The Novel “ANNE OF GREEN GABLES”
is a Canadian literature written by LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY of Prince
Edward Island. The novel was first published in the year 1908 so that it makes
it about a hundred years old. It is a part of a series of novels concerning
the same red-headed, talkative orphan ANNE SHIRLEY who comes to live at
green gables completely by accident and is adopted into the community of
Avonlea, Prince Edward island. It is currently considered a children’s novel
however when it was published it was sort of a novel to be read by all groups
of different people and I personally believe that everyone can enjoy it even
if we are not a child. It falls into that group of children’s books which
aren’t really geared strictly towards children or a little bit too verbose for
most children to enjoy reading. It’s kind of like a window into the time
period, the late Victorian sort of Era and the kind of life that was going on
in real old Canada, so it’s interesting.
The novel begins with MARILLA CUTHBERT and MATTHEW CUTHBERT
who were siblings that own a farm. Neither of them was married and Matthew was
getting a bit older. So, the two of them decide to adopt an orphan boy from an
orphanage in NOVA SCOTIA. There comes a mix up as things often get
mixed up in all novels. Matthew is sent to the train station to fetch this
little boy but when he gets there, he saw no boy but Anne Shirley. Matthew is
a very shy and quiet man. He’s a man of few words. So instead of clearing up
the mix up, Matthew takes Anne home. On the way Anne has a lovely conversation
with Matthew. He is definitely quite fond of her by the time they got home.
Marilla is quite upset about the orphan girl and has full intensions of
getting rid of Anne. Along the way her mind is changed and Anne comes to stay at
the Cuthbert’s farm. This book takes us on all of Anne’s adventures.
Anne is such
a lovely protagonist. She is bright, loyal and romantic. She is prompt to
daydreaming and making up stories that can distract her and get her into
trouble. She is a very talkative red-headed and she really won’t put a lock to
her mouth. And quite honestly Anne Shirley talks through most of the book. A
lot of content of the novel consists of Anne Shirley’s dialogues.
As charming as it is, at times I
felt myself going, ’Oh my God! Anne! Just be quiet!’ .She manages to burn her
away into their hearts through her lovely charm. She ingratiates herself into
the Avonlea community. She goes to school, makes friends. She also encounters
an intellectual rival, GILBERT BLYTHE but eventually they both fall in
love and get married (Discussed in the novel, ANNE HOUSE OF DREAMS).It’s
so funny to see Gilbert Blythe getting a crush on Anne and shouts ‘Carrots’,
holding her braid just to get her attention.
This novel
basically chronicles her journey from the years from when she’s about eleven
to when she’s about sixteen. It covers everything about Marilla Cuthbert who
is a severe, cold woman learning how to accept the orphan girl into her life.
This is a slice of life book. It’s episodic. It contains several humorous
incidents in Anne Shirley’s life. There certainly are carrying conflicts of
her and Gilbert fighting each other for grades and her hatred of him comes up
so many times in this book.
Each chapter is kind of an
isolated incident. For instance in one of the chapters Anne bakes a cake
because the minister’s wife was coming for tea. But it ends in a funny manner.
So, it is not a longer carrying story. It’s not about any particular event in
her life. This novel has very subtle hints of romantic relationships but
doesn’t actually get into any hard core romance. It doesn’t really focus on
anything aside from Anne growing up becoming a young woman. Personally I feel
that it contains purple prose which is a bit annoying. Because she describes
the scenery a lot, which sounds good. It’s supposed to evoke the Prince Edward
Island atmosphere but she does laps into her purple prose. It’s kind of
meaningless or so overwhelming that they turn to some babble points. That’s
one minor criticism and Anne’s character also gets a bit annoying at times.
It’s a very charming piece
of Period Literature. It gives us a window into history and it tells us a lot
about contemporary life. Gilbert Blythe was desperate and clingy but he was
entertaining in his way. And I quite like the development of Marilla Cuthbert’s
character because it’s her journey towards accepting her deep feelings for the
orphan girl and realizing that Anne is what she needed in her life.
Anne Shirley is utterly fantastic and made me wish I was as awesome and
imaginative as her when I was a child. I adored her imaginative, romantic
exaggerations, which made me smile to myself and her ability to see beauty in
everything which is rather fluffy but lovely. Anne says that, ‘She’d be rather
pretty than clever’ but the irony is that she is one of the smartest children
at her school. I think that Anne books’ philosophy of broad inclusiveness offers
not only a way of thinking about the world, but also a way of thinking of
reading. Anne was my portal to the capacity within me to make the mundane
world magical.
This novel is considered a
classic worldwide and Japanese cartoon has been made about it and that’s how I
came to know about this amusing novel. It is really an interesting piece of
Canadian literature. And also an interesting fact is that Lucy Maud Montgomery
is the only Canadian woman to write a novel about World War 1 while it was
actually happening. It’s about Anne’s youngest daughter living during World
War 1. The book does go on and become a series of novels. This novel is sort
of a plot less book. But it has few plot points. It’s not about her trying to
achieve one specific thing but rather achieve a number of things and overcome
a number of challenges.
“Do you know,’ said Anne confidentially,
‘I’ve made up my mind to enjoy this drive. It’s been my experience that you can
nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will”
Though Anne
is emotionally vulnerable she had the inner strength to face the world with the
positive attitude and tried to cherish the happiness in little things though
sometimes her life pulled her down. But at the end of the day she stood tall.
‘Why
must people kneel down to pray?’ 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—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that
looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just FEEL a prayer
In the above
lines, we find Anne admiring the raw beauty of nature taking dive into God’s
grandeur. She embraces the presence of God richly packed in his creation which
leaves her in a world of fantasy.
And the funniest thing which made me laugh was her
prayer! I feel that she was so frank, childish and innocent and so she uttered
those words.
‘Gracious heavenly Father,
I thank Thee for the White Way of
Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters and Bonny and the Snow Queen. I’m really
extremely grateful for them. And that’s all the blessings I can think of just
now to thank Thee for. As for the things I want, they’re so numerous that it
would take a great deal of time to name them all so I will only mention the two
most important. Please let me stay at Green Gables; and please let me be
good-looking when I grow up.
I
remain,
‘Yours respectfully,
Anne Shirley.
Anne is really a funny,
interesting child. It’s sweet. It’s amusing. It’s well-written which made the
audience of the first book to ask Lucy to write many novels about Anne. But the
thing which impresses me a lot about this novel is Anne’s imaginative power and
her happiness in admiring the nature which adds beauty to this novel.
Irene Shilpa. S
