User blog:Hmarie21/Character Series Part 1: Anne Shirley

So as promised in my previous post, I am starting a 4-part series on the main characters living in Avonlea (in my opinion) – Anne Shirley, Marilla Cuthbert, Matthew Cuthbert, Diana Barry, and Gilbert Blythe.

I find it only appropriate to start this series off with the most obvious lead character, Anne Shirley. The novel is named “Anne of Green Gables”, after all!

So, Anne Shirley, who is she you might ask? ? That question isn’t asked very often where I live - in Canada.? She’s practically the mascot of Prince Edward Island, if? not the country. She’s the stereotypical, red-haired (with a temper to match) and freckled little girl, who wasn’t the boy Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert sent for. But there really is much, MUCH more to her than that!

Let’s start from the very beginning. A young couple, known as Walter and Bertha Shirley,

both certified teachers living in the small village of Bolingbroke in the province of Nova Scotia, give birth to their? first child. Unfortunately, shortly after the birth of this baby girl named “Ann-spelled-with-an-e”, both of her parents? die of scarlet fever. ? This is where her journey as an orphan begins.

She was taken in by a housekeeper who worked for her deceased folks, Mrs. Thomas. After about 9 years, she was sent to live with Mrs. Hammond. A woman with eight children – among those, THREE sets of twins! Oh, poor Anne, I can’t even begin to imagine being in charge of so many children, at such a young age! Even at 17 years old myself, I barely like children at all to begin with! It was when Mr. Hammond passed away that Anne was sent to the asylum in Hopetown, Nova Scotia. Judging by the novels and the movie, she thought it was just dreadful, and I can just imagine that it was!

I personally think that the fact Anne was thrown around so much and expected to carry out such tedious tasks all before she was even 10 years old, is what really built the character we see in her. The feisty, crazy, imaginative, sometimes raged, yet loving person.

This draws me to another point, Anne’s vivid imagination. Anne went so far as to even create her own “window friend”, Katie Maurice. Anne would look at her reflection and imagine it was a girl living in another world, a world that she couldn’t step through to no matter how she tried. Another friend she had in the novel was girl she named Violetta, who would talk back to Anne through echoes in the forest. I think Anne made up these fantasy girls because she really didn’t have a proper childhood, thus no time to make proper friends. ? She really didn’t know what a true friend was, until she met Diana Barry. Anne used these two “girls” to cope with her loneliness, and keep her sanity. (Three sets of twins! Yikes, I know I would go insane!)

We can also assume that Anne had such a heated temper because of the way she was treated growing up. She certainly wasn’t physically abused (or so we can hope), but the mental abuse was definitely present for a child in her situation. But then she was taken in by the Cuthbert’s, and her life was drastically changed – for the better! She met her “bosom friend”, Diana Barry, and her soon-to-be future husband, Gilbert Blythe (that topic will be for another blog!)

Living in Avonlea and being around the people she was during her teen years was very beneficial for Anne. It gave her the proper upbringing she had never received, and gave her a better sense of worth. Anne made some lifelong friends in Avonlea, and learned some – or should I say, MANY lifelong lessons as well (I won’t spoil the series, go and read/watch them yourself if you want to find out!), which I’m sure she was eternally grateful for.?

So to conclude this blog, I would like to mention a few things I admire in this young lady, Anne Shirley. I'll start off by saying I love the fact that she is so loyal to her friends and family. If something needs to be done, she's more than willing to help. Just look at what she did for Minnie May Barry, she saved her from the croup, even when Mrs. Barry had spread such horrible rumours about her! Anne was a strong-willed, determined child, teenager, young lady, and mother.

I strive to become like her myself, a girl who isn't afraid to speak her mind, will do anything for her loved ones, and stays forever young at heart.