Fever 1793 By
Laurie Halse Anderson
Review by Katie Rose
I JUST
finished this book, and I was so excited about it I had to move it to the top
of my review list! It is another historical fiction, but it is also a
children’s book. In any country’s history, there are horrifying events that
occur, and then are forgotten. Sometimes they are deliberately ignored to
undermine the suffering of those who were persecuted….and sometimes they are
forgotten because people simply did not want to remember. The story of the
yellow fever outbreak of 1793 is one of those instances.
For
those of you who don’t remember your middle school American History classes, or
simply are not Americans, it was the year 1776 that The United States became a
country. In the year this story takes place, Philadelphia was the capitol of
the new country, and was the home of many of its famous heroes. It was the
largest city in the union at the time, and was a bustling center of enterprise
and trade.
Mattie,
a young teenager, lives with her mother and her grandfather above a coffee
house her mother owns. Her father died many years ago, and they had made a
living in this shop ever since. Mattie is very close to Eliza, the free black
woman who is the cook of coffee house. Mattie and her mother, on the other
hand, have a strained relationship. Mattie’s mother is a stern woman, made hard
by the death of her husband. Her grandfather is an eccentric, loving old man
who fought in the Revolutionary War, and loves to make sure everyone knows it.
He trained Mattie in basic soldiering skills all her life, and encourages her
toughness. In the beginning of the story, the coffee house is doing very well,
and Mattie’s greatest concern is that her mother will not let her see the boy
she has a crush on, a painter’s apprentice named Nathaniel.
Then
the fever starts, and her entire world is shattered. It starts out slowly.
Rumors begin to swirl that yellow fever has come in from the docks, but at
first no one takes it seriously. Mattie’s mother and grandfather shrug it off.
They say there is nothing to worry about, it is just a seasonal sickness that
happens every year. Life goes on as usual…and the death toll continues to
climb. It is not until the sickness invades Mattie’s own home that her family
is forced to take it seriously, and her fight for survival begins.
Living
in the world of modern medicine that most of us do, it is hard to imagine what going
through an epidemic of this scale would be like. This book paints a terrifying
picture. The fear is the most potent aspect. Fear drove people from the city by
the thousands, leaving the poor and the sick to die of the fever or to starve.
In a few short weeks Philadelphia, the greatest city in the USA at the time,
became a ghost town. People abandoned their family members to die in the
streets, and thousands were buried in mass graves throughout the city; graves
that are still there to this day.
Mattie’s
story is one of survival. Even when it seems she has no hope, she fights on.
She fights for her family, and refuses to give up on her dreams. She is a
stubborn character, young and naïve perhaps, but brimming with inner strength.
She also never loses her compassion. Fear never takes the humanity from her as
it does to so many faced with the same circumstances. Her relationship with her
mother may be difficult, but she believes in her mother and respects her.
Mattie never gives up on her mother just as she never gives up on herself.
The
other most important character in this book, in my opinion, is Eliza. At the
beginning of the fever it was believed that black people could not catch yellow
fever. A foolish and misguided idea, but they believed it to be true. This was
a time when slavery was still very legal, and very common. African-Americans
were still considered sub human by most of the population, and life was always
a battle for them. However when the fever hit, and they believed they were
immune, they did not turn their backs on the people who persecuted them.
Instead they opened their hearts and tended to the sick, brought them food and
looked after them when no one else would. Even when they began to die from the
illness themselves, they did not stop looking after others. Eliza represents
those brave people in this story. She nearly works herself to death, nearly
starves, and yet never gives up taking care of those in need. Eliza saves her
own family, and countless others in her efforts. She is a role model to Mattie
and gives her strength when Mattie is at her lowest point. Together they face
the fever and the hell it has created.
This
book is meant for children, but it really affected me. I almost cried in the
middle of a lecture I was not paying attention to, and afterword I rushed to
the nearest coffee shop so I could finish it in peace. It tells a truly
powerful story of an event in American history that hardly anyone remembers.
The fever ended as quickly as it began once the first frost of fall hit. At the
end, over 5,000 people were dead. In a city of only 20,000, that is a very
large number. As soon as it ended those who had fled returned to the city and
life went on as before, and history forgot. Wars happened, other diseases took
thousands of lives, and this tragedy that happened in the nation’s infancy got
left behind.
At the end, Mattie watches the
people who left the city to its fate and did not suffer the fear, starvation,
and misery that those who remained did, and resents them for it despite
herself. Her feelings must be the same that the survivors felt then. Those who
fled cannot be blamed for doing so, but it is easy to understand why she feels anger
towards them. Mattie’s losses, however, do not destroy her. As so many are,
this young girl was a survivor.
Final Recommendation? Well, I
already said how amazing I think this book is. But when you read a good book,
you can’t say it enough. I really felt this book was wonderful! It is written
in very simple terms, it is a children’s book after all, so it is easy to read.
It also lacks any gory descriptions or images that will haunt you forever. I
personally enjoy that aspect. Mattie and Eliza are two characters I think could
easily become role models for young children, and, as always, it is always
important to never forget the horrors of our past so we don’t make the same
mistakes in the future.
Side Note:
Although yellow fever has been eradicated
in the USA, and in most developed countries around the world, there are still
thousands who die from it every year in countries that do not have easy access
to proper health care. If you would like to learn more, here is a link to a
brief summary of the issue provided by The World Health Organization:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/yellowfev/impact1/en/
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