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.

Hans, I would recommend reading the book for yourself - it is excellently written and is a Canadian classic. However, don't go reading it with a pre-conceived idea - base your judgements on the book itself 😉

Might be an idea.

I've read almost all of the books (other than when Anne was a mother), but although I really enjoyed the first book, I mainly kept reading the others in the series simply because I had come to care for the characters, rather than for the pleasurable merits of the sequels.

My drama club just had our performnace of Anne of Avonlea yesterday. We all really liked the story and it encouraged a lot of us to read the books.

Oh, I've seen the play version of Anne of Avonlea before, it's really good, glad your school could do it. 🙂 Our community theater did Anne of Green Gables one year and then did Anne of Avonlea a couple of years later with the same girl playing Anne. I was in choir with "Anne" and I know that she loved the role and hopes they'll do an Anne of the Island so she can do it.

With the exception of the last Anne book about her daughter which is really more a war story that has Anne in it then a full part of the series on her life the books really do slow down after Anne of the Island (And I think I have more of a soft spot for that one because I'm the same age as Anne in it). There are still some great moments in them, but they don't have as much of a drive.

that's really cool. i played young anne. 🙂 the girl who played anne would start to sing "dear younger me" by mercyme whenever she saw me. XP

i've started the series and really like them so far.

On Monday night our local Christian radio station played through the whole Focus on the Family audio drama of Anne of Green Gables. It's one of those stories I've heard about my whole life as a Classic, but for some reason have never read, seen or heard. I quite enjoyed it though, I imagine they selected bits from the books, leaving a lot out.

I must say, though, that I can see why someone might accuse her of being a Mary Sue in the sense that a lot of things (even seemingly bad situations) ended up going her way. She was always top of her class (unless Gilbert beat her) and so good at reciting poetry and all most of her dreams came true. As a child, she hated her hair and freckles but then her hair went dark after she cut it and she was prettier as she got older. There were a few moments where it seemed a bit unrealistic, but it was fun and ahe was a rather likeable character.

I was in the same play as featherfish. I played Charlotta the fourth. She's not very popular :

...While I do agree that the ability for character growth is something Sues typically lack, and that Anne has, I have actually been rethinking my antipathy towards Sues across the board in recent years. I know they aren't Good Writing but I'm not sure that everyone needs to be doing Good Writing first thing out the gate? Maybe sometimes it's ok for people to just make a character they enjoy even if it is overblown and emotionally unrealistic, especially if the writer is young and still getting their feet under them. I'd rather have a bunch of Sues I'm not personally obligated to read out there existing whose authors may be enjoying themselves enough to stick around with their writing and get better over the years, than no Sues and less people caring about writing.

But anyway.

I do like Anne. I've liked her on different levels as time went on -- as a kid she seemed like somewhat of an aspirational figure, so creative and fun and getting to have a variety of (sometimes mis-) adventures even though she sometimes had to "learn her lesson" from them. As a grownup I revisit her and see how long she spent being desperately lonely and disconnected, how her imagination-use was partly a coping mechanism to generate friends when she had none as a younger child, and I think of all the people I've known, sometimes myself included, who've grown up with fewer social connections and a vivid inner world for various reasons and cheer for her getting to finally gain one, without completely losing the other.

Also, re: Anne as a Sue. I recently heard a discussion of the term that claimed that the true difference between Sues and a merely powerful and somewhat underdeveloped hero, is whether the plot bends to their will to an unrealistic degree. By that measure Anne would pass, because she faces realistic levels of trials and lives in a world with other strong personalities, who don't seem to spend all their time focused on her?