Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, another Anne book to discuss! And we have so many left to go! This is just delightful for me, I hope we don’t run out of things to discuss.
Plot Summary:
Anne is the new teacher at the local one room schoolhouse, choosing to stay home and work and support Marilla instead of pursue her own ambitions. She and her young friends start an Avonlea Improvement Society to try to help the village. She devotes herself to her students, winning over Bad Boy Anthony Pye by giving in and whipping him one time, and immediately bewitching the poetic soul Paul Irving. She also encourages Marilla to adopt distant relations, orphan 6 year old twins Davy and Dora. And she helps bring together a late in life romance between Paul’s father and his old girlfriend Lavender Lewis. After 2 years of events and accomplishments, the widowed Rachel Lynde offers to move in with Marilla. This allows her to finally leave home and follow her dreams to college, along with her now close friend Gilbert.
The theme of the book is in the title, Anne is going from a childhood life restricted to her home, into a life in which she becomes part of the larger community of Avonlea. Which brings up all kinds of interesting things that will carry through the rest of the Anne books! As is only correct, this is Anne maturing into something close to her final self, so of course what she does in this book she will do again in all later books.
Anne is closer to children and older people, not those of her own generation. Why, do we think?
This book shows the slow distancing of Anne from Diana, as Diana increasingly enjoys spending time with the pleasant but dull Fred Wright. At the same time, Anne embraces the naughty Davy, the brilliant Paul, and the fanciful older Lavender Lewis. Also the grumpy new neighbor Mr. Harrison. Is this because that bond with your agemates is something from childhood more than adulthood? When becoming part of the larger community means you gravitate towards those who are similar to you despite age?
Or is it part of Anne’s character? That’s why in later books she bonds with another series of young people and older folks? Is it because of Matthew and Marilla? She was raised by an older couple and thus learned to enjoy and appreciate the different way older people see the world. And, on the other hand, as a lonely strange child she is always looking for other children who need someone to understand them?
Could Anne have been happy forever teaching?
Right from the start of the book, Anne is facing the future with optimism and confidence. At the end of the previous book, she gave up a scholarship and a dream of college, and dealt with grief. And now just a few months later she is dreaming about great success in her teaching career, and planning the improvement society. I think it is a lovely sign of her character that she just digs down and finds the way to be happy, something we saw all the way back when she decided to imagine her room into being pretty her first night at Green Gables. And then she is happy in this book, she accomplishes things with her society and gains the love of her students and finds challenges in her work and satisfaction in life.
But, in the end, she still wants to go to college. I think this is a transition book not just in the series but in Anne’s life as well. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t limit herself to just Avonlea. She craves more, more challenge, more growth, more accomplishment. Not a lot more, if she was that ambitious she wouldn’t be able to find any kind of happiness in Avonlea, but a little more. So I don’t think she could have been forever happy living with Marilla and teaching at the Avonlea school and helping to raise Davy and Dora. But I think she could have been forever happy getting her college degree, and then teaching at a slightly higher level in a home she builds for herself outside of her childhood home. In the end her life took her to marriage and motherhood, but I do think she had a real passion for teaching and satisfaction in it, more than she ever got from her attempts at writing as a career.
What would have happened if Gilbert had revealed his feelings sooner and more forcefully?
Anne and Gilbert are kind of an odd pair in this book because they act as equals, but really aren’t. That is, Gilbert is teaching to save money for college, he knows he will go to college and then medical school. But Anne is looking at life devoted to caring for Marilla, with no end in sight. At the same time, they ARE equals because they are equal in intelligence and, sort of, Spice. That’s what drew them together through out the last book, at first Gilbert was intrigued because Anne wasn’t like the other girls, and then they become cheerful rivals, each driven on by the other, knowing they were the only two on the same level. Now they are friends, both of them with greater vision and quickness than their other friends and age mates. If Gilbert had found the right moment, when Anne felt college was fully fully out of her grasp, if he had promised to care for Marilla as well, I think Anne might have been weak enough to give in. And I think once she let herself try to love him, she would have discovered she loved him along. What do you think? Would Anne always have rejected him until she had a clear sign of love, because that was her standard for herself? Or was there a situation when he could have pressed his advantage?
Do Davy and Dora work as characters, or do they feel more like “cousin Oliver”s?
