On the morning when the final results of all the examinations were to be posted on the bulletin board at Queen’s, Anne and Jane walked down the street together. Jane was smiling and happy; examinations were over and she was comfortably sure she had made a pass at least; further considerations troubled Jane not at all; she had no soaring ambitions and consequently was not affected with the unrest attendant thereon. For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement. Anne was pale and quiet; in ten more minutes she would know who had won the medal and who the Avery. Beyond those ten minutes there did not seem, just then, to be anything worth being called Time.
“Of course you’ll win one of them anyhow,” said Jane, who couldn’t understand how the faculty could be so unfair as to order it otherwise.
“I have not hope of the Avery,” said Anne. “Everybody says Emily Clay will win it. And I’m not going to march up to that bulletin board and look at it before everybody. I haven’t the moral courage. I’m going straight to the girls’ dressing room. You must read the announcements and then come and tell me, Jane. And I implore you in the name of our old friendship to do it as quickly as possible. If I have failed just say so, without trying to break it gently; and whatever you do DON’T sympathize with me. Promise me this, Jane.”
Jane promised solemnly; but, as it happened, there was no necessity for such a promise. When they went up the entrance steps of Queen’s they found the hall full of boys who were carrying Gilbert Blythe around on their shoulders and yelling at the tops of their voices, “Hurrah for Blythe, Medalist!”
For a moment Anne felt one sickening pang of defeat and disappointment. So she had failed and Gilbert had won! Well, Matthew would be sorry—he had been so sure she would win.
And then!
Somebody called out:
“Three cheers for Miss Shirley, winner of the Avery!”
“Oh, Anne,” gasped Jane, as they fled to the girls’ dressing room amid hearty cheers. “Oh, Anne I’m so proud! Isn’t it splendid?”
And then the girls were around them and Anne was the center of a laughing, congratulating group. Her shoulders were thumped and her hands shaken vigorously. She was pushed and pulled and hugged and among it all she managed to whisper to Jane:
“Oh, won’t Matthew and Marilla be pleased! I must write the news home right away.”
Commencement was the next important happening. The exercises were held in the big assembly hall of the Academy. Addresses were given, essays read, songs sung, the public award of diplomas, prizes and medals made.
Matthew and Marilla were there, with eyes and ears for only one student on the platform—a tall girl in pale green, with faintly flushed cheeks and starry eyes, who read the best essay and was pointed out and whispered about as the Avery winner.
“Reckon you’re glad we kept her, Marilla?” whispered Matthew, speaking for the first time since he had entered the hall, when Anne had finished her essay.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been glad,” retorted Marilla. “You do like to rub things in, Matthew Cuthbert.”
Miss Barry, who was sitting behind them, leaned forward and poked Marilla in the back with her parasol.
“Aren’t you proud of that Anne-girl? I am,” she said.
Anne went home to Avonlea with Matthew and Marilla that evening. She had not been home since April and she felt that she could not wait another day. The apple blossoms were out and the world was fresh and young. Diana was at Green Gables to meet her. In her own white room, where Marilla had set a flowering house rose on the window sill, Anne looked about her and drew a long breath of happiness.
“Oh, Diana, it’s so good to be back again. It’s so good to see those pointed firs coming out against the pink sky—and that white orchard and the old Snow Queen. Isn’t the breath of the mint delicious? And that tea rose—why, it’s a song and a hope and a prayer all in one. And it’s GOOD to see you again, Diana!”
“I thought you liked that Stella Maynard better than me,” said Diana reproachfully. “Josie Pye told me you did. Josie said you were INFATUATED with her.”
Anne laughed and pelted Diana with the faded “June lilies” of her bouquet.
“Stella Maynard is the dearest girl in the world except one and you are that one, Diana,” she said. “I love you more than ever—and I’ve so many things to tell you. But just now I feel as if it were joy enough to sit here and look at you. I’m tired, I think—tired of being studious and ambitious. I mean to spend at least two hours tomorrow lying out in the orchard grass, thinking of absolutely nothing.”
“You’ve done splendidly, Anne. I suppose you won’t be teaching now that you’ve won the Avery?”
“No. I’m going to Redmond in September. Doesn’t it seem wonderful? I’ll have a brand new stock of ambition laid in by that time after three glorious, golden months of vacation. Jane and Ruby are going to teach. Isn’t it splendid to think we all got through even to Moody Spurgeon and Josie Pye?”
“The Newbridge trustees have offered Jane their school already,” said Diana. “Gilbert Blythe is going to teach, too. He has to. His father can’t afford to send him to college next year, after all, so he means to earn his own way through. I expect he’ll get the school here if Miss Ames decides to leave.”
Anne felt a queer little sensation of dismayed surprise. She had not known this; she had expected that Gilbert would be going to Redmond also. What would she do without their inspiring rivalry? Would not work, even at a coeducational college with a real degree in prospect, be rather flat without her friend the enemy?
