In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Outlaws, Outcasts, and Orphans The Historical Imagination and Anne ofGreen Gables Beverly Crockett Discussions of L. M. Montgomery's popular girls' novel Anne of Green Gables (1908) have emphasized the "sunny" personality of the protagonist, literary allusions , and the presentation of romance and gender roles. I Those few scholars who have considered the historical circumstances oflate nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canada have focused primarily on autobiographical details, using Montgomery's diaries and letters to make connections between her writings and her life-her losing (at twenty-one months) her mother, spending little time with her father, living for many years with her grandparents, and eventually having to care for her grandmother.2 The element that inspired the Anne story has been noted: in her journal, Montgomery recorded reading in 1895 a newspaper clipping about a couple who requested a child to work on their farm and were sent a girl, instead of the boy they wanted.3 But the historical circumstances that would make such a request possible, events examined by historians during the past twenty years, have not been fully integrated into a comprehensive critical reading of Montgomery's most popular novel.4 Readers, especially younger ones, of Anne ofGreen Gables are carried along on the main current of the story by Anne's references to and acting out of the "hidden hero" myth, represented by such figures as Joseph and King Arthur.s The surface of the novel chiefly presents the bright, optimistic, and often comic view of an adopted girl's surviving her difficult past, overcoming obstacles, and growing up in a new family and environment.6 Nevertheless, a neglected subtext or underground current runs through the novel; it appears as well in popular culture, legal documents, and public records and represents children-particularly unsupervised children and orphans-as dangerous, alien, even monstrous creatures. Although the opposite view ofchildren as the most vulnerable and helpless ofvictims, facing threats, exploitation, and abuse, gained ground during the nineteenth century, reforms in the legal and social structures and changes in popular ideology seldom kept pace. Thus, conflicting and ambivalent views of children appear in Anne of Green Gables, with negative attitudes usually articulated by unsympathetic and eventually discredited characters. The first chapters of Anne ofGreen Gables might suggest that Montgomery is simply contrasting the imaginative protagonist, who responds to those places 57 58 Imagining Adoption that nurture her aesthetic sense and provide "scope for the imagination;'? with the practical, unimaginative Prince Edward Island inhabitants, including Marilla and Matthew, Anne's adoptive parents. Anne's imagination draws on the dark romanticism of tragedies and melodramas, stories emphasizing danger and suffering,~ but it also allows her to interpret and construct her life story, casting herself as a hero and transforming adversity into opportunity.9 Other characters in the novel also possess active, but malevolent, imaginations that spur their fears and reflect their ethnocentrism and prejudice; consequently , they view children of unknown parentage and other "alien," foreign creatures as potential threats. Even Marilla can be mistrustful, prompted by gossip and fear of the stranger. And because Anne is "literary" and less constrained by certain gender roles, she inadvertently exacerbates the Islanders' fears. Central to the novel is the historical phenomenon of "placing out." Adult readers of Montgomery's generation would have known about children sent from institutions to "foster homes," and this knowledge would have affected their interpretation of Anne ofGreen Gables; perhaps, like Marilla, they initially might have been suspicious of Anne and would even need to be "educated" to see placing out from the orphan's perspective. But Marilla possesses enough of a sympathetic imagination to understand the contexts and subtexts that run through the girl's "autobiography" and thus can pity her.10 The turning point occurs early in the novel, when Marilla, who had wanted a boy to help on the farm, decides that she will instead keep, raise, and educate Anne. The narrator's comment that Marilla is "shrewd enough to read between the lines" (AGG 41) can be seen as instructing all readers to be aware of social and historical contexts , especially the attitudes toward and treatment of orphans, foundlings, and other poor children.II Even though Montgomery shows her protagonist winning over not only Marilla and Matthew but also neighbors, the author indicates lingering suspicions and prejudices against children who were placed out. Other realistic elements are the epithets flung at Anne (though milder than those endured by real home children) and the rumors associated...

Share