Josie Pye is supposed to be an Alpha Bitch (in her mind anyway) but her bitchy behavior is pretty minor and a few times Anne actually starts it. Plus, characters constantly go on about how awful the Pye girls are and Josie is the youngest. You have to wonder how much of her attitude is a result of being harshly judged based on her family.
Is Dora Richard really stoic and plain or a depressed Stepford Smiler? She loses her mother, her uncle delays taking her and her brother in before he dies, she has to live with people she barely knows and ignore her in favor of Davy, who bullies her and she isn’t mentioned to have any friends. It’s a lot for her young age.
Anne and Diana's friendship has a ton of Les Yay subtext, with the two frequently exchanging romantic exchanges, and, in the second Kevin Sulivan film — Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel — a kiss on the lips. While the original books intended this to be the result of their Pseudo-Romantic Friendship — which was common among young girls around the time of the original books — some readers speculate that the two might have genuine romantic feelings for each other, with professor Laura Robinson doing an essay in 2000 speculating that Anne could have repressed sapphic feelings and desires for Diana and other women, given that many of her interactions them come across as very romantic, even though Montgomery never intended them as such.note Like most people of her time, L.M.M. Montgomery was against homosexuality, reportedly finding it to be "abhorrent", so it's highly unlikely that she intended Anne to be anything but heterosexual.Anne of West Philly and Anne: An Adaptation notably follow through with this idea and re-interpret Anne and Diana's friendship as a romance, while re-contextualizing their Les Yay moments and flowery exchanges in the original books to be Ship Tease.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The scene where Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk on currant wine in the musical. In the book and in the anime, this incident has major consequences, causing Mrs. Barry to forbid Diana from seeing Anne. In the live-action show, however, the scene merely happens, and is never referred to again, with Mrs. Barry being more-or-less chill about the whole thing. The audience doesn't really care, though, because it's still pretty funny.
Crosses the Line Twice: The impact is lost a bit since jokes about religion have become much more commonplace, but Anne's first attempt at praying was very much this in 1908.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Anne herself is viewed by an abundance of fans as possibly having a mix of autism and ADHD. She's extremely empathetic despite her social struggles (which could rather be due to past trauma and being confined to an orphanage). She often shifts between emotions on a dime, which could be seen as a sign Alexithymia. She has high amounts of energy and a vivid imagination, even compared to most children her age. Her love for reading and storytelling could easily be viewed as a special interest in literature, as she spends lots of time reading and also being incredibly skilled at reading despite lack of prior education, and she loves to talk a lot about the stories she reads.
Fair for Its Day: While the series has its share of Values Dissonance, the portrayal of Anne herself is agreed to have held up well over the years. She's an ambitious, headstrong, intelligent, and creative Plucky Girl whose motivations do not revolve around the male characters, is depicted with realistic flaws that she overcomes, goes to college and gets a brief career as a teacher (and then a principal), and often refuses to adhere to strict gender norms. Now granted, she is still a product of the time and she does grow into more of a stereotypical housewife in later books (however, it's largely portrayed as being her choice and no one else's, and she still encourages her own children to be imaginative and ambitious), but at the time the books were written, where women were written as passive, weak, and subservient, a woman as imaginative and headstrong as Anne was incredibly bold and unusual.
First Installment Wins: Most people don't even realize that Anne of Green Gables is a series. So much emphasis is put on the first book, most people don't even know there are sequels.
The novel has a huge fanbase in Japan, of all places.
It's theorised that the idea of a determined little individualist girl is just that fascinating to female Japanese culture. It's actually relatively common for 1800s western literature to be popular there, as a kind of Foreign Culture Fetish. However, the fanbase in Japan is so huge, it's not uncommon to see Japanese couples getting married in Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. Or for the nearby inns and hotels to be filled with other Japanese tourists. Even the signs in the tourist attractions on Prince Edward Island will often have Japanese printed right under the English. Anne Of Green Gables is even popular on an academic level in Japan. It's required reading in the curricula of many schools; in fact, it's even been republished in manga/comic format for the sole purpose of encouraging more children and teenagers to read it. If you're interested, you can read the history of the book and its influence on Japan here.
Both the Kevin Sullivan (live-action) series and Anne with an E have been dubbed and broadcast in Japan, the former even airing on one of the nation's biggest commercial TV stations, Fuji TV. Severalanimeadaptations based on the books would also be made. The first in 1979 notably having the involvement of a pre-Studio GhibliIsao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki.
An Anne of Green Gablestheme park was built in Japan during The '90s. Though due to its location (being located in the remote Ashibetsu, which was far away from most of the major Japanese tourist spots) and the 1997 Asian financial crisis, It would close in 1997 and subsequently transformed into "Canadian World Park" a couple of decades later, removing most of the Anne specific theming (though traces remain).