The next morning at breakfast it suddenly struck Anne that Matthew was not looking well. Surely he was much grayer than he had been a year before.
“Marilla,” she said hesitatingly when he had gone out, “is Matthew quite well?”
“No, he isn’t,” said Marilla in a troubled tone. “He’s had some real bad spells with his heart this spring and he won’t spare himself a mite. I’ve been real worried about him, but he’s some better this while back and we’ve got a good hired man, so I’m hoping he’ll kind of rest and pick up. Maybe he will now you’re home. You always cheer him up.”
Anne leaned across the table and took Marilla’s face in her hands.
“You are not looking as well yourself as I’d like to see you, Marilla. You look tired. I’m afraid you’ve been working too hard. You must take a rest, now that I’m home. I’m just going to take this one day off to visit all the dear old spots and hunt up my old dreams, and then it will be your turn to be lazy while I do the work.”
Marilla smiled affectionately at her girl.
“It’s not the work—it’s my head. I’ve got a pain so often now—behind my eyes. Doctor Spencer’s been fussing with glasses, but they don’t do me any good. There is a distinguished oculist coming to the Island the last of June and the doctor says I must see him. I guess I’ll have to. I can’t read or sew with any comfort now. Well, Anne, you’ve done real well at Queen’s I must say. To take First Class License in one year and win the Avery scholarship—well, well, Mrs. Lynde says pride goes before a fall and she doesn’t believe in the higher education of women at all; she says it unfits them for woman’s true sphere. I don’t believe a word of it. Speaking of Rachel reminds me—did you hear anything about the Abbey Bank lately, Anne?”
“I heard it was shaky,” answered Anne. “Why?”
“That is what Rachel said. She was up here one day last week and said there was some talk about it. Matthew felt real worried. All we have saved is in that bank—every penny. I wanted Matthew to put it in the Savings Bank in the first place, but old Mr. Abbey was a great friend of father’s and he’d always banked with him. Matthew said any bank with him at the head of it was good enough for anybody.”
“I think he has only been its nominal head for many years,” said Anne. “He is a very old man; his nephews are really at the head of the institution.”
“Well, when Rachel told us that, I wanted Matthew to draw our money right out and he said he’d think of it. But Mr. Russell told him yesterday that the bank was all right.”
Anne had her good day in the companionship of the outdoor world. She never forgot that day; it was so bright and golden and fair, so free from shadow and so lavish of blossom. Anne spent some of its rich hours in the orchard; she went to the Dryad’s Bubble and Willowmere and Violet Vale; she called at the manse and had a satisfying talk with Mrs. Allan; and finally in the evening she went with Matthew for the cows, through Lovers’ Lane to the back pasture. The woods were all gloried through with sunset and the warm splendor of it streamed down through the hill gaps in the west. Matthew walked slowly with bent head; Anne, tall and erect, suited her springing step to his.
“You’ve been working too hard today, Matthew,” she said reproachfully. “Why won’t you take things easier?”
“Well now, I can’t seem to,” said Matthew, as he opened the yard gate to let the cows through. “It’s only that I’m getting old, Anne, and keep forgetting it. Well, well, I’ve always worked pretty hard and I’d rather drop in harness.”
“If I had been the boy you sent for,” said Anne wistfully, “I’d be able to help you so much now and spare you in a hundred ways. I could find it in my heart to wish I had been, just for that.”
“Well now, I’d rather have you than a dozen boys, Anne,” said Matthew patting her hand. “Just mind you that—rather than a dozen boys. Well now, I guess it wasn’t a boy that took the Avery scholarship, was it? It was a girl—my girl—my girl that I’m proud of.”
He smiled his shy smile at her as he went into the yard. Anne took the memory of it with her when she went to her room that night and sat for a long while at her open window, thinking of the past and dreaming of the future. Outside the Snow Queen was mistily white in the moonshine; the frogs were singing in the marsh beyond Orchard Slope. Anne always remembered the silvery, peaceful beauty and fragrant calm of that night. It was the last night before sorrow touched her life; and no life is ever quite the same again when once that cold, sanctifying touch has been laid upon it.
Contexte et présentation de l'auteur
Cet extrait est tiré d'Anne de Green Gables, un roman classique écrit par l'auteur canadienne Lucy Maud Montgomery. Publiée pour la première fois en 1908, l'histoire suit Anne Shirley, une orpheline imaginative et pleine d'esprit qui est envoyée par erreur vivre avec Marilla et Matthew Cuthbert, un frère et une sœur qui avaient l'intention d'adopter un garçon pour les aider à leur ferme à Avonlea. Le roman se déroule dans le village fictif d'Avonlea sur l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, au Canada, et il capture la beauté et la simplicité de la vie rurale au début du XXe siècle.
