Comparing Fever 1793 And An American Plague By Laurie Anderson

The author Laurie Anderson has altered the description of bush hill in her book Fever 1793 from the book An American Plague. Fever 1793 is a historical fiction novel about a young girl living in Philadelphia, trying to survive the yellow fever. The book An American Plague is a nonfiction text, written about the time and people during the yellow fever epidemic. Bush Hill was an abandoned mansion owned by William Hamilton, and was taken over by the governor of Philadelphia, who turned it into a hospital ward for the sick. Although both books mention Bush Hill the descriptions are fairly different.
One difference of Bush Hill between the two books is, the idea that Bush hill was a proper hospital during the yellow fever epidemic. As demonstrated

It also indicates the hospital was a surreal, almost placid place. While in An American Plague page 105 it indicates,”so many people applied that patients had to have a doctors certificate stating that they did indeed have yellow fever.” With this many people applying to Bush Hill, it would most certainly not be a calm and relaxing place. It also suggests that this place should be like the market or town square before the fever, bustling, constant commotion and always someone wanting or needing something. It also conveys on page 13-14 of An American Plague,”the skin and eyeballs turned yellow, as red blood cells were destroyed, causing the bile pigment bilirubin to accumulate in the body;nose, gums and intestines began bleeding; and the patient vomited stale, black blood.”This certainly indicates that Bush Hill will never be a quiet place. It also illustrates a tangible representation of the unrelenting fever. These differences most likely occur because the author of Fever 1793 is warping the setting of Bush Hill to help illustrate the mood of that moment which was supposed to happy or relieved.