Anne of Green Gables, Ch. 30-38... the end.

I only really had two other thoughts I wanted to share, and I need to do it now, or I'll forget because I'm starting the next book.

Chapter 30
Marilla's real feelings for Anne finally, finally, start to show! The paragraph that splits between pages 238-239 is one of my favorites. Why is it that so often we don't show our love to those who really mean the most to us? I've read a lot about the "Love Languages" in the past, and Turner and I talk about it every now and then. It is true, in my mind, that we each speak, or express, our love differently, and we each receive, or understand, love differently. So to my eye, Marilla shows her love for Anne by being protective and cautious; by trying to teach her and make sure that she grows to be the best she can be. The most important thing Marilla does to show her love, is listening. I think that quality time and conversation are Marilla's and Matthew's love languages. And the same probably is true for Anne. They're just on different ends of the spectrum.

Chapter 34
In the last paragraph here, Anne says,

"Oh it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them -- that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition, you see another one glittering higher up still. It does make life so interesting."

This is one of the things I just adore about Anne Shirley. She is always "anxiously engaged in a good cause and [doing] many things of [her] own free will," (Doctrine & Covenants 58:27). If everyone had the kind of ambition that she has, the world would be a much better place. There would be less crime, because people would want to improve themselves, and there would be more productivity because sitting and doing nothing would not be appealing.

I'm so sorry to cut off my thoughts, but my baby is crying and I need to go take care of him. I probably won't have time to write any more before I'm starting the new book (The Chosen by Chaim Potok), so please share your thoughts.

Sincerely,

The Page Traveler

Anne of Green Gables Ch. 29...

First of all, I want to begin with the end and say how wonderful I thought the ending was. Perfection indeed. But we'll discuss that later.

In Chapter 29, Anne tells Diana how she feels it's easier to be good when her clothes are fashionable. I find this interesting. I suppose that for Anne it must be true, since she felt so completely out of place when her sleeves weren't puffed, but she still gained friends regardless, and obviously affection from boys as well. All without puffed sleeves. But we see that as she is given more fashionable clothing, she does go through a change to a certain degree.
I read an article the other day, (the link is dead for some reason, so I can't share it like I wanted to) about research that showed a difference in self esteem when individuals were given name-brand things. The way I remember it was, they got all these random people who wanted to apply for a job and had them fill out an application. The study showed, by a large margin, that those who were given high-end name-brand computers to fill out the application requested a higher salary than those who were given low-end computers. This was a little weird for me. No matter how much we're told that material things don't matter, they do make a certain difference.
I feel this way sometimes. But the only thing that can get me out of that frame of mind, is remembering that everything I have came from the Lord, and I express gratitude for it. Especially when I am in humble circumstances, doing these things helps me be grateful for what I have, rather than focusing on what I lack.
At the same time, we see that people who are in one class seem uncomfortable when put in the company of another. Whether it's lower class going to an upper class party or business meeting, or an upper class person going to a lower class cookout or something. Of course there are individuals who are comfortable enough with themselves that they can pull it off (like Anne, in my opinion) but the grand majority of our race is comfortable with their current circumstances, as much as they say they'd like them to be different, they really don't want it that badly.

My other thought will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid, because it's late and I'm giving piano lessons early in the morning. Goodnight to all!

Sleepily,

The Page Traveler

Anne of Green Gables, Ch.11-28

Before I get into my review, I want to share a quote from one of my followers blogs that made me laugh out loud.

K writes,

"[My Husband] hasn't seemed to care when I read him a "funny part."  Maybe it's a girl kind of book. [He] would probably lock someone like Anne up in a closet somewhere, but I think she's cute."

That is hilarious. 

My husband actually read the AoGG books before me, and he got halfway through book five before life got the better of him and he put them down.

So, on to the review.

Although I read a whole lot, I didn't really do much 'thinking' per se. Let's see what I think...

Chapter 11 - ending paragraph

Marilla, upon hearing Anne's truthful, but negative, opinions about the prayer and sermon at Church, feels like she ought to say something about it. But she realizes that Anne's opinions are very much the same as her own, which she has never shown. My favorite sentence is the last, 

"It almost seemed to her that those secret, unuttered, critical thoughts had suddenly taken visible and accusing shape and form in the person of this outspoken morsel of neglected humanity."