For those of you who don’t know this shorthand, “cousin Oliver” was a character introduced late in the run of the sitcom The Brady Bunch. He was a transparent attempt to bring in a new cute character as the original children were getting too old. Now Anne is grown up, are Davy and Dora reasonable characters to introduce? Or is it a bit much to believe that Marilla would find herself raising two separate sets of orphans?
I’m gonna say “doesn’t quite work”. It’s fun seeing Anne deal with Davy and Dora, and it’s nice later on when Davy takes over the farm. But, really? The same woman who accidentally adopted an orphan girl is now the only relative available to take in two distantly related children?
My biggest problem is that the situation is handled with so little depth. Marilla and Anne’s relationship was drawn carefully, the slow reveal of the love between them. And here are these two children dumped into the household feeling a little more like temporary fosters than long term loves. The whole thing feels like a poorly thought out plot point to add in some cute kid stories.
Is the ending of the book too tidy, allowing Anne to go to college after all?
I’m gonna say, no! We’ve seen Marilla and Mrs. Lynde’s friendship through out the books, and two old woman keeping house together is a logical idea. Most of all, Marilla’s sensitivity to Anne’s needs would mean that she is going to keep looking for a way to free Anne until she finds it.
As for the money, if Gilbert could make enough to start college after 2 years of teaching, why not Anne?
Bonus Questions:
Does this book feel like a waste of time to you, or do you see the value in the gap year between growing up and college?
When I first read it, it DEFINITELY felt like a waste of time. We know Anne is going away to college, we know she is going to fall in love with Gilbert, what is this strange in between book where nothing happens?
But now I find myself really enjoying it! It’s well-written, it’s entertaining, and it does actually bridge the gap between childhood and young womanhood. Anne goes off to college, and to the flowering of her romance, in a fully formed way. The series would be weaker as a whole without this book, it’s not just a waste of time.
Which little boy do you like best, poetic Paul Irving, tough Anthony Pye, or naughty Davy?
I like Anthony best! He had PERSONALITY!!!! And I appreciate his stand offishness and resistance to being won over. Davy was fun too of course, but a little too young and unchallenging for me. And Paul, frankly, is a bore.
dontcallitbollywood 
I’ll be getting to your post again tomorrow morning when I have a bit more energy — but one Q before heading to bed! Have you met boys like Paul ever in real life? He feels like a completely imaginary “perfect” sensitive boy. I taught young kids (primary school ages) for about five years and I didn’t come across a single Paul in real life. Anthony and Davy — for sure!
LikeLike
Volunteered/taught over weekends **… Clarifying as it was a once/twice a week interaction vs 5/week
LikeLike
No! I haven’t! Even boys who are like that, that sort of imagination, mix it with poop jokes and jumping on tables and stuff. And no child is going to voluntarily talk about My Little Mother.
LikeLike
Anne is closer to children and older people, not those of her own generation. Why, do we think?
I feel it’s mostly because Anne was always slightly different to her peers in her approach to life. You see that she’s almost certain she’ll become an old maid so she completely embraces people who she can take care of rather than her peers. I also mentioned this in my other comment that Diane and Anne have very little in common rather than their happy childhood. I have not read beyond Anne of the Island but I always have felt that Anne had more stronger relationships with her friends in college than Diane which seems a bond more of loyalty.
Could Anne have been happy forever teaching?
I mostly agree with you that Anne would’ve been fine but she would also be sort of stuck and never really develop. I feel college really developed her as a person and made her more complete. It also changed her outlook in life. So if she stayed teaching I feel she would’ve become more regretful in her later life and also more bitter. So as a long term approach I’m happy Anne went to college.
What would have happened if Gilbert had revealed his feelings sooner and more forcefully?
I think they wouldn’t be together. Anne was not completely sure about their relationship in the third book itself so I think it was a good thing he revealed his feelings later. It would’ve been a right person, wrong time relationship instead of the slow but deep bond they had later on. Anne is also pretty headstrong so I don’t think she would’ve accepted those feelings unless she was 100% convinced she liked him too.
Do Davy and Dora work as characters, or do they feel more like “cousin Oliver”s?
Definitely ‘Cousin Olivers’ as I don’t remember them and they were very inconsequential to the story. I don’t know whether it was a publisher suggestion as it is too radical to have two women who are not taking care of someone as a focus of the book but I find their characters mostly useless. Plus I just felt that they came out of nowhere and also completely made the point of Marilla+Anne’s relationship blank.
