Thoughts on Anne of Green Gables
Written by Hannah Willoughby
L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables is a classic coming-of-age novel about an orphan girl who gets adopted by a brother and sister in a small town in Nova Scotia. While the siblings had originally requested to adopt a boy to help on the farm, they ended up with Anne, a young girl with bright red hair who talks a lot. And by a lot I mean A LOT. One would think that would get annoying, Anne is able to imagine the romance in everything she sees and is able to share that with everyone around her.
Reading Anne of Green Gables cleared the fog in my brain. It wasn’t so much the plot, which was mostly just Anne getting in trouble and learning from her mistakes, but it was that romance and imagination. She brings to life and gives meaning to everything and everyone she sees. Every time I put the book down, I wanted to pick it back up and see the world as she was seeing it. I was struggling with some depression at the time, and everything was looking so dull, if I was even looking aroud at my surroundings at all. But Anne is hopeful and adds that sparkle to even the littlest things, and she made me want to get outside and actually practice some mindfulness.
Mrs. Lynds says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.
— Anne
The above quote from Anne really resonantes with me. I couldn’t wait to grow up when I was a pre-teen/teenager, and then now that I’m actually an adult, it really doesn’t feel any different. Maybe it’s just that our desires change, or maybe it’s that it really is more about the buildup and expectation.
My Japanese teacher told me that there was an Anne of Green Gables Anime from back in the 70s! The series is called 赤毛のアン - “Red Headed Anne”. I’m going to have to watch it to get some listening practice! And my sibling and mom told me about the Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, which according to Wikipedia is the longest running annual musical theater production in the world! Next time I need a pick-me-up, I’ll be trying to find a performance :)
