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Copywork
About This Passage
This is arguably the most psychologically revealing passage in the novel. Anne projects her own experience of abandonment onto a figure in a religious painting, creating a theological autobiography: the lonely child who approaches the source of blessing despite terror of rejection. The comparison — 'her hands must have got cold, like mine did' — collapses the distance between sacred art and lived experience. Montgomery achieves in this passage what the narrator theorized in Chapter 7: Anne translates divine love through the medium of her own human need.
I was just imagining I was one of them — that I was the little girl in the blue dress, standing off by herself in the corner as if she didn't belong to anybody, like me. She looks lonely and sad, don'...
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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
- Anne identifies with the lonely girl in the chromo of Christ Blessing Little Children and says 'Her heart must have beat and her hands must have got cold, like mine did.' Montgomery places this scene immediately after Anne learns she can stay. Why does the author position Anne's most intimate moment of religious imagination AFTER the crisis is resolved rather than during it — and what does this structural choice accomplish?
- Anne's imaginary friends — Katie Maurice (a reflection) and Violetta (an echo) — are both projections of herself. If Anne's only companions were versions of her own image and voice, what does this reveal about the psychology of extreme loneliness — and what would someone who disagreed with your reading argue?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A sharp correction that recalls someone from error — Anne's daydreams require either a 'reprimand or a catastrophe' to end, suggesting her absorption is total
Item 2
Begging with desperate urgency — Anne's physical description (trembling, flushed, dilated eyes) enacts the pleading her voice expresses
Item 3
Without yielding or shifting position — Marilla requires the dishcloth scalded before allowing emotional revelation, an act of stubborn principle
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Critical Thinking
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