How Did Matilda Occur In Fever 1793

Laurie Halse Anderson masterfully tells the of the fictional character Matilda Cook and her family’s struggles through the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. While Matilda and her family are fictional characters, the epidemic which struck Philadelphia was quite real. Based on what I have read so far in the novel, Fever 1793, I believe it is reasonable to infer that Matilda’s mother will die or may even be dead already, but Matilda does not know yet. This will devastate both grandfather and Matilda. Lucille, Matilda’s mother, is the first person of the Cook family to contract yellow fever. Lucille, Matilda’s mother, definitely has yellow fever. In Chapter 10, Dr. Kerr visits Matilda’s mother, and tells her, “‘Rowley, the imposter. Autumnal fever

The reader knows that yellow fever has proven deadly to many Philadelphians and may kill Lucille as well. Matilda’s mother dying of yellow fever could be foreseen when the author writes about what happens to Matilda’s mother when she is sick. When Matilda took a nap, while she was supposed to be watching her mother, she woke up to her mother throwing up liquid that normally would not come out of someone, “I must have dozed off. One moment, the room was still, the next, Mother flew off the pillows and was violently ill, vomiting blood all over the bed and floor. Her eyes rolled back in her head”(Anderson 68). Matilda’s mother insists Matilda leave home in order to protect her from the fever. Matilda and her grandfather try to leave but they are stopped by guards and are turned away when grandfather is proclaimed sick. Matilda and her grandfather are stranded in the desert and Matilda gets sick. Matilda’s grandfather brings her to Bush Hill, a place where yellow fever patients are brought to heal. Lucille, Matilda’s mother, is not at Bush Hill, which leads to the reader to think that Matilda’s mother is dead. The evidence points to Matilda’s mother already dead or dying of blood