esther
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
Kindred Spirit<br>With no mother, a constantly traveling father, grandparents as parents, and no siblings, Lucy Maud Montgomery can cause one to wonder if she ever lead a normal life. Could her childhood, love life, and family have impacted her writing? Might this create a similar pattern in her novels? What recognition has she received for her works?<br>At the tender age of 2, Maud, as she preferred to be called, lost her mother to tuberculosis. Since her father was constantly traveling for his business, her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill raised her. This small fact may have influenced her writing seeing that her two best known heroines, Anne and Emily, are both orphans. Also, elderly couples raised both of them. <br>Even during her own childhood, Maud liked to name things. She was noted in her first volume of journals to state, “I like things to have handles… even if they are only geraniums.” Indeed, her potted plant friend, who lived outside of her window, she christened as “Bonny”. <br>On her grandparents’ mantel, there were two white china dogs with green spots on them. These she would someday remember and recreate as Gog and Magog in the Anne of Green Gables series. <br>She too had the huge advantage as a writer to have been able to read starting at age three. Her favorites included Shakespeare and she enjoyed listening to her grandmother read out loud from the newspaper.<br>Another element taken straight from her childhood is the story club. In the book Anne of Green Gables, the main character, Anne, also forms a story club with some of her closest friends. She even writes a piece titled, “My Graves” which is likewise one of Montgomery’s first works. <br>While she was living with her grandparents and starting school, her grandparents adopted two boys named Well and Dave. I believe that this might have helped along her idea of Marilla adopting Dave and Dora in Anne of Green Gables.<br>Last but not least I would have to say that her constant living around Prince Edward Island made a huge impact on her writing. All but one of her many stories are set there and not surprisingly, as this was her country, her homeland that she so much loved.<br>Early on in her life, she shared letters with two pen pals. Some of which would be up to forty pages long and would have to be sent as packages. During her lifetime, she went through two engagements as is for Anne. She ends up marrying a pastor so in the process becomes a minister’s wife, one of whom she idolizes in her first Anne book.<br>Later in her life, she would face the real hardship of sending a loved one to war. Her oldest son, Chester, wished to join and this got copied when Jem and Walter go to war in Rilla of Ingleside.<br>In both the Anne series and the Emily series, she has them all be orphan girls who are writers and she sets them both on Prince Edward Island. It seems very believable that Anne and Emily are supposed to be reflecting Lucy Maud Montgomery as she was also all of the above.<br>Lucy Maud Montgomery, and her books, won many awards including being made a companion of the Order of the British Empire, being elected to the literary and artistic Institute in France, and being made a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts. Although it would be too numerous to list them all here but one of the biggest rewards she has received is being able to put Prince Edward Island on the map of the world. With her many wonderful books, she is giving her island to the rest of the world to share and enjoy. The Japanese are no exception. They come in flocks to get remarried in Green Gables exactly the way Maud and Anne both got married. They thoroughly enjoy her books and have added the translated version of Anne of Green Gables to their high school curriculum. These books and their author will be remembered for many generations to come.<br>On the whole, all the sources including, yours truly, agree to the fact that her life made a huge impact on her writing. <br><br>