Use Of Figurative Language In Laurie Halse Anderson's Fever 1793

Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction novel, Fever 1793 takes place in colonial Philadelphia, during the time of the yellow fever outbreak. Mattie Cook, a young girl during the outbreak has to cope with the many hardships brought onto her by the disease. While the fever brought many terrible things to Mattie and her family, she is able to move past them and build her life up again. By using character development and figurative language, Anderson is able to create the theme that good things can always come out of something bad.

The theme that prevails throughout the novel Fever 1793 is that good things can always come out of something bad. In the story, the yellow fever hits Mattie and her family hard, causing the loss of her grandfather. Although this was very hard for Mattie, she later comes to build up her life and is able to put her dreams into action. She is able to reopen the coffeehouse with Eliza, which was her dream from the beginning. Without the fever hitting Philadelphia, Mattie would have never acquired the amount of independence and responsibility that she needed to run the coffeehouse and fulfill her dreams. For example, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson has Mattie state, “Looking down the peaceful street, it seemed no one could imagine the terror we had all endured. ...Philadelphia had moved on” (243). This

The coffeehouse became a very popular business and brought in more customers than before the epidemic. Although the fever had taken many important things from Mattie’s family, it ended up creating a very positive situation for the Cooks. Laurie Halse Anderson uses character development and figurative language in Fever 1793 to create the prevailing theme that good things always come out of the bad. In the end, the novel shows the reader that being optimistic can make any kind of negative issue into something