This story, “Anne of Green Gables“, talks about an orphan named Anne Shirley. This whole story starts with a mistake. Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert wanted to adopt a boy, instead they got a skinny, red-haired, freckled-faced girl. They were going to bring her back to the orphanage, but after spending time with this poor girl, they started to like her, and soon, she became part of the family. Anne is a talkative girl with a great imagination. She always thought that the opinion of someone’s fashion tells who they really are. Anne always wanted a family. As Anne grows up with the Cuthberts, she turned from melodramatic and romantic into focusing on her education and achievements. Throughout her life with the Cuthberts, Anne discovered love and friendship.
There are two major themes in this novel. One, is the conflict between imagination and social expectations. This has to do with Anne’s daydreaming and imagining which made her keep going the wrong directions. She was in her own fantasy world when she was supposed to complete her chores and do her responsibilities. Marilla doesn’t believe in imagination, which made Anne hard to understand why. She is often mad with Anne for being so careless in everything she does due to her imagination. Anne tries her best to pay attention to what is happening in the real world, but her fantasy world is always pulling her back and giving her pleasures that she cannot pull away from. But as she grows older, she started to understand the difference between fantasy and reality.
Another theme is the conflict between emotion and sentimentality. Anne cannot separate real emotions with sentimentality. This has happened due to her childhood experiences with the loss of her parents. Anne was scared because of this experience. She was alone and she was not treated with love, like most children have, but with carelessness and cruelty. Anne does know her true emotions, but she feels painful with it, so she has her sentimentality to give her pleasure. Anne doesn’t want to be hurt again. She uses sentimentality to keep her from feeling true emotions. But, by the end of the novel, Anne, once again felt true emotions, which is pain. Matthew, the person closest to her, died of a heart attack. She once again, experienced the real loss of someone she loves and cares about. She then realizes that this is true emotion and not sentimentality, and that she can’t keep hiding from it.
This story teaches you to cherish the ones in front of you. Just like how Anne cherished Matthew and Marilla as they welcome her to Green Gables. This novel also helps you understand why Anne wants to be adopted so badly. She wanted someone to love her and care for her, unlike the times she was treated badly and was being used. Anne has been through ups and downs in her life. Anne trying to fit in and is always sensitive about her ‘carrot’ hair was one of the hard times. She always feels she is not like everyone else, she thinks everyone is pretty and fashionable, but she was just a skinny girl with red hair. But in the end, she realizes that all that doesn’t matter, what matters is to be with your loved ones. Throughout this novel, with lots of love and care, and it teaches us that money and looks isn’t everything and it doesn’t matter in life, but who you really are inside does.
