Discussion Questions for January 14

Here are the questions we'll be discussing in class today. Please bring both books!

Discussion Questions: Chapter 1 of Hintz and Tribunella & Anne of Green Gables

Small Group Work: Please find at least one quote to illustrate your point.

1.    In what ways does Anne reflect the notion of the “Romantic child”?

2.    In what ways does Anne reflect the notion of the “sinful child”?

3.    In what ways does Anne reflect the notion of the “working child”?

4.    In what ways does Anne reflect the notion of the “sacred child”?

5.    Do you think Anne is constructed in the text as more of “the child as radically Other,” “the developing child,” or “the child as miniature adult”? How so?

6.    What are Matthew and Marilla’s reasons for wanting to send Anne back to the orphanage? What are their reasons for deciding to keep her? What does this reveal about their ideas about children and the needs they satisfy?

7.    Describe Anne’s relationship with nature. How is it different from Matthew and Marilla’s? What does this say about the way children and adults are differentiated in the text?

8.    Describe Anne’s relationship with religion. How is it different from Marilla’s? What does this say about the way childhood and adulthood are differentiated in the text?

9.    Marilla repeatedly has to keep herself from laughing at Anne’s antics. Why does she do this? In other words, what ideas about the differences between childhood and adulthood prevent her from laughing?

Class Discussion:

1.    From Hintz and Tribunella (40): When does childhood end? What rituals, ceremonies, or rites of passage mark its ending? What kind of activity or experience can you imagine that might be used to achieve the end of childhood?

2.    From Hintz and Tribunella (40): Imagine for yourself what would constitute an ideal childhood. What would it be like? What would the ideal child do or be able to do? What would the ideal child not do or not be able to do?

3.    From Hintz and Tribunella (40): What can children do that adults cannot, and what can adults do that children cannot?

4.    What characterizes a “tween” from a young child? From an adolescent?

5.    Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908. In what ways is Anne still relatable to North American tweens? In what ways might she seem outdated?

6.    So far, do you find Anne likeable? Why or why not?

7.    How would you perceive Anne differently if she were 15? 21? 35?