Despite being a Canadian novel, it is very popular in the United States. It has many adaptations that re-imagine the story in the US (a decision that greatly upset Lucy Maud Montgomery).
It's also a mega-hit in China. As of 2012, it was among the top 50 most influential novels there.
Anne of Green Gables also became popular in Poland. During the USSR's occupation, the book was banned because it embraced themes of individuality and loyalty to one's family unit, but Poles still circulated banned copies around as she was seen as a symbol of resistance. To this day it is School Study Media in Polish schools. It was also voted the nation's 4th most popular novel ever in 1932.
Harsher in Hindsight: In "Anne of Windy Poplars", she thinks about teaching her students about the War of 1812 and how Canada's history of taking part in wars is over. Unfortunately, later on in "Rilla of Ingleside", her own son Walter ends up going off to fight in WWI and dies. Since "Windy Poplars" was written after "Rilla of Ingleside" despite taking place beforehand, this may or may not have been intentional as well.
Anne wanting to go to a "concert" with Diana (this being the early 20th century, the word is referring to several local townspeople doing dramatic or comic recitations) plays out exactly like a modern teen trying to get permission to go to a rock concert.
In 1908 the word "cordial" referred to a soda, but has since been changed to an alcoholic drink. Thus, modern readers will likely get confused at why Diana drinking wine is so bad when everyone was fine with her having cordial.
Back in 2000, professor Laura Robinson sparked a brief media controversy after writing an essay that suggested that Anne expressed a repressed romantic interest in women, particularly with Diana, which sparked outrage from purists at the time. Decades since the controversy, at least twoadaptations which depict Anne as being sapphic and in love with Diana have been made.
One passage early on in the first book has Diana refer to Anne as a "queer girl". While queer didn't have the same connotations at the time that it does now,note Queer was used to mean strange rather than a homosexual/bisexual person. Anne being referred to as "queer" is quite funny given their Les Yay later on. It is even funnier knowing that a century later, Anne would be depicted as a "queer girl" in the more modern context in Anne: An Adaptation and Anne of West Philly, where she falls in love with Diana instead of Gilbert.
Diana Barry: You're a queer girl, Anne. I heard before that you were queer. But I believe I'm going to like you real well.
Les Yay: While L. M. Montgomery did not intend any queer subtext (especially since she was against homosexuality like most people were in her time), it's not hard at all to find subtext between Anne and her female friends in the books.
Anne and Diana are famous for this thanks to their bosom friendship. They frequently exchange flowery dialogue, constantly declare their devotion and love for each other, become heartbroken when they're forced to separate by Diana's mom following the wine incident, with Anne saying she can't live without Diana, and in Anne of Avonlea, Anne describes Diana as "the bride of her dreams" and gives her a goodbye kiss. To top it all off, Diana outright calls Anne "queer" in the first book (which meant strange at the time, but has very different connotations now). While the two were not intended to be viewed in a romantic light, given that the books were written at a time where sentimental Pseudo Romantic Friendships were the norm, it's hard to not view them as such today.
Anne and Katherine have a good deal of this in Anne of Windy Polars stemming from their enemies-to-friends dynamic, with Anne trying to befriend Katherine and saying to her at one point that what Katherine wants is a "good darn spanking". The two also end up becoming very close once Katherine moves, with the two being stated to go on walks down "lovers lane".
Memetic Hair: Anne's red hair in double plaits. Even people who have never read the book can easily identify Anne due to them.
The BBC:With two red braids hanging from her straw hat, Anne of Green Gables may just be the most recognisable ginger-haired girl in the world.
Memetic Mutation: The "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers" quote is usually shared around online once October begins.
Periphery Demographic: In Communist-occupied Poland, this book garnered a fandom among La Résistance. It was already popular before, but the Soviets banning it further boosted the love for it. Anne was seen as a Movement Mascot and many dissidents owned copies.
Anne breaking her slate over Gilbert Blythe's head in class.
Anne's attempts at dyeing her hair black, and turning it green by mistake.
And of course Anne accidentally getting Diana drunk on wine.
Spiritual Successor: Many believe the novel is this to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, as both are about Heartwarming Orphans who daydream a lot coming to live with a pair of unprepared caretakers who eventually warm up to them, though Anne is praised for executing the concept better, having characters with more depth and being more enjoyable to read overall.
Values Resonance: Marilla supports Anne's studying for the entrance exam for Queen's because she believes that a young woman should be "fitted to earn her own living whether she ever has to or not." It would be a stretch to call Marilla a feminist, but that was a more pragmatically pro-woman stance than many people would have for decades afterward.