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Copywork
About This Passage
Anne's self-composed oath transforms a childhood friendship into something ceremonial and permanent. The cosmic scale — 'as long as the sun and moon shall endure' — elevates a backyard promise to the register of wedding vows. The instruction 'put my name in' reveals the oath's reciprocal structure: both girls must speak, both must commit, making the friendship a mutual creation rather than a unilateral request. The passage models how heightened, ritualized language can dignify ordinary human experiences.
I solemnly swear to be faithful to my bosom friend, Diana Barry, as long as the sun and moon shall endure. Now you say it and put my name in.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
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
- Anne creates a solemn oath for her friendship with Diana, imagining a path as 'running water' for the ceremony. This is imagination in service of ritual — not transforming reality but consecrating it. How does this use of imagination differ from Anne's earlier uses (naming landscapes, imagining silk dresses) — and what does it reveal about imagination's capacity to create MEANING rather than merely beauty?
- Diana says, 'You're a queer girl, Anne. But I believe I'm going to like you real well.' Diana accepts Anne's strangeness as part of her appeal rather than as a barrier to friendship. Compare this to the Sunday school girls' response in Chapter 11 — same strangeness, opposite reception. What determines whether someone's difference is perceived as charming or threatening — and what would someone who disagreed with you argue?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Persistently irritating through logical resistance — Marilla calls Anne 'the most aggravating child' when Anne's argument about flowers-on-hats proves unanswerable
Item 2
Uncertain and potentially unsound — the narrator says Marilla refuses 'dubious paths of the abstract,' revealing her distrust of Anne's logical ability
Item 3
Shaking with barely contained emotion — Anne's tremulousness before Mrs. Barry reveals that she risks as much in meeting Diana as she risked in asking Marilla to keep her
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Critical Thinking
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