How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The house was silent for a moment, except for the sound of Matthew down the block still hammering away at his forge. Had anyone told him that Polly was gone? (4.26)
The serving girl Polly is the first casualty of the fever among Matilda's acquaintances. The pain of the loss, though, is still very much at a distance. Matilda can only imagine the effect on Polly's beau, Matthew. Suffering means something in the background.
Quote #2
Mother shivered so hard, her teeth rattled. Even with all the blankets in the house on her, she could not warm. She lay under the faded bedding like a rag doll losing its stuffing, her hair a wild collection of snakes on the pillow, her cornflower blue eyes poisoned with streaks of yellow and red. It hurt to look at her. (9.37)
Matilda's relationship to pain and suffering draws nearer, coming into the foreground. She witnesses first-hand the effects of the fever on her mother's body and relates the scene in the language of childhood nightmares: her mother looks like a "rag doll" come apart, like her hair is filled with snakes, her eyes are poisoned.
Quote #3
Wives were deserted by husbands, and children by parents. The chambers of diseases were deserted, and the sick left to die of negligence. None could be found to remove the lifeless bodies. Their remains, suffered to decay by piecemeal, filled the air with deadly exhalations, and added tenfold to the devastation. – Charles Brockden Brown, Arthur Mervyn; or Memoirs of the Year 1793 (15.epigraph)
Laurie Halse Anderson inserts short epigraphs before each chapter, and this one is taken from the novel Arthur Mervyn by Charles Brockden Brown. The inclusion suggests that the kind of suffering Matilda is witnessing is experienced not just by her, but by many. It is represented not just in this book, but in several. In the quote, we get a sense of the scale of the fever, the devastation becoming "tenfold."
Quote #4
I wandered up one street and down the next. The printer's words haunted me.
Thousands dead.
I saw Grandfather's empty eyes.
No food.
I saw Mother order me to leave her.
No hope.
I saw people weeping the doorways and did not stop. I heard the death carts rattling in the street and did not look up. (20.78-20.84)
The idea of an epidemic suggests to us that we should be thinking of suffering on both a personal level (like Matilda's loss of her grandfather) and on a large scale. As Matilda mentions, there are "thousands" dead. Can you imagine a thousand stories just like Matilda's? And why does Matilda find the situation so hopeless?
Quote #5
The sights and smells of Eliza's patients were no worse than Bush Hill, but I was not prepared for the heartache. Walking into the homes of strangers, sitting on their furniture, and drying the tears of their children was harder than cleaning up the sick. A dying woman in a cot surrounded by strangers was sorrowful, but a dying woman surrounded by her children, her handiwork, the home where she worked so hard, left me in tears. (24.1)
Again, Matilda is witnessing suffering, but notice that she has changed her role in the process. Matilda is no longer a victim. She's now an active aid in helping alleviate the suffering of others. Why is it important the Matilda be moved by what she sees? How is empathy (feeling others' emotions) an important value?
Quote #6
Caring for the children was harder than caring for any other patients we had visited. Just as Robert fell asleep, William would wake crying. As soon as he was made comfortable, enough to drift off, Robert would stiffen and jolt awake with a piercing scream. Nell didn't recognize me. She woke from terrible dreams and looked around the room blindly, crying for her mother.
Night melted into day. Day surrendered to night. (25.26-25.27)
Matilda again has taken on the role of caretaker and nurse, helping not only strangers, but the members of her extended family. Notice how she loses complete track of time as night and day become one and the same.
Quote #7
My eyes closed. It was never going to stop. We would suffer endlessly, with no time to rest, no time to sleep. (25.47)
Matilda's pain and suffering reaches its highest point here as she cares endlessly for the children. What is the extent of her sacrifice? How do others' suffering require our own sacrifice?
Quote #8
As word of the frost spread, hundreds of people swarmed into town. The returnees were all well-fed. They called to each other in annoying, bright voices. I wanted to tell them to hush. It felt like they were dancing on a grave with no thought to the suffering they had escaped. Those of us who had remained behind were gaunt and pale. People who were dosed with mercury spat frequently and covered their mouths to hide their blackened teeth.
Eliza reminded me not to be bitter, but it was hard. (27.2-27.3)
Matilda's experience with the fever is juxtaposed with the people who fled to the country. While they are well-fed and happy, she is gaunt, scarred, and forever changed by what she has experienced. Why is Matilda bitter? How would you feel if you had gone through the same ordeal?