How poignant! 

Now, why is it that as adults we think it is okay to think a rude or negative comment, but it is not okay to actually say the comment? 

Shouldn't it be one way or the other? Is the answer that it is unacceptable to have rude things even cross our minds? Or should we be free to express these things constructively, to the betterment of those around us?

I believe the latter.

If we as a race were more honest, then, I believe, not only would we say these constructive comments, but we would be more free with our compliments as well. In this, we would hopefully be more quick to see the good in ourselves, and therefore any criticism would either be taken constructively, or completely ignored, because we would have the self esteem to know whether the comment is useful to us or not.

I hope that makes sense...

This is a lot like to situation we saw earlier, where Rachel Lynde insults Anne. To Anne, it was not okay for Rachel to say those things, but it had always been okay for her to say them to herself. I don't think this is okay either. If Anne could only have seen the good in herself, then Rachel's comments probably wouldn't have phased her at all. In face, being as imaginative as she is, she might have even laughed them off.

Chapter 28... I know, i skipped a lot...

Anne and her friends are acting out a poem, and Anne ends up stranded on the pole of the bridge in the middle of the lake, it having gone wrong. She tells Matthew and Marilla that she's been cured of being too romantic, and that she's given it up completely. Matthew, showing more insight than at other times, waits for Marilla to leave, and says to Anne,

"Don't give up all your romance, Anne,... a little of it is a good thing -- not too much, of course -- but keep a little of it, Anne, keep a little of it."

This is very true. And if anyone knows it, I'll bet Matthew does. He's a bachelor of seventy-something, who's been afraid of females all his life. He doesn't seem to have a speck of romance in him, save what he feels for Anne. I think now that he's felt some spark of love for Anne Shirley, he may wish he'd had some romance in him back in his day, though I'd imagine he's lost hope for it now. He truly doesn't want Anne to lose the life in her, and her romance is a big part of that.

Other parts I liked were the dress buying, the haunted wood, poor Diana getting drunk on accident, the girls jumping on Miss Josephine Barry (Ha!), and every single line about Gilbert Blythe. As much as Anne refuses to admit he exists, you can tell she really likes him :-)

I will probably finish the book tomorrow night, and my final thoughts will be posted by Friday evening.

Turning one page at a time,

The Page Traveler

Anne of Green Gables, Ch.1-10

I am extremely grateful that I chose to start my journey here! L.M Montgomery has created a beautiful world in this little corner of Canada. The detail is rich, but not overpowering, and the dialogue is exciting. There is a lot of both, and a pretty good blend. Some books tend to get stuck in one mode or the other, but L.M. has done a great job at balancing the two.

Chapters 1-4:

As far as my initial reactions to the characters, I think Mrs. Rachel is my favorite so far. It was brilliant of L.M. to open the story with Mrs. Rachel. I think that if she'd opened with Anne, it would have probably been too much. Mrs. Rachel is just kooky enough to catch your attention and keep you reading through to the second chapter.

The only word I can think of to describe Marilla is stony. She seems to the the rock of the plot. As opposed to Matthew (her brother) who is more like the grass. He can be stiff if he wants to, but most of the time he just goes where the rock pushes him. I like Matthew. His phobia of the female division of our race makes me laugh. Which is exactly why he feels that way... interesting.

As for Anne (with an 'e'), she is cute. I know from watching the movies that she is pretty dramatic, but so far she just seems like a talkative, creative, little dreamer. Not so different from myself when I was eleven, actually.

As we grow, we lose some of that. But I hope I can hang on to it as long as possible. If we can have the imagination without the drama, that is the ideal to have, I think. "Head in the clouds, feet on the ground," as they say in  The Music Man. That's what I hope to have anyway.

Chapter 5:

One of my favorite quotes from Anne so far is at the beginning of Chapter 5, as Marilla is taking her away to find out how she got to be there. Anne says to Marilla, "Do you know, I've made up my mind to enjoy this drive. It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. Of course, you must make it up firmly."

This is amazingly true! When one truly chooses to be happy, then one is happy! But, as Anne tells us, you must make up your mind firmly if you want it to make a difference. 

Chapter 6: 

Marilla has talked it over with Matthew, and they've decided to keep Anne. In the last line of the chapter, Marilla says,

"...we've decided on the experiment and goodness only knows what will come of it."

