Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Anne of Green Gables, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Home and Family
Beauty and Imagination
Friendship
Mishaps, Milestones, and Growing Up
Boys and Romance
God, Prayer, and Church
Summary
Analysis
Anne savors a glorious, mostly outdoor summer with Diana. Marilla gladly indulges this—earlier, when Minnie May was sick, the doctor sent Marilla a note warning her to let Anne get as much fresh-air exercise as possible for the sake of her strength and health. When September returns, Anne is delighted to open her books again. She confides in Marilla that she also wants very much to be “good.” She thinks about it often and makes resolutions to improve, especially when she’s with Mrs. Allan or Miss Stacy. But when she’s around Mrs. Lynde, her good intentions dissolve. Does that mean she’s bad? Marilla laughs and admits that she often feels the same way around Rachel.
Anne has learned that “being good” is often a matter of influence as much as one’s own best intentions. Though people like Miss Stacy and Mrs. Allan bring out the best in her, sometimes the more outwardly moralizing types of people, such as Mrs. Lynde, cause good intentions to backfire.
Themes
Anne decides she won’t let this trouble her anymore. There are enough things to worry her—always something new, it seems. Growing up is difficult, especially because a person only gets one chance to do it well, but she is glad to have people like Marilla, Matthew, Mrs. Allan, and Miss Stacy to help her.
Growing up is a challenging process that seems to bring one challenge after another, and it’s best tackled with the loving support of people who bring out the best in a person.
Themes
Miss Stacy is back at Avonlea school, helping the Queens students prepare for what’s known as “the Entrance” next summer. The exam haunts Anne’s thoughts and dreams, but she enjoys her studies and continued classroom rivalry. Marilla even lets Anne go to occasional social outings and parties now.
Anne continues to push for her dream of entering Queen’s, with more and more of her life oriented around her academic ambitions, even while getting to do more of the grown-up kinds of activities she once dreamed of doing.
Themes
Anne grows rapidly, giving Marilla ambivalent feelings—she loves this growing girl, yet also feels a sense of loss. One winter night, to Matthew’s astonishment, she weeps as she thinks of Anne growing up and going away. She’s noticed that Anne even talks less these days. Anne admits that, more and more, she prefers keeping her nicest thoughts to herself, and she doesn’t feel the need to use big words anymore. Growing up is fun, but not in the way she expected—there’s always so much to learn and think about. The story club doesn’t even meet anymore; Miss Stacy trains her students to criticize their own compositions, and Anne would rather learn to write well than focus on silly melodramas.
Though she keeps her emotions to herself, Marilla grieves the thought of losing the little girl Anne. For her part, Anne finds herself less impulsive and forthcoming with her thoughts—growing up is surprising in that it involves so much learning, changing, and searching one’s own heart. Even her imagination doesn’t go overboard the way it used to.
Themes
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Anne tells Marilla that as she anticipates the Entrance, she alternates between hope and fear. She still stumbles over geometry and sometimes has nightmares about failing the whole exam. Marilla says in that case, she can try again next year, but Anne thinks she’d be too heartbroken to try—or to enjoy life at all.
For Anne, the Entrance exam is an all-or-nothing event. She has become a much more focused and ambitious young woman than the talkative, unpredictable little girl who came to Green Gables a few years ago.
Themes
