88 pages • 2 hours read
Fever 1793
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Symbols & Motifs
Yellow
The color yellow is first connected with Blanchard’s hot-air balloon, which Matilda describes as “a yellow silk bubble escaping the earth” (4). This balloon is the color of the bright, life-giving sun as it represents Matilda’s hope to “slip free” (4) of the constraints in her life.
Once yellow fever overtakes Philadelphia, the color yellow becomes a negative symbol of disease and death. A yellow tinge to a sick person’s eyes means they’ve caught the deadly fever, as Matilda discovers when she sees her mother’s “cornflower blue eyes poisoned with streaks of yellow and red” (67). Yellow rags tied to doorways—“pus yellow, fear yellow” (118)—warn citizens away from buildings where the pestilence has invaded. The association of yellow with fear is particularly significant, as people choose to save themselves instead of helping their neighbors.
Once the fever dies with the frost, the color yellow is once again a positive symbol of hope. Recalling Blanchard’s balloon from the novel’s opening, Matilda watches “the yellow sun r[ise], a giant balloon filled with prayers and hopes and promise” (243). Like the sun itself, yellow becomes a symbol of new life and hope for Matilda and the people she loves.
Blanchard’s Hot-Air Balloon
Blanchard’s yellow, hot-air balloon is mentioned briefly at the beginning of the novel—when Matilda recalls watching the balloon “slip free of the ropes that held” it (4-5)—but the image serves as a powerful symbol of Matilda’s desire for freedom. Fittingly, both the real balloon and the one in the novel were launched from the grounds of a prison. While Matilda may not be in jail, she does feel imprisoned by her daily chores, her mother’s orders, and the expectation to marry. The balloon represents her desire to rise above these limitations.
At the end of the book, Anderson neatly intertwines the symbolism of the color yellow and the hot-air balloon. Describing the sun rising like “a giant balloon” (243) of new possibilities, Matilda overcomes the challenges of the fever and is beginning to achieve the freedom she dreamed of when the novel began.
The Cook Family Garden
The Cook family’s garden, a source of necessary sustenance for the family and their business, undergoes a transformation that parallels the yellow fever’s path of destruction. In the beginning, the garden is struggling under the August heat and drought, but the plants are alive and “crying for help” (11). Though Matilda also suffers in the heat, she provides the garden with the water it needs. The situation grows dire when the yellow fever forces people to abandon their usual activities. Matilda flees to the countryside and returns significantly changed after witnessing death and suffering, and fighting off her own battle with yellow fever. She finds the garden in a similarly altered state: It appears “dead” with just “skeletons of stems and branches” left of her precious vegetables, prompting Matilda to think that all the “backbreaking work” she did on the garden was “for nothing” (127). However, Matilda still weeds and waters the dying plants—she remains hopeful.
The garden imagery reappears at a climactic moment near the end of the novel when Matilda comes close to losing hope. Exhausted from caring for Nell and Eliza’s nephews, all of whom are ill with the fever, Matilda looks at the “rotted, wormy vegetables s[u]nk into the cracks of the parched soil” (207), and she lies down and sleeps in the garden. Ironically, an event that signifies the end of the garden’s growth for the season—the arrival of frost—renews Matilda’s hope, as frost also brings an end to the fever. Though the novel ends in December when the garden has not yet had a chance to regrow, Matilda, her family, and her city are already well on their way to recovery. Readers are left assured that in the coming years, the Cooks’ garden will also thrive again.
The Military
Matilda’s grandfather, a captain in the Revolutionary War, was “happiest when serving under General Washington” (19). He centers his identity around his military achievements and passes down his military outlook to Matilda. Because Grandfather always “tried to instill some military training” (19) in Matilda, she views life in terms of war and combat. She thinks that “life [is] a battle, and Mother a tired and bitter captain” (17).
Once the yellow fever enters Matilda’s life, she and Grandfather use their military perspective to deal with the challenges of the epidemic. Grandfather says he will “‘escort’” Matilda “‘beyond the lines of the dread and terrible enemy, Yellow Fever’” (77). When Grandfather falls ill, he tells Matilda they must “‘form our battle plans’” (87) and encourages his granddaughter to take the lead, calling her “‘Captain’” (87). Once they return to Philadelphia, Grandfather salutes to “‘General Mattie’” (127), as Matilda urges him to rest after their “‘battle’” (126).
Grandfather does not survive his battle with the epidemic, as he dies after being attacked by thieves. In his dying words, Grandfather assures Matilda she’s a “‘fighter’” (146). The novel’s motif of fighting and battle has significance beyond the “‘terrible enemy, Yellow Fever’” (77); it influences Matilda’s coming of age as a whole. Like the new country for which Grandfather fought, Matilda stands up for herself and her independence; she is, as Grandfather says, a true “Daughter of Liberty” (12).
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By Laurie Halse Anderson