I like the use of the word 'experiment'. It's perfect! Life is an experiment, don't you think? We go through each day testing boundaries, and pushing the limits of things we suppose to be true, learning all the while! I feel like Anne, what a wonderful world we live in!

Chapter 7:

I absolutely love Anne's prayer. She doesn't do it perfectly, but then, she's never been taught. Her prayer is so genuine. I think that trait is what makes a prayer a good one. It makes it more meaningful, both to the prayer and to God. 

Chapter 8:

When Marilla tells Anne that she is to learn The Lord's Prayer, she sends Anne into the sitting room to get the copy of it, and doesn't come back for ten minutes. When Marilla follows her to see why, she finds Anne staring up at a picture, entitled, "Christ Blessing the Little Children". Anne is imagining that she is one of those children, a little girl, standing toward the back, as if she didn't belong to anyone. Anne says, 

"She looks lonely and sad, don't you think? I guess she hadn't any father or mother of her own. But she wanted to be blessed too, so she just crept shyly up on the outside of the crowd, hoping nobody would notice her -- except Him. I'm sure I know just how she felt. Her heart must have beat, and her hands must have got cold, like mine did when you told me I could stay. She was afraid He mightn't notice her. But it's likely He did, don't you think? I've been trying to imagine it all out -- her edging a little nearer all the time, until she was quite close to Him; and then He would look at her and put His hand on her hair and oh, such a thrill of joy as would run over her! But I wish the artist hadn't painted Him so sorrowful looking. All His pictures are like that, if you've noticed. But I don't believe He could really have looked so sad or the children would have been afraid of Him."

Anne is a little long winded, but I like it. She gets to the point, but is still so interesting and detailed.

But my point is, the scriptures tell us to have the faith of little children, and I believe Anne's remarks here is a perfect example of that. How we all want to be noticed by the Lord! And though we sometimes feel like we aren't, we are. He loves each of us so dearly. What a wonderful thing to know.

Chapters 9 & 10:

The thing we've all been waiting for has come... Mrs. Rachel Lynde and Anne meet. It's sad to say that many grown-ups are just like Rachel. They speak about children as though they weren't there, and wouldn't be hurt by a thing they heard if they were. We forget too quickly what it's like to be a child, and Rachel is definitely at fault of this. Throughout the story, as Marilla later points out, we hear Anne say all the time that she is homely, skinny, red-headed, and ugly, and how she wishes she could be otherwise. But things like that hurt much more when they are said by someone else, especially with the tone of contempt that Mrs. Rachel uses. I can understand Anne's reaction completely. No one wants to be spoken to like that.

I also appreciate Marilla's reactions to all this. She is coming to love Anne, whether she realizes it or not. So she tells Rachel that her comments were too hard, and tells Anne that she needs to apologize. Matthew helps Anne realize that an apology would help smooth things over, and Anne agrees.

THE APOLOGY... amazing. "I thought since I had to do it, I might as well do it thoroughly." she says. I think Anne does just about everything thoroughly, whether it's thoroughly well or thoroughly badly, depends on what she's doing. I laughed through the last 4 pages of Chapter ten.

Soon to come, Chapters eleven through sixteen, inclusive. Hope you've having as much fun as I am!

Faithfully,

The Page Traveler

Coming soon...

My thoughts on Chapters one through ten of Anne of Green Gables will be posted here on Monday night for all to see...

Sincerely,

The Page Traveler

Intro to the Page Traveler

Hello. I am the Page Traveler. I am beginning a self-issued mission to seek out the best books, and learn from them.

My motivation: my son, and future children. I must teach myself to study and learn first, if I am to teach them. All parents want more for their children than they had for themselves, and I am the same. I had a standard public school education, and I never thought any more than that would be necessary. But as I look at my one-year-old son, I wonder, "What did I really learn?" There has to be more. I have learned recently that there is! And it was, in a way, relieving to find out that not only is there more, but it is so very easy to get it.

I found this in a book called A Thomas Jefferson Education. It has inspired me to make more of myself, and raise my children in such a way that they will become scholars and leaders that this world sorely needs.

My travels begin in the world of Anne Shirley, on Prince Edward Island. A world chronicled by L.M Montgomery.

Please join me. I would love to have your comments and feedback on every story we traverse.

Sincerely,

The Page Traveler