Is the ending of the book too tidy, allowing Anne to go to college after all?
I don’t think so. The book is not meant to be a tragedy and it makes sense as most teachers of that era would only stay for a few years and then pass out. So Anne going to college is not that tidy of an ending and even though I don’t like the twins, I do feel that them being there allows Anne to leave Marilla alone as she doesn’t feel as burdened. Basically I’m a hypocrite with my views on the twins.
Does this book feel like a waste of time to you, or do you see the value in the gap year between growing up and college?
I think there is a value as it allows Anne to look at her community in a new light and I feel that’s important for her to know in her later life. Her being a working women rather than the weird kid on the block makes such a big difference. Also I love the Miss Lavender and Paul’s dad story, it was totally like a romance novel but i love the story. I also loved Anne’s relationship with her neighbour. It was definitely one of the weaker books but I still appreciate it for what it was.
Which little boy do you like best, poetic Paul Irving, tough Anthony Pye, or naughty Davy?
Poetic Paul Irving mainly because I view him as a catalyst for Miss Lavender’s story. Nothing else as he is the stuff of dreams as I have never seen a single person like him unlike Anne where I’ve met many such imaginative kids (not ones with terribly sad backstory’s) but still with a similar nature.
LikeLike
Since you haven’t read past Anne of the Island yet, I will tell you that Anne continues to struggle to find friends of her own age. Or I guess, just friends at all. She gets along with everyone but there are so few people she feels fully comfortable with, she has to take them as they come, old woman and young children and even a few old men. When she is settled as a wife and mother, she is respected by the larger community but only has one or two people she shares secrets with, and they tend to be either older or younger.
Would you agree that teaching seemed to make her happier and challenge her and just in general be a better fit than her stabs at writing? I could see her being happy teaching her whole life, but not locked up and writing seriously 8 hours a day.
It seems awfully unfair to poor Gilbert that he has to wait and wait and wait around for Anne. But I guess that’s his fault for being a man! If Anne were engaged, suddenly college and writing and all of that would have been a “waste”, she should have been home crocheting doilies like Diana. Gilbert could wait for Anne, or be engaged to Anne, and it had no effect on his ability to go to medical school or do anything else he wanted. Anne had a lot more to lose, it’s fair that she got a fully 4 years to think about it before committing.
Yeah, Davy and Dora are pretty silly additions. I would accept them better I think if they really were temporary, if that uncle who was supposed to take them actually HAD taken them. Then Marilla agreeing to take in two kids for a temporary period makes more sense, and we don’t have to find some deep relationship.
Oh oh! What about the twins being OPPOSITE!!! Like, after 2 years the twins are gone, Rachel Lynde is moving in, and Anne isn’t needed. While if the twins were still there, she would have been needed.
Oooo, I hadn’t thought about Anne as part of the community with a role in it! But that’s absolutely true, she gets to know the families as parents of her students, she interacts as an equal with the minister’s wife, and so on. It sends her off to college with a stronger sense of herself, and helps her prepare for her ultimate “career” as the “Doctor’s Wife” in a similar community.
There’s an almost identical little kid, but a girl this time, in Windy Poplar. And she works a lot better than Paul! Paul is just ridiculous.
LikeLike
I think I mis worded it, I’ve read only till Anne of the Island in the Anne series. So basically I’ve read Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island. I stopped after that.
Definitely agree with the writing bit, I feel like it’s not suited for her as she prefers work which require more physicality than just thinking 24/7.
I do think it’s unfair that Gilbert waits for so long however LMM does kind of veer into the female fantasy trope so I don’t really mind him waiting for a bit. There are too many novels of women doing the same thing so I don’t mind the male doing the same thing once in a while.
I agree with your alternate suggestion of those kids rather than what they were. It was just boring and felt like LMM was trying to replicate Anne coming in to the house in the first book.
Love the Rachel Lynde idea and I also love her character. She’s very realistic as the crabby aunt who you kind of hate but also don’t.
I think in general a girl makes more sense than a small boy. As Paul would’ve been ostracised by the boys in his school if he had such ‘feminine’ (this is obviously a nonsense idea but especially at that age there seems to be a lot of pressure on guys to not show any so called non-masculine ideals) ideals.
LikeLike
I love your earlier analysis in comment#1 on the Anne-Diane relationship
LikeLike
Oh also! Nice insight on Davy and Dora probably being a publisher’s suggestion!
