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Anne of Green Gables—A Review by Gursharan Kaur
Anne of Green Gables“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
- Anne Shirley
It had been a while since I had read something so lighthearted and innocent. Usually, my reading involves a lot of heavy stuff, and picking up Anne of Green Gables in the middle of it felt like a huge relief for my brain. The innocence and the playfulness that Anne – the main character embodies, feels like a journey back to my own childhood. Anne is an eleven-year-old girl looking for a place to call her forever home. She is talkative, sweet, full of life, and loves to give her own names to the places she encounters in nature. Coming from a home where my sister and I were the two children growing up in a patriarchal world, I found the novel and its theme deeply reflective of the social attitudes and expectations that continue to shape and inhibit us.
Anne of Green Gables is a story of a girl arriving at a house where two siblings live and are hoping to adopt a boy who could help them with the chores in the house. But instead, they got a girl. The novel takes up what happens when they must raise a girl instead of a boy and the rest of the book follows the story of Anne who finally has found a home.
The writer does a beautiful job of inviting the reader into Anne’s world and showing how she adapts and evolves as she finds a new home with Marilla and her brother. Anne is full of life, even after the lonely and painful childhood she had endured. The book is a beautiful journey of Anne going through a transition from a young and hopeful girl who grows up to be a confident and successful woman.
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A Journey of innocence
“Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt. She thought in exclamation points. A boy! Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy! From an orphan asylum! Well, the world was certainly turning upside down! She would be surprised at nothing after this! Nothing!”
There are very few classics that make you feel both warm and fuzzy at the same time. Anne of Green Gables takes you on a unique journey where innocence turns into something that isn’t naive, but instead brings out transformation and childlike wonder. Anne is very particular about how she wants people to pronounce her name; she repeatedly mentions, ‘I am Anne with an ‘E’.’ Her innocent way of discovering the world around her and finding a home takes you on a journey that is both playful and transformative. The reader delights in Anne’s joy and deeply connects with her at every turn. The more expressive she becomes, the more the reader roots for her. She is a very talkative character, but she is never irritating, as one might initially expect. Mathew and Marilla slowly grow fond of her and start enjoying her company at home. Marilla slowly forgets how much she wanted a boy and starts embracing the girl she instead got from the orphanage. Anne connects with the nature around her in such a lovely way that the reader who has never been to the setting, starts experiencing it in his mind too.
Nature as a constant theme
[Image Credit: Anne With an E, Netflix]Nature is a constant theme in the book. It keeps visiting us through Anne’s imagination as well as her deep love and appreciation for her surroundings. Nature almost becomes another character in the novel. Anne rejoices in the natural environment, and if we compare that with how we engage with nature today, we might find that we are a lot more distant from nature than Anne. The way Anne connects with nature is both very innocent and admirable. Her way of giving names to new places, the way she describes the scenery around her, and how much she loves the trees, the lake and the flowers – all make you think of nature in a way which is almost divine. Anne’s relationship with the natural scenery around her is very spiritual and pure. She makes the readers want to notice things around them that they haven’t before. For example, after reading Anne of Green Gables, I started to connect with my natural surroundings in a much deeper and different way. I started seeing beauty in the creations of God and understanding how important it is to be a part of it.
Growing Alongside Anne
Anne of Green Gables is a captivating story that will probably keep you engaged throughout your reading session. It is a wonderful coming-of-age novel that teaches us a lot about life, nature, society, and the religious and spiritual implications of the world around us. As soon as Anne is introduced to the reader, she becomes someone the reader desperately wants to get to know more. The reader becomes a kind of companion on Anne's journey, experiencing her joys, mistakes, and transformations alongside her. The reader grows along with Anne as she finds herself and transforms into a more confident girl adjusting to a new home and the people around her. She slowly transforms into a teenager as we go through the novel and the reader learns along with her as she makes mistakes and grows. Perhaps that is what makes Anne’s story so enduring: we do not simply watch her grow; in some small way, we grow alongside her. I highly recommend this one to everyone out there, especially if they are just starting to read classics.