Anne of Green Gables — Chapter 8

Narration Prompt

Recount Chapter 8 in two or three paragraphs. Cover Marilla's morning-long deferral of the news that Anne may stay at Green Gables, Anne's absorbed reading of the picture of Christ Blessing Little Children, Anne's confessional account of her imaginary friends Katie Maurice and Violetta, and the closing scene in the east gable where Anne accepts being 'Anne of Green Gables' rather than 'Anne of nowhere in particular.'

Discussion Questions

1. Marilla's stated theology — 'When the Lord puts us in certain circumstances He doesn't mean for us to imagine them away' — articulates a serious doctrine of providence. Anne's counter-claim that Marilla 'misses' a great deal by refusing to imagine articulates an equally serious case for imagination as a faculty of receiving rather than evading reality. Examine the conflict between these two positions and assess whether Montgomery is offering a synthesis (imagination as a mode of accepting providence more fully) or asking the reader to choose between the two stances. Cite specific moments where the chapter's structure adjudicates the dispute.
2. Anne's request to call Marilla 'Aunt Marilla' — and Marilla's literalist refusal — turns on whether names should describe what is or scaffold what is becoming. Examine the moral weight of Marilla's commitment to literal accuracy alongside Anne's plea that the name 'would make me feel as if I really belonged to you.' What is each woman protecting, what is each missing, and what would a household need to look like for Anne's request to be granted without violating Marilla's integrity?

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