Conflict Between Imagination And Expectation Anne example essay topic

The conflict between imagination and expectation - Anne is guided by her imagination and romanticism-which often leads her socially astray. Reveries and daydreams constantly interrupt her chores and conversations, pulling her away from reality into her own imaginary world. As wonderful as this escape is for Anne, her rich inner life often comes into conflict with the real world of Avonlea. This conflict is played out in her relationship with Marilla, who, before Anne's arrival never indulged in fantasy and equated goodness with decorum and being sensible. Marilla embodies the social rigidity that guides well behaved ladies. While most girls, like Diana, strive to please adults by acting obedient and deferential, Anne finds more pleasure in her wild fantasies than in conforming to social expectations.

But as she matures, Anne's extreme romanticism is curbed, and she finds a compromise between imagination and social respectability. Sentimentality versus emotion - Anne's feelings run deep; she loves and hates with passion, and she dreams with the utmost spirit. But she cannot distinguish between true emotion and mere sentimentality, often allowing herself to indulge in sentiment because she thinks it is romantic. Her fictional stories with their melodramatic plots of true love, eternal devotion, and tragic loss, manifest her weakness for sentimentality. She and her friends allow themselves to be swept up in such dreaminess-even enjoying their weepy farewell to Mr. Phillips, whom they hated.

Such indulgence, Montgomery suggests, is natural to the pre-teen female disposition, and tends to fade during early adulthood. Anne's rite of passage into the adult world is Matthew's death at the end of the novel, which is her first experience of true loss. Having mistaken sentimentality for true emotion as a child, she is surprised by her reaction to loss, and she learns about how to deal with emotion in the real world. Motifs Fashion - Anne's interest in fashion is not borne simply of a desire to look pretty, although looking pretty is rarely far from her mind. Her claim that it would be easier to be good if she were well dressed and beautiful reveals that in her mind that fashion overlaps with morality. She also says that she would be a more grateful person if she were happy with her looks-but since she is homely, she cannot appreciate God.

Her quest to find beauty will ultimately be rewarding, when, as an adult, she becomes a source of beauty herself rather than simply an appreciator of it. Anne also views fashion as a means of fitting in and finding an identity group. When she arrives, she wears the ugly skimpy clothes from the orphanage, which represent her status as a solitary, lonely person. At Green Gables, Marilla initially forces her to wear sensible clothes completely devoid of frills or beauty.

But a year or two, Matthew buys Anne her first puffed sleeve dress and Marilla thereafter consents to dress her in the latest fashions. These three steps from the orphanage clothes to sensible frocks to the party dresses she wears at Queen's represent the stages Anne goes through from her initial position as an outcast to her eventual place of social and academic prominence. Images of nature - Anne's imagination immediately reveals itself during her first ride to Green Gables when she waxes romantic about the beautiful trees and natural sights of Avonlea. Nature is not only a source of beauty but has also come to represent companionship and reliability for Anne. She finds friends in plants and playmates in brooks. As she matures, she continues to love nature, which, during the stressful exam period at Queen's gives her perspective about what is truly important in life.

At the end of the book, she looks to nature as a metaphor for her future, full of beauty, promise and mystery.