If you're looking for the character type, go to The Pollyanna.Pollyanna a novel by Eleanor Porter, is the first of a series of thirteen novels known as "The Glad Books", about an orphaned girl living with her aunt in the early 20th century. Young Pollyanna goes by a philosophy called "The Glad Game" where she finds something to be glad about in every situation. Combined with her sunny personality, her presence helps to reform her dismal town and, most effectively, her miserable aunt.
The novel was an instant success, warranting twelve sequels by different authors and passing the name "Pollyanna" itself into the vernacular to describe the archetype she embodies. It was adapted into Movies and tv series several times including a 1920 silent movie, a 1986 Anime series as part of the
World Masterpiece Theater series and perhaps most famously made into a film by Disney starring Hayley Mills.
After Porter abandoned the "Glad Books" series, it was taken over by first Harriet Lummis Smith, then Elizabeth Borton, Margaret Piper Chalmers and finally Virginia May Moffatt. Later books took Pollyanna into marriage, motherhood and war, not to mention living in places as disparate as a tenement in New York, a castle in Mexico, and Hollywood - playing "The Glad Game" and warming others' lives all along.
Provides Examples Of:
- Blithe Spirit: The first book revolves around the title character reforming her town and its inhabitants by teaching them her philosophy.
- Break the Cutie: Well, the Universe seems to be trying...
- Cheerful Child
- Despair Event Horizon: When this happens to Pollyanna, just about the whole town tries to help.
- Floating Head Syndrome: The Disney version's DVD case
◊. - For Happiness: Pollyanna likes everyone and wants them to be happy. She seems to accomplish this goal without realizing the size of her role.
- Foreshadowing / Harsher in Hindsight: Pollyanna's father taught her the Glad Game when a missionary barrel they received contained a pair of crutches instead of a much-wanted doll. He said she could be glad she didn't need to use them. Near the end of the book (and movie) she finds herself severely crippled, with warnings that she may never walk again....
- Happily Adopted: Several individuals in the series.
- Happy Ending: Well, duh.
- Heartwarming Orphan: two in the first book.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Pollyanna Grows Up; for numerous characters.
- Licked by the Dog: Some people find Pollyanna's friendliness to be this, at least at first.
- Plucky Girl
- The Pollyanna: The Trope Namer.
- Pre Approved Sermon: In the 1960 Disney movie version
- Stepford Smiler: While Pollyanna's cheerfulness is mostly genuine, she occasionally shows signs of struggling to maintain that cheerfulness, most notably when she cries while praying to her dead father about how hard it is to be glad all the time and when she gets crippled in an accident and learns that she may never walk again.
- Think Happy Thoughts: Pollyanna's "game" involves finding a brightside to even the saddest situations.
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