The Compelling Story of `Anne of Green Gables´

Not so long ago, a couple of years at the most, Netflix got out a series named “Anne with an E”. I, being not an english native speaker, had never heard of the story before, but as a good bookworm I instantly felt it was a story I would enjoy. I did love the Netflix show, and was very sorry to hear it is cancelled. Nevertheless, I had a notion that there were books about it and immediatly started looking for them.

I found out the novel was way older than I expected it to be. I learned it was originally published in 1908, and suddenly Anne´s and everyone else in Avonlea´s personalities started to make more sense. I got the book through a friend who gave it to me, and started reading it. It is in all sense a late-Romantic novel. It made me wish I had read it as a kid, or even as a teenager.

The Romantic Anne

Romanticism is a literary movement usually based in the late 18th century up to the very beggining of the 20th century. It is known for its passionate characters and the way it approaches themes such as love, faith, and even death. You may know it better from authors as Lord Byron, The brönte sisters, Mary Shelley, etc. But L.M. Montgomery is not far behind belonging to those writing ideals.

Anne is a child when the story starts, but her knowledge of poetry and love for grandious words make of her a romantic. One of the main, and more discernible, characteristics is the search of God through nature, and sure Anne has a great deal of being startled by any beautiful sight or flower she can find. She has a keen eye for aesthetics that Marilla and Mrs. Lynde would, as pious and protestant women, find even sinful.

Her first night prayer almost moved me to tears, being raised as a protestant myself and made to pray this way every night. It reminded me of how special praying was to me, it had no recipe-felt words to recite, it was a one-on-one conversation with God:

Gracious heavenly Father — that’s the way the ministers say it in church, so I suppose it’s all right in private prayer, isn’t it?” she interjected, lifting her head for a moment.

“Gracious heavenly Father, I thank Thee for the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters and Bonny and the Snow Queen. I’m really extremely grateful for them. And that’s all the blessings I can think of just now to thank Thee for. As for the things I want, they’re so numerous that it would take a great deal of time to name them all so I will only mention the two most important. Please let me stay at Green Gables; and please let me be good-looking when I grow up. I remain,

"Yours respectfully,

Anne Shirley

(Anne of Green Gables, chapter VII)

The idea alone, that she made it a letter, made it all the greater. Addressing God not only as close, but as a pen-pall was the best way to exemplify the sort of faith the Romantics were looking for.

Anne´s timelessness

As the story evolved I noticed the Netflix series lacked relation with the book in some parts, though not for that I liked it less. The modern ideas of feminism and LGBT+ rights are almost completely made up for the series, but felt so natural that is obvious the story had a place for them since the beggining, though not likely to be included since they were probably unthinkable at the time. Montgomery´s work has just a hint of feminism if at all, Anne´s achievements and the support she gets both from Gilbert and Matthew might have been strange for the time she wrote the book, but certainly laid a path for modern readers to deepen.

Another thing I noticed right away while reading the book is how relatable the story is despite having been written 122 years ago, and that is a trade that only the best stories have: being timeless. As a very imaginative and distracted girl (to present day I might add) myself, I felt a sympathy for Anne and all her mistakes. I specially felt those scenes where she gets scolded for forgetting things or doing them wrong due to her vivid and wide imagination.

Every kid, I am sure, has an imagination that sometimes we grown-ups tend to criticize and, in the majority of cases, even kill. The Romantics pleased themselves thinking of impossible things such as bringing a sewn up dead bod to life through electricity, or imagining distant lands with strange customs they never saw in their own land, but in a more down-to-earth reality, such as Anne´s, such fits of imagination had no place, and that is the truth to many kids who are like Anne.

Maybe reading a story like Anne of Green Gables can give kids the feeling of not being alone, not the only ones that spend their days day-dreaming and inventing characters and stories. Even now that I am an adult I kept a smile reading the book because I saw a great deal of myself reflected in that red-headed girl, and that can only feel wonderful no matter how old you are.

The human will always be represented

I was not in the least surprised when later on I found out the book has had many adaptations, theatre, films, and of course the series with which we started this article. Anne´s situations in the book might not be too likely to happen in the 21st century most luky countries, there is feminism, people´s human rights including laws against child work, but the story´s core, the underlying message will always be present in human kind: Imagination and feelings. No matter the story we choose, from Shakespeare to Dickens, there always are some texts that make our heart pound or that makes us laugh, the author that is able to deliver emotions and human nature through his or her words will always have a sotry to tell in centuries to come.

The adaptations are part of our culture. We want books made into movies and series, we want the same story told in new exciting ways, and stories that allow creators a playground have a chance to endure. Anne is a perfect story to talk about the hardships of being different, and who but 21st century people are fighting for those who are. A little red-head girl, in the middle of nowhere, being able to face but every hardship makes us hope that we are able to do it too. Imagination, feelings, and of course empathy is something that Anne has to teach, it does not matter the century we live in,

Mel.