Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

by

L. M. Montgomery

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Anne of Green Gables makes teaching easy.

Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 8: Anne’s Bringing-Up Is Begun Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
The next day, Marilla keeps Anne busy with household tasks and observes that she’s hardworking and a fast learner—her weakness is her tendency to drift into daydreams and forget what she’s doing. After Anne washes the dinner dishes, Marilla finally breaks the news: she and Matthew have decided to keep her, as long as tries to be good. Anne immediately bursts into tears of joy. Marilla tells Anne to sit down and try to calm herself—she laughs and cries too easily.
Marilla doesn’t waste any time getting Anne used to the role that will be expected of her at Green Gables. Though she’s not being asked to “earn her keep” like Mrs. Blewett wanted, she will have to contribute to the upkeep of her new home, and to “be good,” an expectation Anne takes seriously as she grows up. Marilla is uncomfortable with Anne’s easily moved emotions and tries to tamp them down.
Themes
Home and Family Theme Icon
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
Mishaps, Milestones, and Growing Up Theme Icon
God, Prayer, and Church Theme Icon
Literary Devices
Marilla says that Anne must simply call her “Marilla”—she doesn’t want to be called “Miss Cuthbert,” because she’s not used to it, or “Aunt Marilla,” because she’s not Anne’s aunt and won’t pretend she is. Anne is shocked that Marilla never imagines. Marilla says she doesn’t believe in imagining that things are different from the way God has made them. She sends Anne into the sitting room to find the copy of the Lord’s Prayer on the mantel; she must memorize it this afternoon.
Imagination has been key to Anne’s survival as a lonely orphan, but Marilla cannot understand this; to her, trying to imaginatively improve on life is suspect at best, ungrateful at worst. Because imagination is Anne’s way of coping with hardship, this suggests that Marilla simply hasn’t needed her imagination to the degree Anne has.
Themes
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
God, Prayer, and Church Theme Icon
Anne doesn’t reappear, and when Marilla goes to investigate, she finds Anne staring at a picture on the wall, Christ Blessing the Little Children. Anne tells Marilla she was imagining that she was one of the children in the picture—the lonely-looking little girl standing apart from the group, hoping that Christ will notice her. She imagines how the little girl must have felt while she waited in trepidation, and the joy she must have felt when she was kindly noticed.
This scene is an example of Anne and Marilla’s different views on imagination. Marilla wants Anne to memorize The Lord’s Prayer, seeing this as sufficient religious instruction for now. For Anne, though, imagining herself into a biblical scene is just as effective, and perhaps even more, for learning about Christ.
Themes
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
God, Prayer, and Church Theme Icon
Literary Devices
Marilla interrupts Anne’s digression, finding it unseemly, and tells her that when she’s asked to do something, she needs to obey immediately. Anne finally settles down to study the prayer. She interrupts her study to say that she finds the prayer beautiful; in the asylum Sunday School, the superintendent prayed “mournfully,” as if it were a “disagreeable duty.” But this prayer sounds like poetry.
Marilla feels that Anne’s imaginative approach to a biblical story might be sacrilegious. But for Anne, imagination and “poetry” deepen her appreciation of religion, making it easier for her to relate to. Since much of Anne’s life has been taken up with “disagreeable duty,” it’s not surprising that this would be an unappealing view of religion.
Themes
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
God, Prayer, and Church Theme Icon
Literary Devices
Get the entire Anne of Green Gables LitChart as a printable PDF.
Anne of Green Gables PDF
After another period of silence, Anne asks Marilla if she thinks that Anne will ever have a “bosom friend” in Avonlea. By this she means an “intimate friend” or “kindred spirit” in whom she can confide anything. Marilla mentions that Diana Barry, who lives at Orchard Slope, the neighboring farm, might be a good playmate. She also assures Anne, who’s worried that Diana might also have red hair, that Diana has black hair and, more importantly, she is smart and well-behaved.
“Bosom friend” and “kindred spirit” are somewhat interchangeable terms that Anne uses for close, heartfelt friendships—something Anne has never had before. Marilla tries to redirect Anne from her preoccupation with the “tragedy” of red hair; it’s what’s inside that counts, though Anne finds this hard to believe.
Themes
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
Friendship Theme Icon
Quotes
Anne disregards Marilla’s attempt to teach a moral and says that having a beautiful bosom friend would be almost as good as being beautiful oneself. When she lived with Mrs. Thomas, she named her reflection in the bookcase “Katie Maurice” and talked to Katie about her life, imagining that someday she could step through the enchanted bookcase and join Katie in a happy land forever. When Anne moved in with Mrs. Hammond, she discovered an echo in the valley and named her Violetta, becoming nearly as attached to her as to Katie Maurice. Marilla dryly observes that it will be good for Anne to have a real friend and sends her upstairs to finish learning the prayer.
Because of her troubled childhood, Anne’s only friends in life have been imaginary—just her own reflection and the echo of her voice. (Lucy Maud Montgomery, herself a lonely child, had an imaginary friend named Katie Maurice.) She longs for a real, tangible friendship that isn’t a mere extension of herself.
Themes
Home and Family Theme Icon
Mishaps, Milestones, and Growing Up Theme Icon
Boys and Romance Theme Icon
God, Prayer, and Church Theme Icon
Up in her room, Anne imagines different décor and furnishings for the spartan bedroom—velvet carpet, silk curtains, and gold and silver tapestries. She also imagines that she’s wearing a white lace gown, has black hair, and is named Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald. But then she catches a glimpse of her reflection and reminds herself that she’s just “Anne of Green Gables”—which is so much nicer than being Anne of nowhere in particular. Then she sits at the window and blows kisses to the Snow Queen, the trees, Diana’s house, and even Katie Maurice and Violetta.
Anne still tends to disappear into elaborate daydreams, transforming her surroundings and her own identity to suit her imaginings. Yet, as she feels more at home at Green Gables, she starts to feel less of a need to do this—her real surroundings and identity begin to feel like enough. But that doesn’t mean she has to let go of her imagination entirely.
Themes
Home and Family Theme Icon
Beauty and Imagination Theme Icon
Friendship Theme Icon
Literary Devices