Anne of Green Gables — Chapter 2

About This Passage

This passage is the chapter’s emotional climax: the little girl, who has talked the whole ride, falls silent inside the long Avenue of apple-trees and stays silent for miles afterward. Lucy Maud Montgomery turns the road into a cathedral with a rose window. The vocabulary words ECCENTRIC, CANOPY, TWILIGHT, CATHEDRAL, RAPTUROUSLY, and SPLENDIDLY all appear in this passage. Copying it slows a reader down enough to hear the shift from chatter to awe.

Narration Prompt

Tell in five or six sentences what happens in this chapter: how Matthew Cuthbert drives to Bright River, what he discovers at the station, how the little girl introduces herself on the platform, what she says on the long drive home, and why Matthew finally decides he likes her.

Discussion Questions

1. Lucy Maud Montgomery introduces the little girl through two different observers — “the ordinary observer” who sees only the ugly wincey dress and red braids, and “the extraordinary observer” who sees the chin, the eyes, and the mouth. Why does the narrator stage these two observers, and what does the contrast want the reader to learn before the child has even spoken?
2. When Matthew discovers that a girl has been left for him instead of a boy, he decides immediately that he cannot tell her about the mistake himself. What does this decision tell you about Matthew Cuthbert’s character, and what does it suggest about how he is going to relate to this child from now on?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide