Fever 1793 Analysis

Fever Essay
Laurie Halse Anderson, the author of the historical fiction book Fever 1793. The story takes place in Philadelphia surrounding the struggle of a young girl named Mattie during the time of yellow fever. One major theme from the book Fever 1793 is coping with loss.
Characters in the book all cope differently from one another. In this case, Mattie’s grandfather dies due to robbers. Mattie doesn’t react in the best way at first. She screams and runs after the man with a knife until she comes to the realization that she needs to tend to Grandfather. This illustrates a quick change from bad to good. This transition happens very fast because Mattie felt that she had to care for her grandfather. Consequently, since Mattie is such a bold character, her reactions toward Grandfather's death in the beginning are very

Anderson used repetition of some words to really make the reader think about them, and their importance to the scene. During Grandfather’s passing, Mattie repeated the word “no” over and over again. Anderson used this simple word to show how Mattie is in denial of Grandfather’s death. Which is one way that people cope with a loss. Mattie seems to be in denial during the first couple moments after he died, but then the realization hits her and she starts thinking about all he has done for her. Mattie recalls memories and past experiences with Grandfather, which makes his passing a little less painful. This example leads into another use of author's craft, inner thoughts. Throughout the story, Mattie talks to herself a lot about various things. Anderson uses this technique to develop Mattie's character and give more insights to her thoughts and feelings. These writing styles, along with all the other author's craft methods used in the story really bring everything together, including the