The Feminist Lens: Anne of Green Gables
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As a kid, I was completely obsessed with Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I don’t remember many of the specifics of the books now, as it was a very long time ago that I read them, but I remember that I couldn’t get enough of Anne, the red-headed, hot-tempered orphan girl who warmed the hearts of everyone around her. She was so fiercely independent that she frequently found herself in quite a bit of trouble – from almost sinking in a boat while pretending to be the Lady of Shallot to breaking a slate over Gilbert Blithe’s head in class because he called her “carrots.”
I owned every part of this series – from each separate novel to the movies to the books on tape to paper cutouts of Anne and her friends. I even remember building a paper replica of Green Gables to bring to school for an oral book report.
I believe Anne of Green Gables was essential to my upbringing. I learned from her that it was OK to smash a slate over the boy’s head who irritated you. I learned from her that it was exciting to embark on crazy adventures and that everything would turn out. I learned from her that life is often confusing, especially when you’re young, but that everything that seemed to matter to you in your younger years – like red hair – doesn’t seem so important later on in life. I learned from her how to be curious and independent.
It saddens me when I ask my students who has read Anne of Green Gables and maybe one girl raises her hand. Are these books completely outdated? I loved them so much that I must believe that they still have some sort of purpose now. If nothing else, Anne can instill a sense of independence and confidence in young girls that they may lack now. What better role model for girls than the red-headed orphan girl, awkward at first, but confident and powerful and growing into a wonderful young woman as the stories progressed?
Can you think of any other literary role-models that our young girls are missing out on today?
Anne might be a good feminist role model, but I think there are plenty in what today’s kids are reading, too–it seems that the amount of good children’s literature available slowly improves over time, and the good ones (that are a bit more recent than Anne) aren’t forgotten as quickly as successful novels for adults do.
Although it’s probably too graphic for most people to consider it a teen novel, my favorite recent teen-ish novel with a great feminist protagonist was Randa Jarrar’s beautiful “Map of Home.”
Nancy Drew!! I devoured her novels when I was a kid – I remember my grandmother used to buy them for me by the three-pack from Costco, and I loved the bright yellow bindings and the creak of the hardcover when you opened the book for the first time. As an adult, it’s been a while since I have read a Nanacy Drew novel, and I am sure these days I would find them to some degree problematic… but I still love how Nancy solves the mystery and saves the day, every time.
Sarah – Sure, there are great female role models in modern YA lit, but does being modern make it better? I think being modern makes it more expected. I think one of the wonderful things about Anne was that she was really ahead of her time! Maybe it teaches girls now to think ahead of their time, too.
JT – Yes! I never got in to Nancy Drew, but I really hated mystery novels. 🙂 You should write a guest post for me about Nancy Drew!
There are so many great books about girls that I loved that I have no idea if they read any more – Betsy-Tacy (which takes place in “Deep Valley” aka Mankato, MN, where I went to college), Little House on the Prairie…
Well, shoot, now I’m drawing a blank. I can’t remember any more at the moment but there were lots of them that I love. I think these books may be out of fashion now but they’ll become popular again. Look at Jane Austen. (I don’t think it’ll take 100 years, though.) I guess the most important thing is that kids are reading actual books, right?
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I was never that into Anne of Green Gables (I never got more than halfway through the first book) but when I got to UM I found that most of my friends and roommates had all grown up reading her (and watching her).
I really liked books by Frances Hodgson Burnett–The Little Princess and The Secret Garden, both about lonely young girls making their way in the world without a whole lot of help.
And of course Little Women–Jo March probably remains one of the best literary role models for young women there is: independent minded, a writer who won’t give up her dream of being published, makes sacrifices to help her family, even when it means going outside of social norms, refuses to marry her childhood friend and love, even though it would be expected (not to mention lucrative), and ultimately, after branching out on her own, finds love, a career, and builds her own family.
Holy run-on sentence, batman…