Lucy Maud Montgomery s'est inspirée de ses propres expériences d'enfance et des paysages de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard. Ses descriptions vives et ses riches caractérisations ont fait d'Anne de Green Gables un ouvrage adoré par les lecteurs du monde entier depuis plus d'un siècle.
Interprétation détaillée et signification de l'histoire
Ce passage capture un moment charnière dans la vie d'Anne : l'annonce des prix scolaires et la célébration de sa réussite. Il révèle la profonde sensibilité émotionnelle d'Anne et ses sentiments complexes concernant l'ambition, la compétition et l'amitié. La confiance facile de Jane contraste avec l'espoir anxieux d'Anne, soulignant la nature passionnée d'Anne et ses grandes aspirations.
La scène où Anne est initialement déçue de voir Gilbert Blythe célébré, pour ensuite être joyeusement reconnue comme la lauréate de la bourse Avery, est une puissante représentation de l'espoir, de la résilience et du triomphe du travail acharné. Elle souligne également l'importance de l'amitié et du soutien, car les encouragements de Jane et les félicitations des filles élèvent Anne.
Le passage introduit également les thèmes de la famille, de la responsabilité et de la santé à travers les personnages de Matthew et Marilla, montrant l'interdépendance de la réussite personnelle et de la communauté. Le retour d'Anne à la maison, ses réflexions sur l'ambition et son souci de la santé de Matthew ajoutent des couches de chaleur et de réalisme à l'histoire.
Leçons et perspectives pour les élèves
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La valeur de l'ambition et du travail acharné : Le parcours d'Anne enseigne aux élèves que l'ambition est précieuse, mais qu'elle exige de la dévotion, de la discipline personnelle et de la résilience. Le succès ne se gagne pas facilement ; il exige des efforts et implique parfois de l'anxiété et des revers.
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Gérer la déception avec grâce : La déception initiale d'Anne lorsque Gilbert est acclamé montre comment faire face aux revers avec courage. Sa capacité à se reprendre et à célébrer sa propre réussite est une leçon importante de maturité émotionnelle.
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Le pouvoir de l'amitié : La promesse de Jane à Anne et le soutien qu'Anne reçoit de ses pairs soulignent l'importance d'amis fidèles et honnêtes qui nous encouragent dans les moments difficiles.
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Équilibrer l'ambition avec le repos : Le désir d'Anne de prendre du temps pour étudier et se détendre dans la nature rappelle aux élèves la nécessité d'un équilibre entre le travail et le repos pour le bien-être mental et physique.
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Empathie et soins familiaux : Le souci d'Anne pour la santé de Matthew et Marilla enseigne l'empathie et l'importance de prendre soin de ses proches, en reconnaissant que les réalisations personnelles font partie d'un contexte familial et communautaire plus large.
Appliquer ces leçons dans la vie, les études et les milieux sociaux
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À l'école : Les élèves peuvent apprendre à se fixer des objectifs réalistes et à travailler régulièrement pour les atteindre, en comprenant que la persévérance est essentielle. Ils doivent également s'exercer à gérer les résultats des examens et la compétition avec grâce, en soutenant leurs camarades de classe plutôt qu'en les enviant.
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Dans la vie sociale : Construire des amitiés honnêtes et solidaires comme celles d'Anne et de Jane peut apporter de la force pendant les défis. Écouter les besoins de ses amis et leur offrir des encouragements favorise des liens solides.
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Dans le développement personnel : Il est essentiel d'équilibrer l'ambition avec les soins personnels. Prendre des pauses, profiter de la nature et réfléchir à ses rêves personnels permet de maintenir la motivation et d'éviter l'épuisement professionnel.
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Dans les relations familiales : Montrer de l'intérêt pour le bien-être des membres de la famille et partager ses réalisations avec eux renforce les liens familiaux et crée un environnement favorable.
Cultiver les qualités positives de l'histoire
- Résilience : Imitez la capacité d'Anne à faire face à l'incertitude et à la déception sans perdre espoir.
- Courage : Développez le courage moral de confronter honnêtement les vérités difficiles, comme Anne le demande à Jane.
- Gratitude : Appréciez le soutien de vos amis et de votre famille, en reconnaissant leur rôle dans votre réussite personnelle.
- Ambition avec humilité : Poursuivez vos objectifs avec passion, mais restez humble et attentionné envers les autres.
- Empathie : Soyez attentif aux besoins et aux sentiments de ceux qui vous entourent, en offrant votre aide en cas de besoin.
En réfléchissant aux expériences d'Anne, les élèves peuvent cultiver ces qualités dans leur propre vie, ce qui les aidera à devenir des personnes réfléchies, déterminées et compatissantes. L'histoire encourage les jeunes lecteurs à rêver grand tout en valorisant l'amitié, la famille et l'équilibre, un message intemporel qui reste pertinent aujourd'hui.
