Symbolism In Fever 1793

Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Fever 1793 is a story of great tragedy and triumph. Philadelphia didn’t know what hit them when the Yellow Fever arrived. The story is circled around a girl’s, Mattie Cook’s, struggle for survival. Throughout the story she witnesses awful tragedies, her grandfather’s death, and she has to make tough choices, like burying her grandfather. Mattie also triumphs when she tries to gather enough food and resources for herself and her grandfather. She narrates the story and she ends it with three words: “Day was begun”. This quote symbolizes her moving on from the Yellow Fever, and focusing on the rest of her life. She has a “giant balloon filled with prayers and hopes” which she didn’t want to go in vain. In the illustration