Friendship Theme Analysis

Anne Shirley’s favorite phrases include “bosom friends” and “kindred spirits.” Though these terms are somewhat interchangeable for Anne, they refer to best friends and to people who share similar outlooks on life, respectively. When Anne comes to Green Gables, she makes her first “bosom friend” in Diana Barry, finding that friendship can come easily to open-hearted people who are willing to be loyal to one another. Over time, Anne also discovers that while not everyone can be her “bosom friend,” her criteria for being a “kindred spirit” should be expanded, since one can’t always identify such a person at first glance. Through Anne’s journey from loneliness to gathering an array of friends, Montgomery suggests that while a “bosom friend” might be rare, “kindred spirits” can be found more readily than expected, and the key to finding both is keeping an open mind and heart.

Because Anne has grown up mostly caring for younger children and lacking friends her own age, she longs to find a true friend. Anne’s past friends have been imaginary: a girl she called Katie Maurice (her reflection in the glass doors of a bookcase), and, later, an echo of her own voice in the woods that Anne called Violetta. In the past, Anne’s only experiences of friendship have literally been extensions of herself.

Not long after her arrival at Green Gables, Anne asks Marilla, “do you think that I shall ever have a bosom friend in Avonlea? […] a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul. I’ve dreamed of meeting her all my life.” Because Anne has never had friends, she longs for a real friendship marked by mutual devotion and loyalty; she also longs to be truly understood.

When Anne finally meets Diana, the girl who lives next door to Green Gables, friendship comes easily to them both. The first thing Anne says to her friend is, “Oh, Diana […] do you think you can like me a little—enough to be my bosom friend?” Diana cheerfully agrees on the grounds that “It will be jolly to have somebody to play with […] I’ve no sisters big enough.” The girls accordingly swear an oath of loyalty and are soon absorbed in imaginative play together. Anne’s and Diana’s quick bond suggests that sometimes, openness, kindness, and imagination are sufficient grounds for a “bosom friendship.”

In fact, kindred spirits—people who instinctively like and understand one another—aren’t as rare as Anne first believed. When Anne and Diana accidentally frighten Diana’s forbidding, elderly aunt, Josephine Barry, by jumping into her bed in the middle of the night, Anne’s heartfelt plea for forgiveness draws unexpected warmth and humor from the old lady. Anne concludes, “You wouldn’t think so to look at her, but she is [a kindred spirit]. You don’t find it right out at first […] but after a while you come to see it. Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” As Anne encounters more people, she learns that genuine friendship is more common than her lonely childhood had led her to believe, and furthermore, a person can’t necessarily judge a potential friend right away—a kindred spirit might be found beneath an unlikely exterior.

In a similar way, it takes Anne years to admit that her one-time enemy, Gilbert Blythe, could possibly be a friend, but as she grows up, she looks at him differently: “she had a vague consciousness that masculine friendship might also be a good thing to round out one’s conceptions of companionship […] they might have had many and merry and interesting conversations about the new world that was opening around them.” As Anne’s outlook matures, her criteria for what counts as a “kindred spirit” evolves, too; she considers that a boy—even one who’s been an annoying rival—might understand her better than she’d suspected.

From Anne’s early friendless days to her happier teen years, surrounded by friends young and old, Anne’s openness to other people remains constant. Montgomery suggests that this kind of willingness to trust and see the best in others is the key to finding genuine friends, no matter a person’s circumstances.