READING AND REFLECTING ON A TEXT (EDU 04 SEM 1)

  

 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

“Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing”

    Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success. Anne Shirley, an orphaned girl, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. The first novel was followed by a series of sequels with Anne as the central character. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Most of the novels were set in Prince Edward Island, and locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site – namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park.

    Between 1909 and 1939, Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote seven books about an imaginative, talkative, high-spirited heroine named Anne Shirley. A pair of adult siblings named Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who lead a very quiet life on a farm called Green Gables, decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage. And they're not doing it out of the goodness of their heart or any real desire to parent a child—they just want someone who can help Matthew with farm chores, since he's getting older.

    The Cuthberts asks a woman who is already traveling to the orphanage to pick up a boy for them, to get them a boy of 11 years of age. But the message gets lost in translation, and the woman leaves a girl to meet Matthew at the train station, named Anne—spelled with a very important "e," she likes to point out—Shirley, a redheaded eleven-year-old who is passionate about words, poetry, and beauty. Matthew is thrown off guard by the sweet, talkative, big-eyed girl and can’t bear to disappoint her, so he brings her back to Green Gables, where he and Marilla learn that her name is Anne. Anne is heartbroken that the Cuthberts might not keep her, but after hearing about Anne’s lonely, orphaned childhood, Marilla comes around to Matthew’s opinion—Anne might not be the “useful” boy they’d wanted to work on the farm, but she needs the Cuthberts’ compassion. Anne is overjoyed to be allowed to stay.

    Anne is a delightful companion for the imagination of any child. When we first meet Anne, she is a tiny, thin, pale orphan with bright red hair in braids. She’s sweet-natured, cheerful, vivacious, but she’s downright chatty. Anne has an eye for beauty and vibrant inner life full of quirky imaginings. But she’s had a rough first eleven years or so. Bounced from one foster family to another, each of whom treated her as hired help, she, at last, landed in a bleak, city orphanage in her native Nova Scotia. While Matthew gives Anne a ride to Green Gables for the first time, Anne says she's never had a real home all her life. Anne lived with multiple caregivers from birth through age eleven, and she was often treated more as a servant than as a daughter.

    For Marilla, keeping Anne with them is hard. She's a sober soul, set in her ways, and knows nothing about raising children—especially an unusual little being like Anne. Anne is full of odd fancies; she talks constantly; she's had no religious training. When she disagrees with Marilla, she speaks up for herself—politely, but determinedly, however, she is also capable of flying into rages.

    But Anne's spirit and imagination win people over in the end. Her best friend and "kindred spirit," Diana Barry, lives next door. They're inseparable until the day Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk and her mother forbids the girls to speak to each other. (Mrs. Barry later changes her mind when Anne saves the life of Diana's little sister).

    Anne and Diana get into amusing scrapes with their school friends, and Anne's always in the middle of the action. Accepting a dare, she tries to walk the ridgepole of Diana's house and ends up breaking her ankle.

    Intending to dye her hair "raven black," she turns it green and must have it all clipped off. When the schoolmaster makes Anne sit with Gilbert Blythe as a punishment, Anne removes everything from her desk and refuses to return to school. Shy Matthew is sweet and supportive from the beginning; it takes Marilla longer, but gradually she comes to love Anne as a daughter.

    As Anne grew up, she becomes more serene and less talkative. Her hair darkens to reddish-brown, and her freckles vanish. Along with Gilbert and a handful of other classmates, Anne is chosen to study for the entrance examinations to teachers' college. Anne and Gilbert share the top score on the exam, and both win the highest honors possible. Anne's fanciful language becomes more subdued as she matures.

    Anne graduates from teachers' college and returns to Green Gables with a full four-year university scholarship to Redmond. But shortly after her graduation, Matthew suffers a fatal heart attack on hearing the family bank collapsed where the Cuthberts kept their entire savings. Close behind these shocks comes the dreadful news that Marilla may become blind within six months.

    Anne’s life changed forever, coming to Green Gables. Now she thinks, she can return the favor. Anne decides not to take the Redmond scholarship after all. Instead, she'll stay home, teach school, and help Marilla. And she'll design her own college course so she can keep learning.

    Gilbert Blythe was hired to teach at Avonlea School, but he kindly takes a job farther away so that Anne can teach close to home. Anne gathered the courage to thank him, and the two decide to end their five-year strife. "We were born to be good friends," exults Gilbert. The novel ends that night, as Anne gazes out of her window at the landscape. Her path to the future may have narrowed, but it will be planted with "flowers of quiet happiness." And there's always a bend in the road. She thinks, perhaps one day the dreams she's put aside will come true.

    A story of a little orphan girl-Anne with an 'e' of course, how a family adopted her, a fully talkative girl, initially so much affected from her past but still never lose hope for her future, and her imagination was out of the world ( and sometimes very extreme imagination) but the point is she knew how to learn things, she always wanted to understand all the things that her favorite people used to tell her and due to which she never made a mistake twice as she used to say it to Marilla and most of the above how slowly and slowly she became the girl that made her family proud. Every little things of the process of her growth is just amazing and beautifully written.

