Presenters
Abstract
When writing Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery (1917) drew from her memories of growing up near Cavendish, Prince Edward Island in a community of real houses, including Park Place (owned by Montgomery’s grandparents) and the house of her Macneill cousins. Contextualizing Cavendish houses to other examples of settler houses, Green Gables is part of a network of similar housing which as folklorist Henry Glassie points out can bind a community together. Historical illustrations paint Cavendish as a rigid, regimented working landscape, as do some characters in the novel. However, Anne stresses how houses relate to the landscape, particularly trees and stars. Next, we consider the times Montgomery employs nature and pathways. Anne employed nature to enhance her identity to the chagrin of Rachel. Additionally, Anne is an explorer. Like architect Colin Ward, we might judge that Anne and her friends appropriated spaces. Last, I examine how the east gable transforms from a stark, bare room designed by Marilla to one in which Anne personalizes the space through nature, books, and modifying furniture. Moreover, this was representative of farm children, according to architectural historian Sally McMurry. The story conforms to the established trope in children’s literature of a female character changing from the unruly to the conventional (Brock-Servais and Prickett 2010; Epperly 2007; and Gammel 2008; Reimer 1992). However, in this paper, I complicate this view by pointing out the ways Anne engages nature to concretize her identity.