God, Prayer, and Church Theme Analysis

Anne of Green Gables depicts Christian language, concepts, and morals with which many of its original readers would have been familiar. In Avonlea, community life largely revolves around the local church. When Anne comes to Green Gables, her guardians take for granted that she’ll become an observant Presbyterian like them and most of their neighbors. At first, however, Marilla is scandalized by Anne’s unfamiliarity with basic religious practices like prayer and tries to mold her offbeat ideas into more orthodox ones. Over time, as Anne attends church and gets to know older Christians, Anne develops an understanding of Christianity that’s entirely her own instead of one that’s imposed on her by well-meaning authorities. Though the novel doesn’t challenge any mainstream religious ideas, Anne’s growth suggests that religious devotion develops most authentically through trusted examples and firsthand experiences over time, not primarily through instruction. What’s more, Anne learns that authentic devotion is even characterized by joy, not just fulfillment of expectations.

Anne’s exposure to Christianity has mostly been secondhand, and her understanding is accordingly stunted. When Anne first arrives at Green Gables, Marilla is shocked to learn that Anne never says any bedtime prayers. In self-defense, Anne tells Marilla that someone told her “that God made my hair red on purpose, and I’ve never cared about Him since. And anyhow I’d always be too tired at night to bother saying prayers. People who have to look after twins can’t be expected to[.]” Anne believes that God has arranged her life in such a way (having red hair; having to take care of small children) that she can’t be expected to pray, at least not with any gratitude.

Anne further tells Marilla that she doesn’t understand the purpose of traditions like kneeling to pray: “If I really wanted to pray […] I’d go out into a great big field all alone […] and I’d look up […] into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.” In other words, Anne associates prayer with the beauty of the world—the things that inspire wonder in her—and thinks that prayer is instinctively felt in such moments, not something that needs to be expressed in words or performed according to set traditions.

Firsthand experience is important to Anne’s development of genuine religious belief. Marilla, though she’s disturbed by Anne’s lack of religious training, perceives that Anne “knew and cared nothing about God’s love, since she had never had it translated to her through the medium of human love.” Though Marilla disapproves of Anne’s attitudes about prayer, she also believes that Anne can’t be expected to know any better, when Christianity has only been presented to her as something abstract. Without having known human love, in other words, it’s hard for a person to believe in divine love.

Accordingly, as Anne gets to know Christians she admires, she changes her outlook on religion. The kindly new minister’s wife, Mrs. Allan, inspires Anne with her happiness: “I never knew before that religion was such a cheerful thing. I always thought it was kind of melancholy, but Mrs. Allan’s isn’t, and I’d like to be a Christian if I could be one like her […] I’d dance and sing all day because I was glad of it […] I can just feel she’s glad she’s a Christian and that she’d be one even if she could get to heaven without it.” Even though Anne’s understanding of Christianity is still rather simplistic—a matter of getting to heaven or not—it’s based on the insight that genuine religious belief shapes a person’s personality and behavior; it’s something a person should want to pursue for its own sake and not just for its perceived benefits.

When Anne is older, and she earns the Island’s top academic marks and entrance to teachers’ college, she finds that prayer comes easily: “That night Anne […] knelt sweetly by her open window […] and murmured a prayer of gratitude and aspiration that came straight from her heart. There was in it all the thankfulness for the past and reverent petition for the future[.]” Anne no longer has to be cajoled into prayer, and kneeling in gratitude and summoning words no longer feel forced; as she has matured in her outlook on her life overall, her religious feelings have deepened in sincerity, and even joy, along with it.