LikeLike
Anne is closer to children and older people, not those of her own generation. Why, do we think?
Hmm, for this book, do you perhaps think it has to do with where she is? She’s not meeting any more people her age in Avonlea vs when she was a kid! When she goes off to college we see her forming deep bonds with those of her age again.
Could Anne have been happy forever teaching?
Yes, but she deserves college! It’s “her” time. And later on she becomes a principal and everything so yeah, clearly teaching is in her line. I wonder why she didn’t pursue it later in life…
What would have happened if Gilbert had revealed his feelings sooner and more forcefully?
I agree with Anon earlier! It would be a case of right person wrong time and we’d likely have seen Anne realize her feelings for him later in life … And maybe it’s too late by then if Gilbert has moved on.
When I first read Anne of GG, I didn’t realize the later books would be available where I lived … And I remember jumping with joy as I found them in the local bookstore — not all mind you, just the second and third. In fact, I remember in my holidays going to all the bookstores/libraries in my hometown with my granddad trying to find the sequels … And most of them had never heard of LMM. Finally one place, there was a young clerk and he went inside, rummaged and rummaged and came up with the fourth book!! So I knew by reading its blurb that Anne and Gilbert ends up together!! But I didn’t want to get it then without reading the middle two. Then back to where we lived, months/year later I found copies of the second and third at my local bookstore… And since they were a tad pricey, my mum said I could get only one. I immediately wanted the third! Because the blurb promised romance (some line about Gilbert etc — Margaret, you should be able to verify this! I don’t have my copies w me) 😀 … But mum insisted I take the second in the series, read them in order she said. And I, very grudgingly took the second. (For my
next birthday tho she got me the third book AND Daddy Long Legs, … And that hols, granddad got me the fourth book, and the fifth suddenly appeared in the library… so all was well that ends well!)
Do Davy and Dora work as characters, or do they feel more like “cousin Oliver”s?
Definitely cousin Oliver’s! I remember being both surprised and irritated that they suddenly appeared like that! It detracted from the Anne-Marilla relationship!
Does this book feel like a waste of time to you, or do you see the value in the gap year between growing up and college?
Although I wanted to read the third book instead of this, I found myself really enjoying it. Not as much as the first, but surprisingly even more than I liked the third on first read (on first read then I didn’t even like the Anne-Gilbert romance!). Maybe because Anne’s age in the second was closer to what I was going to become, and I enjoyed her journey as she takes her place in the community …
Which little boy do you like best, poetic Paul Irving, tough Anthony Pye, or naughty Davy?
Anthony! Any day. He reminded me of boys in my school and I liked how Anne won him over too.
LikeLike
Oooo! So that goes back to just these books accurately reflecting the life and times. When you live in a small community, you bond with all kinds of people. Mr. Harrison was Anne’s closest neighbor, and he had a good sense of humor and some interest in the world, and that was enough to form a friendship across gender and generation. And the same through all the books, as she moves into other small communities, she finds friendship where ever it can be found.
I suppose at the time a married woman teaching, especially a doctor’s wife with wealth and a position in the community, would have been unacceptable. But Anne certainly devoted herself to her children and the children around her. Again, would have been interesting to read a post-Rilla book, maybe see her in retirement volunteering with kids or something.
Oh man, we have all those other Montgomery books to show the right person/wrong time problem! Heck, duh, that’s the point of the Miss Lavender story in this! They were childhood sweethearts, always meant to be together, but young and fought and it all fell apart because they weren’t mature enough. Oh Montgomery, I see what you did there, giving us an example of “you think you want Anne and Gilbert together, but look, they would just fight and be proud and it wouldn’t work yet”.
You make me feel so spoiled! I first read the Anne books in my mother’s collection. When she was a girl, she got a fancy hardcover copy of the next book in the series for Christmas/birthdays for several years. So I just went over to the bookshelf at the end of the hall and grabbed them one by one. And DESTROYED them. Poor Mom. 30 years of mint condition for these books, and then in about a year and a half I ruined the dust jackets and folded over corners of pages and all kinds of things. You have all of them now, right? If you don’t, you know you can get them online for free?
I did have a bit of a similar issue of wanting to skip but not. I knew House of Dreams was the “first years of marriage” book and I REALLY wanted to read it right after Island. But I knew that would be Wrong, so I forced myself to crawl through Windy Poplars first. Only to find out years later that Windy Poplars was written out of order so Montgomery went from Island to House of Dreams just like I thought should happen.
