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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fever 1793, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Independence
Mothers, Daughters, and Familial Love
Disaster and Human Nature
Ingenuity, Ambition, and Survival
Summary
Analysis
Over the next week, Nathaniel calls frequently, and their walks take him and Mattie farther and farther afield. Meanwhile, hundreds of people return to Philadelphia. Mattie wishes she could tell the well-fed returnees “to hush. It felt like they were dancing on a grave,” compared to the gaunt, pale survivors. Eliza tells Mattie not to be bitter, but Mattie finds it hard.
Even as things return to normal, Mattie and the other fever survivors can’t easily forget the crisis or its lasting effects. By contrast, those who escaped the epidemic aren’t burdened by such memories, and Mattie is rankled by their carefree attitudes.
Themes
Eliza suggests giving a small thanksgiving feast with Joseph and the twins. Mother Smith and Nathaniel come, too. Even Mother Smith admires Mattie’s feast. Later, Joseph asks Mattie if she has decided on a price for the coffeehouse. He takes for granted that Mattie will need the dowry money, and that Eliza must find a new job. Listening to Joseph, Eliza, and Nathaniel argue about her prospects, Mattie decides this won’t do—“it was just like listening to Mother and Grandfather making the decisions while I stood to the side.”
This gathering of survivors has a family atmosphere. Like Lucille welcoming her father-in-law and Eliza into the household, Mattie, too, has a knack for gathering fellow survivors around her, showing she’s watched and learned a lot from her mother. However, just like her relatives, Mattie’s new family members think they know what’s best for her, and she’s been through too much to submit to that.
Themes
“I’m not selling,” Mattie announces loudly. Everyone falls silent. Mattie explains that she’s reopening the coffeehouse tomorrow, and that she’s taking on a partner—someone whom she can trust and who can keep her on the right path. She tells Eliza she wants her to be that partner. Eliza tells Mattie that she doesn’t have the money to buy a partnership from her. Mattie explains that she doesn’t want Eliza’s money; she wants to share the business with her. This way, the twins and Nell can stay at the coffeehouse as well.
Mattie finally announces the plan she’d hatched earlier but had kept to herself during the height of the crisis: to re-launch the coffeehouse in such a way that Eliza, her family, and Nell can be supported, too. This shows Mattie’s precocious but hard-won independence, as well as the business sense she’s inherited from her mother. Mattie still has her coffeehouse dreams, but she’s now channeled them toward sustaining the family business and benefiting others, not just herself.
Themes
When Eliza is hesitant, Mother Smith finally bangs her cane on the floor and insists that Eliza will take the partnership. She and Joseph encourage them to have the partnership written up legally so that people won’t talk. Eliza looks around the table and finally accepts. She and Mattie hug.
Mother Smith and Joseph are concerned that everything be legally transparent so that people can’t make racially motivated criticisms of Eliza’s new position. For Mattie, sharing the business with Eliza is just a confirmation of the special position Eliza holds in her life.
Themes
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There’s a knock at the door. A messenger has brought a sack of coffee beans for “the proprietor of Cook’s.” Mattie smooths her skirt and formally accepts the sample beans. When she gets back, Nathaniel teasingly imitates her. Mattie points out that she’d better act the part of a business owner, but she can’t help laughing.
Mattie is not yet 15 years old, and for all her newfound maturity, being the proprietor of a coffeehouse necessarily involves a certain amount of acting. Still, Mattie is good-natured about it, showing she’s come a long way from her indignation over being called “little Mattie.”
Themes
