Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

by

L. M. Montgomery

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Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 2: Matthew Cuthbert Is Surprised Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Matthew, an awkward man with shoulder-length gray hair and a full beard, drives his buggy to Bright River. He enjoys the trip, except for the moments when he passes ladies and must nod to them in greeting—Matthew is terribly self-conscious around women, except for Marilla and Mrs. Rachel. When he reaches the train station, he sees nobody except for a girl sitting on a pile of shingles and looking intently at him. When he questions the stationmaster, Matthew learns that the little girl has been dropped off for him. Matthew is shocked, baffled, and unsure what to do.
Matthew, like Marilla, is set in his ways and doesn’t venture away from home very often. He’s especially unprepared for what awaits him at the train station. The story’s first conflict is established—who is the girl, and why has she been unexpectedly sent to the Cuthberts, disrupting their plan to adopt a boy?
Themes
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Literary Devices
The girl is about 11 years old, wearing a shabby yellowish-gray dress. She wears thick red braids down her back and has big, expressive eyes. As Matthew hesitantly approaches, the girl jumps up and asks if he’s Matthew Cuthbert. She explains that if he hadn’t shown up, she was going to sleep in a nearby cherry tree. Seeing her bright eyes, Matthew decides he must take her home and let Marilla rectify the mix-up.
The little girl who awaits Matthew is out of the ordinary—bold enough to approach Matthew instead of waiting for him to speak to her, and imaginative enough to hatch a plan (even a dubious one!) in case she’s abandoned for the night. At the same time, Anne’s contingency plan suggests that she’s used to having to fend for herself.
Themes
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Quotes
The girl chatters cheerfully as they walk towards the buggy. She says that she’s never belonged to anyone before, and that her four months in the asylum were worst of all: there was no “scope for the imagination” there. As Matthew drives the buggy away from the station, the girl breaks some blossoms off a tree and says they remind her of a bride. She longs to own a pretty dress of her own someday—she’s never had nice clothes, but she can always imagine that she does.
The orphan girl has never had a home. Yet her interest in “imagination” suggests that imagination serves as a way of coping with difficult circumstances, whether it’s a lonely asylum or a lack of nice clothing. Her ability to pretend is not just a form of escapism, in other words, but a way of helping her face reality more courageously.
Themes
Home and Family Theme Icon
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
Literary Devices
The girl asks Matthew what makes Prince Edward Island’s roads red, and since he doesn’t know the answer, she decides it’s something to find out someday. The world wouldn’t be nearly so interesting, she says, if she knew everything—then there’d be no place for imagination. She offers to stop talking if it’s bothering Matthew, but to his surprise, he doesn’t mind. This girl is different from the timid, “well-bred” children of Avonlea. The girl is glad to keep talking. She’s used to being told that “children should be seen and not heard” and laughed at for using big words.
The girl uses her imagination to help her face the world’s mysteries, making these unknowns interesting instead of threatening. Matthew, normally fearful of girls, likes hearing what this girl has to say, and his welcoming attitude is a novelty for her, too. The Victorian maxim that children should be “seen and not heard”—should stay silent, in other words—has been used to stifle her talkative personality.
Themes
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Literary Devices
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After Matthew tells her some details about Green Gables, the girl says she feels nearly perfectly happy. She can’t be completely happy, she explains, because that’s impossible for anybody with red hair. She can imagine away other details, like her freckles and skinny figure. But her hair is her “lifelong sorrow.”
Imagination has its limits, and this girl’s red hair defies her ability to pretend things are different. Her attitude about her hair also shows her flair for the dramatic—having hair that she considers ugly can’t truly be that bad.
Themes
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
Suddenly, as they enter the Avenue of Newbridge, the girl is overwhelmed by the canopy of apple blossoms overhead, through which the sunset is visible. She falls silent for about three miles, then tells Matthew that it was the first thing she’s ever seen that couldn’t be improved by her imagination—it gave her a “funny ache.” She decides the place ought to be called “the White Way of Delight.” She always renames things or people if their real names aren’t imaginative enough. As they come within view of Barrys’ pond, filled with shifting colors and singing frogs, the girl decides that it ought to be called the Lake of Shining Waters. Matthew points out Orchard Slope, the Barrys’ house, where a little girl of 11, Diana, lives.
Besides having an active imagination, the girl is sensitive to natural beauty. Inventing names for things is a way of claiming them for her own—allowing her to lay claim to things she loves despite owning very little. Because the girl assumes she is coming to Green Gables to stay—Matthew having declined to tell her the truth—this is also a way of laying claim to her new home.
Themes
Home and Family Theme Icon
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
Literary Devices
When they come within view of Green Gables, the girl wants to guess which house is theirs for herself, and she correctly picks out the farmstead nestled among the orchards and woods off in the distance. Matthew is delighted. She explains that Mrs. Spencer hadn’t described the house, but that she just felt it was home. She’s been pinching herself all day about finally getting to go home. Matthew feels dread, glad that Marilla will be the one to break the bad news to the little girl. He can’t bear the thought of this innocent child being disappointed.
The girl has an instinctive sense of where home is, and indeed Matthew, having bonded with her, seems to have nearly forgotten that they didn’t intend to adopt a girl in the first place. He already feels affection toward this open-hearted, needy girl, despite the fact that he wasn’t looking for her specifically and wasn’t intending to open his heart to any child.
Themes
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Literary Devices