TLC Forum

Anne is in no way perfect! But in her imagination (especially during the first half of the book), what with the imaginary name Cordelia Fitzgerald and everything, she does resemble a Mary-Sue. That's probably what you were thinking of, Hans.

Anne's has several issues - a hot temper and vanity being the most notable, I think - that puts her at odds with various people. True, she does charm her way out of a few situations and things tend to work out well in the end for her (Marilla decides to keep this wayward child, Rachel (mostly) puts up with her, Gilbert goes from childhood enemy to scholastic rival to love interest, Diana is an instant friend despite her flaws, so on), but it's more the growth of characters that leads to happy endings than it is Anne sweet-talking her way through.
Granted, her flaws and their consequences, I think, might be more prominent in the books than the films; but I've only read three of the books, so I only have so much understanding there.

I haven't read any, I only know them by reviews, and yours are about doubling my knowledge.

I've read all of the books! And I really do love them.

Re: Anne as a Sue

Perhaps a little bit in the later books, but that's because she's moved from main character to mother character. In the earlier books she's far from a Sue, more like a role model. I think the things about her that might seem to perfect is that she makes mistakes, a LOT of mistakes, but she actually /learns/ from them, which a lot of characters don't actually learn from their mistakes right away whereas Anne typically does.

It's like Lucy. No one would call Lucy a Sue even though she is the character who is the most "perfect", she has flaws, but she's willing to learn and grow from her experiences instead of making the same mistake over and over. So role model characters.

Ah, in your book a Sue is only a Sue if not needing that.

I love how you put that, Tooky. It's been a while since I've read the books, but I highly doubt a Sue would accidentally dye her hair green and then live with the consequences.

Which were?

*curious*

Having to cut it off and be called "scarecrow" by some of her schoolmates.
To put the story in context, Hans, Anne had bright red hair, and she hated it. She wished so much that it would be black like her friend Diana's, so when a peddler selling hair dye came to the door while no one but herself was home, she eagerly bought a bottle of dye that he guaranteed would turn her hair jet black, lured in part by the peddler's promise that the dye would not wash out. Anne used the whole bottle and, to her horror, discovered that it turned it a horrible shade of dull green! When Marilla, her guardian, came home she was horrified and tried to wash the dye out but, true to the peddler's word, it was impossible and Anne was left with the option either to let her hair stay green forever, or to cut it short as a boy's and let it grow back in its natural color. She chose the second option, and admitted that though her hair had been red, she hated to cut it because it was so long and thick and curly.

She could have waited, theoretically, till the red hair grow from the hair bottom (or whatever is the English for this, I'm translating "hårbotten" word for word) and pushed the green out to the tips where they could be eventually cut off.

So, if she is an author avatar a memory by authoress (the novel was written by a lady, right?) prevented her from being a down right Sue. I agree, a total Mary Sue would not have hated her red hair so much as to dye it in the first place.

She could have waited for her red hair to grow out again (from the roots, as we call them), but even if one has fast-growing hair, that would take a very long time, plus all the humiliation in that time of having nasty green hair.