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Chapter 3
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
That afternoon, the coffeehouse is filled with lively customers. Mother won’t meet Mattie’s eye as Mattie circulates with a tray of gingerbread. Grandfather calls Mattie over. He’s sitting beneath the cage of King George, his scraggly green parrot. Mattie’s grandfather, Captain William Farnsworth Cook, is a veteran of the War for Independence, a lifelong army officer who served under General Washington. He has tried to give Mattie some military training as well, but he “always sweetened it with candy.”
Things are still tense between Mother and Mattie. Meanwhile, Mattie’s colorful, devoted grandfather is introduced. His love for Mattie is evident in his effort to pass on his soldiering knowledge to her, an unconventional heirloom that shows he’s always been concerned about her long-term survival.
Themes
Grandfather sits with two government officials, a lawyer and an exporter, Mr. Carris. Mattie blushes indignantly when old Mr. Carris calls her “little Mattie,” and the men joke about finding her a husband. The conversation shifts to the “noxious fumes” in the waterfront district. Mattie resists tears as she wonders if that’s what killed Polly. Another customer weighs in, arguing that the Santo Domingan refugees near the wharf are spreading the fever. A doctor disagrees, saying that a well-known citizen has just died of yellow fever. The words “yellow fever” silence the whole crowd.
Mattie chafes under the men’s view of her as “little” and their expectations about her future marriage; she wants to prove herself and determine her own path. When discussion turns to the fever, some people scapegoat strangers for introducing the sickness to Philadelphia—a common human tendency in disaster. All are fearful of what yellow fever portends—it’s a deadly viral disease whose causes weren’t understood at the time, and which still has no direct cure.
Themes
Someone objects to this scaremongering, but the doctor points out that some people are beginning to send their families to the country, “to healthful air.” Grandfather changes the subject to politics, and everyone begins arguing about Thomas Jefferson. Mattie returns to serving and cleaning and later helps figure out the accounts, a task Mother entrusts to her. Soon she’s exhausted, marveling at all the work Polly did each day.
Grandfather seems to question the seriousness of the outbreak, or at least wishes to avoid the discussion. Mattie is too busy with the coffeehouse tasks to worry much. Even though Mother often scolds Mattie, the fact that she entrusts the finances to Mattie shows that she thinks quite highly of Mattie’s abilities.
Themes
