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Copywork
About This Passage
Montgomery's iconic opening sentence is a masterclass in sustained syntax: semicolons managing three linked independent clauses, personification of the brook as a creature subject to social pressure, and a metaphor that prefigures the entire novel — wild nature tamed by community expectation. The sentence is both a geographic orientation and a thematic thesis statement.
Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods ...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize this chapter, then explain what you think the author most wanted the reader to notice or feel. What techniques did the author use?
Discussion Questions
- Montgomery personifies the brook as something that must show 'due regard for decency and decorum' near Mrs. Rachel's house. If the brook is a metaphor, what is it a metaphor FOR — and what does this opening image predict about the novel's central tension?
- The chapter is titled 'Mrs. Rachel Lynde Is Surprised,' yet the biggest surprise — the child at the station — is kept from us. How does Montgomery use dramatic irony in this chapter, and what effect does withholding Anne's identity create?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
The reasons and explanations behind something — Mrs. Rachel must discover 'the whys and wherefores' of anything unusual
Item 2
Accustomed or in the habit of doing something — Avonlea housekeepers 'were wont to tell' of Mrs. Rachel's quilts
Item 3
Served as a visible sign or indicator of something — the buggy 'betokened' a long journey
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Critical Thinking
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