Anne of Green Gables Read Along Part 1 Discussion: Chapters 1 - 13

Well, so far I'm loving my re-re-re-read of this book! Just as fun and sweet and all happy making as ever. If this is your first time with it, what are you thinking so far? (We'll talk more about that our Twitter chat on Monday... 6:00 pm MDT. Dang... Daylight time again. Sigh.)

In the meantime, here are some other questions to be thinking about and if you want to post your thoughts and answers on your blog that would be awesome. I'll add a link at the bottom so we can quickly find your posts!!

Questions:

(all these nabbed from various websites because I was too lazy to think up my own.)

1. In chapter 2, when Matthew is driving Anne back to Green Gables, she asks him: “Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive.” Given her tragic childhood, how do you think Anne is able to maintain such a positive attitude?

2. Anne is insistent on renaming places and inanimate things.  Why do you think she does this?

3. Marilla gives several reasons for finally deciding to keep Anne. What reason do you think most changed her mind?

4. If Anne grew up today, would she have been happier with how she looked? What would she have pined for, looks- and fashion-wise? What is our society's equivalent of plumpness, dark hair, and puffed sleeves?

5. How would Anne have turned out if Marilla had let Mrs. Blewett take her? Would that life have crushed Anne's imaginative spirit, or would she have changed in a different way?

My Answers:

1. I just think Anne was born this way. It's her nature and in her soul and it's something we should all embrace. It's my favorite thing about this book. Positive attitude! It's hard but it's awesome. 

2. I think she likes to name things because of her crazy imagination that she can't contain no matter how hard she tries. And boring names are... boring... so she is compelled to make things better and prettier. At least in her mind. 

3. I think it may have been because of Matthew. She wanted to make him happy. But then again, I think deep down, she really wanted to brighten up her own life. Also, despite what she may have thought, she fell in love with Anne from the get go too. 

4. I think Anne would have embraced her red hair much much more today than she did then. I don't think red heads get made fun of or looked at weird near as much as they used to. Do they? Also being skinny is sought after, so I think she for sure would have been happier. But she would have probably still not be satisfied, as none of us really are. So for today's standards... not plumpness for sure! Healthiness and fitness. As for hair, I have no idea. Is there a hair color people like more than others? Colors and streaked/highlighted?  Then for fashion... just whatever is in, right? What's in today? Skinny jeans? Leggings?  LOL, I don't even know. 

5. I think Anne had a spirit that would have been really really hard to crush, despite her circumstances. She'd proved that already with how resilient she been so far in her not so happy life. But it's sad to think about her being in that situation even so. I'm happy we don't have to find out!

Okay everyone! Join us on Twitter tomorrow (Monday March 12) at 6:00 PM MDT. We'll talk more about these questions and other random Anne stuff. We'll be using the #GreenGablesRAL. See you there!

And here's the linky if you would like to write a post with the above questions. Share with us!