(side note, if you have only read Daddy Long Legs, you MUST track down Dear Enemy! It’s Sally McBride’s romance)
In later years, I find this book the one that is most pleasant to escape into. It’s the same lowstakes safe pleasant world as the first book, Anne is still sheltered in a community that loves her, but with a little more agency and purpose. Island is, I think, the best book-as-a-book of the whole series. It has a cohesive narrative, a sense of place, a structure, all of that. And the Anne-Gilbert romance really WORKS. It makes sense for their characters and their relationship and the ending feels earned. But this book is just Nice.
Thank you for joining me an appreciating Anthony! A little boy with some BACKBONE.
LikeLike
Oh interesting that Anne could NOT have worked. That she had to essentially choose between working and marriage in those times, thanks for explaining, I didn’t get that!
Yes I have all the books now, except Rilla’s — which I’ve read only a couple of times and that too in college. You and I have clearly lived parallel book lives on opposite ends of the globe, because yes I have read Dear Enemy, and you’re like the only other person I know who has 😅. Did you know there’s actually a TV series on it? I tried finding it where I live many times but it is available only on some obscure Brit channel for those in the UK.
Keen for your analysis of Windy Poplars, I only read it because there was no other Anne to read and it makes sense that it came later! I wonder why she added it though…. Are any incidents from Windy Poplars referenced in the later novels? I can’t recall….
Ah you like the third best! I like the first best (ofcourse), and I’ve definitely reread the second more than the third… Even though I fully expected to like the third more! I only actually began liking the third properly after I was older, perhaps early twenties. On looking back I think the reason is because I fully went into it expecting for Anne also to like Gilbert (the second ends ambivalently right… That she’s moved by him to some extent), and for it to be a story about how two people who are mostly sure of their own feelings, and maybe a little unsure of the other’s, find themselves… Instead the first half of the third is really spent in Anne avoiding Gilbert when he tries to act beau-ish… And that REALLY Annoyed me. Oh heck Anne, he’s GREAT! Only after Gilbert’s illness do I get what I was hoping for the entire novel!
LikeLike
I know as recently as the 1930s and 1920s, a lot of school districts had rules that they wouldn’t hire married teachers, it was considered that strange. Also a class thing, if you were privileged enough to be trained as a teacher, then you were supposed to marry a nice man with a good job and run book clubs and do charity work and stuff. And Anne, as a Doctors Wife, was supposed to already have a full time job, being one of the leading women in her community. If she’d gone back to work in any capacity, I am sure she would have suffered for it socially, being blamed for not doing her “duty” of taking care of her husband and home. If she’d been married to a sailor or a laborer, she could have taken in washing or done some other sort of work, but not with the status she had.
Windy Poplar and Ingleside were both written later, I think simply because Montgomery needed money. Once I learned that, I realized Ingleside references Windy Poplar, but it is the only one that does. And Ingleside has lots of foreshadowing of things that happen in Rainbow Valley and Rilla, so clearly written after those two books.
I might also like Island best because I really like their household of girls!!!! They just have such fun together. And Phillipa Gordon is such an amazing character!!!! It also has Ruby Gillis’ end, which I think is lovely and, similar to Matthew’s death, is so sad because it is so every day and tragic.
On Tue, May 24, 2022 at 9:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Crap I can’t do this all on memory – I really need to read the book again. But I will say based on memory – I was always very annoyed that Anne didn’t love Gilbert as much as I did. And I KNEW they would end up together. Because it is a book after all, not stupid reality.
LikeLike
Yes! That’s why this one feels like treading water on first read. Why waste time with Anne fiddle faddling around when we know she is going to fall for Gilbert? Anyway, we’ve got Island next which is allllllllllllll romance allllllllllllllllll the time. And Genevieve, you have glasses now! You can reread the next book with us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Too true. I’ll have to order the books.
LikeLike
Yes! Or buy them off the shelf, it’s Anne books, they may already be in stock.
On Tue, May 24, 2022 at 3:28 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Small town – not the case. Although I did buy the abridged not so good version off the shelf.
LikeLike
I bought the set used, for $2 less than I would pay new (online) to make myself feel more ethical about not ordering it from my local bookstore, which would have been $15 – $30 more. But now I must wait until a bookstore in Salt Lake City feels like heading to the post office to mail it to me.
