Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

by

L. M. Montgomery

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Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 38: The Bend in the Road Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
The next evening, Anne returns from a visit to Diana’s and finds Marilla sitting at the kitchen table looking depressed. Concerned, she asks what the oculist had to say. Marilla explains that, according to the doctor, if she gives up anything that strains her eyes—like reading, sewing, or crying—and wears special glasses, her eyesight might be saved, and her headaches will go away. But if not, she’ll be blind within six months. After a moment of shock, Anne tells Marilla that there’s still hope. She fixes Marilla tea and sends her off to bed. Anne cries at her window for a while, thinking about how much has changed since her triumphant return from Queen’s. But by the time she goes to sleep, her heart is at peace, as she’s come to terms with her duty.
Now that Marilla is in need, there’s a role reversal—Anne takes charge of comforting her in crisis and considering what her possible blindness might mean for her and Green Gables’ future. In fact, it might change Anne’s future, too. Though she’d arrived home from Queen’s knowing exactly what the future held for her, or believing she did, she now has to rethink everything—a major step in growing up.
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Literary Devices
A few days later, Anne sees Marilla talking with a man from Carmody in the yard. When she comes inside, there are tears in her eyes. She tells Anne that she’s planning to sell Green Gables. She doesn’t know what else to do: she can’t run the house without her sight, and if Green Gables falls into disrepair, nobody will ever buy it. If she sells the house, at least she’ll have something to live on. She starts to cry.
Marilla’s vision trouble could mean the end of Green Gables. Within a short time of her arrival back home, Anne is faced with the possibility of losing most of what she loved there.
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Anne tells Marilla she can’t sell Green Gables: Anne is going to decline her Redmond scholarship and stay home. She decided this after Marilla’s oculist appointment. She can’t abandon Marilla after all she’s done for Anne, and she’s made a plan. Mr. Barry hopes to rent their farm, so they will have all the money they need. And Anne will find a teaching job, probably at Carmody. She and Marilla will live comfortably together, and Anne will make sure Marilla is cared for and that her eyes have a chance to heal.
Anne’s thoughts about the future have changed. She’s been thinking ahead to what she can do to help Marilla and save Green Gables, setting aside the college ambitions she’d brought home with her. Anne’s change of heart suggests that maturity means having the foresight, resilience, and courage to redirect one’s hopes in order to sacrifice for loved ones—much as the Cuthberts did for her.
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Marilla is reluctant to let Anne sacrifice for her, but Anne says losing Green Gables would be far more painful for her. She’s made up her mind, and she’s not giving up her ambitions: she’s simply changed them. She wants to be a good teacher, save Marilla’s eyesight, and do some college coursework from home. It’s just a bend in the road, and Anne is determined to make the best of it. Marilla gives in, feeling that Anne has given her new life.
Though Anne could feel self-pity about the unexpected direction her life has taken, she chooses instead to reframe her circumstances as merely “a bend in the road”—a new direction for her ambitions in stead of an abandonment of them. She’ll get out of life what she puts into it—an attitude that further demonstrates her maturity.
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Quotes
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When rumors of Anne’s decision circulate in Avonlea, some people think she’s being foolish. Mrs. Allan is moved by Anne’s choice, however, and Mrs. Lynde is glad Anne’s giving up the foolish idea of college—women don’t need to study Latin and Greek, she huffs. Anne laughs and tells her she’ll be studying in the evenings anyway. Then Mrs. Rachel tells Anne the happy news that Anne is being offered the job at Avonlea school. When Gilbert heard about Anne’s situation, he withdrew his application and took a job at White Sands instead. Mrs. Lynde says it’s a big sacrifice for Gilbert, since he’ll have to pay for board and won’t be able to save up for college.
Anne pursues her new ambitions without regard for what others will think, confident in what she’s decided for herself. But the surprises aren’t over—it turns out that Gilbert has been thinking of Anne and deciding to make a sacrifice for her, too.
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Just then Diana flashes her old candle signal from Orchard Slope, so Anne runs over to talk to her. Watching her, Mrs. Lynde remarks that there’s still a girlishness about Anne. Marilla retorts that she’s very much a woman in other ways. But Marilla is no longer as brusque and sarcastic as she used to be. That night, Mrs. Lynde tells her husband that Marilla “has got mellow. That’s what.”
Though Anne has changed since she first came to Green Gables, Marilla has changed much more. This shows that Matthew was right; the Cuthberts needed Anne as much as Anne needed them.
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On her way home from a lingering visit to Matthew’s grave, Anne drinks in the beauty of Avonlea. As she passes the Blythe homestead, Gilbert comes out of the gate and abruptly stops whistling when he sees Anne. He is about to pass without a word, but Anne, blushing, stops him. She tells Gilbert she appreciates him giving up the Avonlea job for her. He tells her he was happy to do it, and he asks if they can now be friends. Anne tells him she forgave him long ago and apologizes for being so stubborn. Gilbert happily tells her they’re destined to be friends. He walks her home, and they talk at the Green Gables gate for half an hour. When Anne finally comes in, Marilla teases her about her long talk with Gilbert—she didn’t know the two were such good friends. Anne says she didn’t realize they talked so long—it felt like just a few minutes. After all, they have five years’ worth of conversation to catch up on.
Gilbert still assumes that Anne will reject him, showing how unselfish his action in giving up the Avonlea job really is—he doesn’t expect any thanks from Anne for it. But when she shows her gratitude and regret for her past treatment of him, a new future opens up for the two of them. Though they describe it as friendship only, Marilla’s teasing suggests that in time, it might ripen into more.
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That night, Anne sits at her window, feeling content as she overlooks Green Gables. Her horizons have narrowed since the beginning of the summer, and yet she trusts her path will be a happy one—she’ll never stop dreaming. And there might yet be another bend in the road.
As Anne overlooks her beloved Green Gables, she is happy—though her ambitions will not be realized in the way she dreamed of, she is where she truly belongs.
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Quotes