63 pages • 2 hours read
Lucy Maud MontgomeryAnne Of Green Gables
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1908A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Transformative Potential of Love and Friendship
It is human nature for people to get stuck in their ways and avoid mentioning the word “change.” However, if the right person comes along, it is possible to break someone out of their staid existence to change for the better.
Matthew begins to break from his shy shell when he meets Anne—he cannot help it. He is captivated by the “freckled witch” (18) and her constant chatter. It doesn’t take very long before he cannot bear the thought of losing her. For 60 years, Avonlea people know Matthew as a silent man who never leaves Green Gables, but Anne’s exuberance for life bleeds into his personality. Though he is never very outgoing, he loves her enough to overcome his debilitating shyness and enter a store to shop for a dress with puffed sleeves, marking a monumental shift in Matthew’s character. Likewise, upon meeting Marilla, Anne’s flair for the dramatic prompts a smile “rather rusty from long disuse” (29). There is a love for the humorous deep within Marilla, but it takes the arrival of Anne to turn these two siblings into full, round characters.
As Mrs. Rachel attests, the Cuthbert siblings have lived for decades in relative isolation from the rest of the world. Neither married nor brought anyone into the home that they share. Anne’s sudden entry creates havoc initially, as they are unaccustomed to her incessant jabbering and flights of fancy, but she quickly fills holes in the siblings’ lives that they never knew existed. After two weeks, Marilla remarks that “the house seems a different place already” (75). A mere week later, Marilla “can’t imagine the place without her” (107). These thoughts, most of which are not shared with Anne directly, highlight the subtle changes Anne has made in the home just from being there. Though she aggravates Marilla with her imagination and carelessness, Marilla grows familiar with Anne and cannot live without her. By the end of the novel, Marilla’s step is lighter because of a “deep, primal gladness” (255). Her laughter comes quickly and easily, and she can partake in the physical and vocal shows of love.
Likewise, the care from both Matthew and Marilla proves to Anne that she is worthy of love. After her difficult childhood, the only thought that repeats itself in Anne’s mind is that she is not good enough. Nobody has ever wanted her, and nobody has ever believed in her. Though her dream world keeps her hopeful and happy, she makes many comments whose underlying meaning stems from deep feelings of inadequacy. It is why she hates her appearance—if she were a beautiful little girl, people would have wanted to adopt her. After a few years with the Cuthberts, Anne can shrug off her insecurities and be confident in who she is, marking a distinct change from the waif at the novel's beginning.
Adoptive Parent/Child Relationships
Many children can relate to Anne’s story: the status of being an orphan who has lost both parents and remains open to finding love from a different set of adults. Often, people think that adopted children are not as loved as their biological counterparts. Nothing could be further from the truth: the bonds between adopted parents and their children are just as strong as the bonds between parents and their natural-born children.
Anne’s entry to Green Gables does not begin under the premise of adopting a child to raise as one’s own. Instead, the intent is to adopt a child to help Matthew at the farm. In this manner, the Cuthbert adoption is like the Thomases or the Hammonds—the two families who adopt Anne merely to use her as a babysitter. She is never once adopted as someone to love, and this feeling of being unwanted follows Anne for the rest of the novel, even if the feeling wears down a bit the longer she stays at Green Gables. However, her obvious need for caring adult figures triggers Marilla and Matthew’s parental instincts. Though neither one of them ever came close to having children, they recognize in Anne’s eyes a very real human desire: to be loved. Turning her away when the mistake was discovered would be akin to turning away a starving puppy at the door. It is not what good Christian folks do, and Marilla Cuthbert is the epitome of good Christian folks.
Still, Marilla fears that she will “make a terrible mess of” (56) raising a child. However, the pangs of maternal love pull at her, showing that Anne can bridge those barriers between family and strangers to become someone extremely important in the Cuthberts’ life. She serves as the perfect friend to Matthew and the perfect companion to Marilla after his death. Blood may be thicker than water, but love conquers all. After a few years together, their loving terms for her, including “our Anne” and “my girl,” prove that she has become the equivalent of a daughter to them, even if the formal terms of “daughter,” “mother,” or “father” are never used. When Matthew dies, Marilla refers to Anne as her “own flesh and blood” (356), signifying the full recognition of Anne as Marilla’s family. Anne, Marilla, and Matthew may have followed a different path to the adopted parent/child relationship, but the result is still the same.
Using Imagination to Overcome Hardships
One of the more realistic elements of this fiction novel is Anne’s creation of a new world built from her imagination to deal with her childhood trauma. The most vivid images of the book come from the depths of Anne’s mind, and while it may drive Marilla crazy at times, Anne proves that a vivid imagination is enough to bring a child through harsh realities into a better place.
Anne’s imagination carries her through the horror of the orphanage and her time spent with the Thomases and the Hammonds. When she tells Marilla her life history, it is clear that her imagination allowed her to escape the brutal life she lived as an unglorified maid, serving families because she did not have one of her own. The subliminal truths she reveals in conversation about the orphanage and the immense hardships she went through—the horrid dresses, the hard work, the lack of support of any kind—are covered up by tales of her glorious dreams she found by observing the natural world. It takes an astute observer, like Marilla, to read between the lines and discern the truth.
All of Anne’s things in the world fit into one carpetbag: she has nothing. Instead, everything she sees becomes part of the world of her own making: the trivial and mundane take on new beauty and meaning (Lake of Shining Waters, White Way of Delight) as she shapes the world that she chooses for herself. Anne prefers to tell Marilla about the life she has imagined for herself, as the truth is too hard to bear. It is a story that no one wants to hear, not even herself. That’s why she makes up new, dramatic names for herself: she views herself as homely and unlovable, but “Cordelia” sounds like a girl any person would love. If she had raven black hair instead of red hair and freckles, she might have been adopted by a loving family. She even imagines two friends—Katie Maurice and Violetta—as a refuge for her thoughts since there is no one else in her life. However, when she becomes part of Green Gables, the desire to be someone else shifts—suddenly, she is okay with who she is because the hardships are over.
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By Lucy Maud Montgomery
