racial divisions as well as class divisions. Again this is another chance where Mattie can either act out or keep her composure. Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and EpidemicsA website from Harvard that provides information on the 1793 fever, plus links to lots of primary sources. Now they include Polly, the serving girl at the Cook Coffeehouse. One week later, sixty-four people have died, although no one is sure what disease is causing these fatalities. Especially as a woman born into the upper-classes, she would not have grown up prepared to work hard and run a business. Her death upsets Matilda, for the girls used to be good friends in the past. Mattie begrudgingly begins the household chores, only to learn shocking news from her mother: Polly Logan has not arrived because she fell ill with fever, and died suddenly. A more scathing critique of American consumerism you're unlikely to find on the big screen. -Graham S. Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. (Academic eggheads just love to debate this film. Mattie has regained a measure of family life after the loss of her grandfather and her separation from her mother. As often happens in the story, Mattie is jolted from her daydream by harsh realityher city is no longer familiar to her. A true test of who she is, the fever will become one of the defining moments of Mattie's life. Needless to say, these experiences cause Matilda intense pain and suffering on a deep and personal level. Tengo (3) boligrafo, (4) goma de borrar y (5) carpeta. After yellow fever strikes and kills Polly, the family's serving girl, Mattie has the following daily routine. The fever eventually runs its course after killing thousands of people. With lower population densities and sometimes access to cleaner sources of water, more rural areas were often perceived as safer, although there could be significant outbreaks of disease there as well. Mattie goes downstairs to the kitchen where her mother continues to scold her for being lazy. it has ben reduced by half to 20,000 people. Her mother slowly doesnt let Matilda have as much freedom as she had because she wants to protect her daughter. It provides a sobering yet fascinating glimpse into the Yellow Fever epidemic that took place in Philadelphia in 1793. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. When Matilda was younger her father fell off a ladder and died 2 months before the Coffeehouse opened. She wasnt expecting to have to leave because of this Fever. At this point, Mattie can idly dream about traveling and seeing the world, but later, her vision of a future for herself will become much more focused on staying alive. This is demonstrated when her mom tells her, Get out of bed, Mathilda . The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in. It all actually happened. Then, after getting the house after Ms. Evas death, 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 and her family are works of fiction, but the fever outbreak did indeed strike Philadelphia in the late summer of 1793. After all, the way in which we react to catastrophes like the yellow fever epidemic can come to define who we are as a society and as humans. Also it shows she will stick up for her family business. the longer she puts it off the harder it will be. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. Grandfather finds a wagon but soon they get kicked off. When the story starts to pick up Mattie finds herself in a situation causing her to become more like a mother figure. Matilda and her family slowly begin to hear about the fever and that it is affecting more and more people daily. There is tension between Mattie and her mother because Mrs. Cook often compares her daughter to herself. The next day, Grandfather salutes a tearful Mrs. Flagg as he and Mattie depart in a wagon filled with fever orphans. And, unlike when the Quaker Mrs. Bowles first invited her to help, Mattie now feels free to focus her energies on serving others in need. Mattie's favorite time was just before sundown, when the childrens were in bed and dinner dishes were washed. The start of the novel hints that Mattie's somewhat negative portrayal of her mother is not entirely accurate. Would you only help your own family, or would you, like Mattie, try your best to help everyone the human family? A poem on how to get me to enjoy historical fiction: When I first found out that I had to read this book, I was not excited about it, because usually school books are boring and have no interest for me in it. To sum up the quote Mattie gets offended and deals with it in an immature way, which leads to her standing up and yelling across the table. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Grandfather (Captain William Farnsworth Cook). Its not a tavern, its a coffee house!(53) This helps Mattie mature because she is building a tolerance for annoying people (like the Ogilvies). Down near the docks, many have taken ill, and the fatalities are mounting. Matilda Cook, also known as Mattie, is the 14 year old daughter of Lucille Cook, also known as Mother, and the granddaughter of Captain William Farnsworth Cook, also known as Grandfather. But she must go. the coffeehouse because it had many windows and empty rooms away from the river. Mattie took her in and she had been her special person for a while. mbanach1. While Laurie Halse Anderson's thrilling young adult novel may at times have the feel of an apocalyptic zombie movie, the remarkable thing about it is that the events in Fever, 1793 are firmly grounded in historical fact. Youre sleeping the day away. Pg. Mattie reluctantly heads home. Why does Mattie's mother yell at her to leave? In what ways are they different? What is Mattie relieved to find hidden under the stair? What falls from the sky as Eliza and Mattie are walking home? First, of course, there's Polly the serving girl. kneeling beside grandfather praying that the morning would not come. Matilda's character development works a little bit differently, though, than other young adult protagonists, because although she's just an ordinary teenager, the circumstances in which she finds herself are extremely out of the ordinary. Soon a fever outbreak appears and starts to frighten the people of the capitol. What item does Mattie bury with her grandfather? Mattie showed maturity when she chose to take in a orphan. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Little Mattie, indeed. This causes her to be unreliable as well as immature when she takes her anger out on her cat Silas.