    When Anne reaches Green Gables, she tells Matthew, "As soon as I saw it I felt it was home" (p. 29). This foreshadows that the Cuthberts will let Anne stay with them even though they were expecting a male orphan to help on their farm. Over the course of her life, Anne came to feel that Green Gables and Avonlea are truly her home. At the end of the novel, Anne even gives up the educational opportunity she worked so hard to achieve in order to keep her home of Green Gables from being sold.

    Anne of Green Gables traverses the ups and downs of an orphans live, until the real world that's Green Gables in Avonlea, where fate has finally given her new loving parent's, a new life, and all the challenges therein.

    Anne's imaginations and the writer's spectacular descriptions of nature fascinated me. It is the mind of a girl who seems rather odd and stands out from the other children. But it's because she stands out, that she is destined for greater things. And she knows she doesn't have to do great things to prove it to herself or others. She knows what it means to do great things by giving her best to what she loves best!

    Anne’s imagination fuels her adventures and troubles her throughout her childhood. This allows her to succeed in many situations, though it also causes her problems. An example of how Anne uses imagination as a positive coping mechanism is that Anne created imaginary friends to talk to when she was growing up. Anne was forced to work rather than attending school or playing with other children, so these imaginary friends gave her a sense of normalcy and friendship.

    Education is an integral part of Anne's childhood. Anne does not receive much education until she arrives at Green Gables, but she had interests in literature, nature, and philosophy. Once Anne begins attending school, her first teacher uses harsh discipline on her, so she responds by quitting school and continuing her studies independently. Her next teacher, Miss Stacy, becomes one of her role models and motivates Anne to attend Queen's Academy and become a teacher. Anne also uses her educational attainment to make Marilla and Matthew, proud of her. Anne sees education as a way to show other people what she is capable of. She studies extremely hard to try to beat Gilbert Blythe throughout her time at the Avonlea school and Queen's.

    Throughout Anne of Green Gables, Anne is fascinated and awed by nature. Anne tells Marilla on her second night in Green Gables, "If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky... then I'd just FEEL a prayer" (p. 66). Anne shows that even though she has not had a religious upbringing, nature makes her feel peaceful and grateful. Nature also inspires Anne's imagination. Anne enjoys giving beautiful names to elements of nature like "the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters".

    Marilla Cuthbert is Anne’s adoptive mother and Matthew Cuthbert’s sister. She is strict and often comes off as cold and stern, but she cares deeply for Anne. She is religious and practical; she takes Anne in, seeing it as her duty to care for her and teach her about God. Marilla did not have an easy childhood and did not know much affection, so she finds it difficult to translate her feelings for Anne into words or tender actions. But, she cares for Anne and ensuring that her material needs are met. Anne loves Marilla, but she does not realize how deeply Marilla cares for her until towards the end of the novel, especially after Matthew's death.

    Diana Barry is Anne’s best friend (a "bosom friend," as Anne says). She is described as kind and pretty, but she lacks Anne’s fiery personality and wild imagination. She is fiercely loyal to Anne, however, and the bond between the two becomes tighter than ever as the plot advances. Friendship with Anne opens up a new world for Diana and she learns to appreciate Anne's romantic fancies in her own way.

    Gilbert Blythe is Anne’s classmate who teases her about her red hair (because he wanted to talk to her), provoking her into hitting him with a slate. The two develop a rivalry that lasts several years, along with a one-sided crush from Gilbert; they end up on better terms after entering Queen’s Academy. They develop into close friends and later into lovers.

    However, among the other characters, Mathew’s was heartfelt. He loves Anne dearly and believes in her completely, even going so far as to have a dress made for her in a style she would like. He is a kind man with deep feelings that have remained inside him for most of his life.

    "Dear old world," she murmured, "you are very lovely and I am glad to be alive in you." This quote accurately depicts how Anne lives her life and what makes one love her as a character. She's stubborn and makes mistakes, but she also has a huge imagination and sees the world as beautiful and full of possibilities.

    Once I read this book I can’t help but fall in love with Anne. She is the friend I have always longed for, the daughter, I think, that will bring that much-needed light in my life, that student that any teacher would be proud to instruct. She is funny, imaginative, bright, and a regular chatterbox. She laments about her red hair, apologizes for being a ‘great trial’ to Marilla, and always manages to see the positive in most everything.

    The events do occur on an idyllic island, so I felt the beautiful scenery I was immersed in was wholly believable. Anne is not a perfect little girl and each character has their share of flaws. Not every story has to be full of doom and gloom to get 100 out of 100 marks. Sometimes one just needs to sit back, relax, and just surrender to the small pleasures in life. We could all use a lesson from Anne’s book of optimism here and there!

    Anne taught me that love can exist in the strangest of places, and I think I loved her in the same way her shy stepfather Matthew did. She taught me that one can be wrong and still get it right. Lucy Maud Montgomery taught me the power of storytelling to change the hearts of pupils who loves reading and lives in the world of fiction. And therefore, I recommend this cute, lovely, my personal favourite story which is very soothing, relatable and inspiring.