Anne of Green Gables — Chapter 7

Narration Prompt

Recount Chapter 7 of Anne of Green Gables in two or three paragraphs, paying close attention to Marilla's discovery that Anne has never said a prayer, the substitution of Anne's improvised prayer for the standard 'Now I lay me down to sleep,' and Marilla's closing kitchen monologue to Matthew.

Discussion Questions

1. Montgomery writes that Marilla had 'the glimmerings of a sense of humour — which is simply another name for a sense of the fitness of things.' Examine this redefinition of humor as a moral faculty. How does this single parenthetical reorder our understanding of every prior interaction between Marilla, Matthew, and Anne at Green Gables — and what does it argue about the relationship between aesthetic discrimination and ethical perception?
2. Anne's prayer ends 'Yours respectfully, ANNE SHIRLEY' and begins 'Gracious Heavenly Father.' Examine the implications of a child constructing sacred speech by combining ministerial salutation with epistolary closure. What is Montgomery arguing about the materials children inherit, the materials they lack, and the pedagogical responsibility of adults who supply forms without contexts?

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