LikeLike
Well, when they arrive, you have to read until whatever book we are on that week and catch up to our discussion! And come back and comment too. I have High Expectations.
On Tue, May 24, 2022 at 3:53 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Genevieve, they’re all available on public domain too if you cannot wait for your shipment! http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/36
LikeLike
Thank you!
LikeLike
Anne is closer to children and older people, not those of her own generation. Why, do we think?
I think that’s just part of growing up in a community? You’re close to people your own age one second, then people younger, then those older. Also, Anne’s closest friend doesn’t have much in common with her anymore – Anne is a teacher with hopes of going to college, Diana is sitting at home. And the others have other concerns/principles as well. Also, having grown up with primarily adults/babies (the three sets of twins!), Anne knows their concerns better than she may know the ones of her classmates.
Could Anne have been happy forever teaching?
Hmm, “happy” is such a loaded word. I think the point of Anne is to show there’s many paths to happiness. I think she would have been happy ENOUGH, especially as Anne always wants to learn, but going to college and becoming a principal definitely made her happier.
What would have happened if Gilbert had revealed his feelings sooner and more forcefully?
Uhhhhh…no comment. Jo and Laurie flashbacks. I think…she’d have rejected him, he would have married someone else (maybe??) and she’d have realized she treasured his love when it was gone – even if she still hadn’t fallen in love with him (if she stays in Avonlea). If she goes to college, they still end up together.
But if he expressed them more forcefully, he wouldn’t be Gilbert!! We wouldn’t love him as much. He’s lovely because he gives Anne space to grow and come to him.
Do Davy and Dora work as characters, or do they feel more like “cousin Oliver”s?
I think they work. No reason, just a feeling.
Is the ending of the book too tidy, allowing Anne to go to college after all?
Don’t care! Give her college! And it has definitely happened in real life, so I’ll let it stick.
(Still angry that she lost a scholarship that would have helped her attend for FREE and without all the worry about finances. Not angry-angry, just…it’s so frustrating.)
Does this book feel like a waste of time to you, or do you see the value in the gap year between growing up and college?
I think, like you, I didn’t get the point of the book when I first read it. Now I get way more. Anne is very idealistic and if she’d gone to college fulls of ‘ologies and ‘isms with other idealistic people, she’d have been very different. These years ground her and give her a good basis to build more ideals on.
Which little boy do you like best, poetic Paul Irving, tough Anthony Pye, or naughty Davy?
Davy! He has this amazing moment when he pretends Dora has gone missing and doesn’t see why it’s wrong to lie about it. And his constant injury at being compared to Paul! Anthony annoys me purely because of his sexism.
LikeLike
Reading Island, I was struck by a small moment when Anne writes a story and asks Diana, and also Mr. Harrison, to read it. Mr. Harrison is a newish friend, and older, and a man. But he has intelligence and understanding for her writing that Diana lacks, so she goes to him because he has that. Which is what you are saying, in a small community you go to the people who have what you want/need at a particular moment, no concern for age or gender.
Hmm. I like your “happy enough” rule. It would have been easy for the books to be about Anne’s desperate need to fall in love, or burning ambition to be a Great Writer. But instead they are just about her finding something happy and magical in the everyday. So even teaching gives her “scope for the imagination” enough to make it happy.
Hmm. I think you are right, I think if she stays in Avonlea and he goes to college, the gap rapidly becomes uncomfortable. But on the other hand, she was never going to stay in Avonlea because that wasn’t in her nature, which is why she and Gilbert were drawn to each other. Maybe it’s inevitable that both would strive for greater challenges and success and, at some point in that journey, find each other? There’s also that little thread of Marilla having rejected Gilbert’s father and it never working out, so maybe that should be our foreshadowing? If Anne had rejected him too quickly and harshly, he would have gone away and, years later, found someone else.
Final point of yours, the idea that Anne needed some of her idealism beaten out and to be a bit more grounded before college. I think you wouldn’t have had “Anne of the Island” without “Anne of Avonlea”. As in, she wouldn’t have gone to Nova Scotia for college feeling so firm and steady in her identity as from The Island without those two years as an adult member of the community. She would have felt a little more like an orphan still looking for a home.
On Sun, May 29, 2022 at 10:48 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
>
LikeLike