Characters

   I am now going to evaluate the characters in 'Fever, 1793' by Laurie Halse Anderson by comparing fact to fiction, based on 'The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, the Life Cycle of and Eighteenth Century Woman', which was written by Elizabeth Drinker.
   In the two sources, Mattie and Mrs. Drinker are completely different. Mattie lived a life filled with chores and runs to the market, while Mrs. Drinker lived some-what of a life of luxury, and when the fever hit, she had the 'luxury' of being able to flee. Mattie had no such chance, and when she DID get to leave with her grandfather when the fever first strikes, the two are disguarded later on by the other family they are traveling with. This truly makes it impossible to compare the two people, real and fake, in this instance. Also, in the novel 'Fever, 1793', none of the main characters - Mattie Cook, Mattie's mother, Mattie's grandfather, Elisha, Elisha's family, Nathaniel, etc. - are not real. Instead, they are all but pure elements of fiction, with their experiences and memories similar to that of real people who lived then. This obviously is a big difference between Mrs. Drinker's real accounts. She existed.
   However, her character was not without thought.  Like in Mrs. Drinker's story, both contained the spirit and attitude necessary to truly capture the essence of an early American woman. And in addition to that, despite the fact that Mattie was completely made up by the author, her name was a popular one in the 1700s, as were some of the others mentioned (even though 'Mattie' wasn't specifically mentioned there). In 'The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, the Life Cycle of and Eighteenth Century Woman', the names Mattie and Polly were mentioned quite a lot, though referring to many different people bearing this name. And of course, we cannot forget about the fact that both people suffered through this dreaded epidemic. If all that was not enough, both characters, real and fake, included mentions of the Washingtons (look slightly up and to the right for a picture of them) and the Revolutionary War in their novels. Mrs. Drinker describes the downsides of quartering and the inconveniences and terrible scares it caused, such as an armed drunk man trying to request stay in the Drinker home one night. The family had to lock the doors, secure all windows and other breakable things that could serve an entrance into their home, and hide away deep within the house. Mattie's grandfather talks often about the war, teaching her the 'things' a soldier must have in order to fight, and since the family is living in Philadelphia, the Washingtons are occasionally talked about; they are referred to as being noble and brave as well as being 'a few blocks down' and 'possible customers' at their coffeehouse before the fever. They are portrayed in both the historical fiction and account as being amazing people, and possibly the only real ones in 'Fever, 1793'.
   In conclusion, Anderson, despite making up all her characters and the fact that most of them have virtually nothing physically in common with Mrs. Drinker, has still found a way to dive around that and display characters that seem historically accurate and could have existed otherwise under the right conditions.