Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
You forget, issybird. The Maritimes are not strictly anglophone. In fact, New Brunswick is the only province with two official languages, and has a large (32%) Francophone minority. And while I'll agree that Anne probably resonates with New Englanders, it also resonates with much of the prairies. (And apparently resonates strongly with Japan, if the number of Japanese tourists is any indication!)
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No, I didn’t forget. One of the disturbing aspects of the story is how the French Canadians are regarded and treated as inferiors. The Cuthberts would rather adopt a “native” boy rather than continue to rely on (shiftless, it’s implied) French hired hands. And how about the feckless Mary Joe, who was so useless when Minnie May was ill? She rather reminded me of Prissy in
Gone with the Wind, with all that implies. She’s not even given the dignity of her real name, no doubt Marie-Josephe, as all those good villagers can’t be bothered with trying for a reasonable pronunciation.
So we know there are French Canadians on the periphery. Not a one is in the village school, however. Nor do they seem to have a church. No doubt Mrs. Lynne wouldn’t approve of papist carryings-on.
I’m not saying Anne doesn’t resonate with Canadians now; I’m saying that in the context of the time of the story, all those in the Maritimes would have had much more in common with and interchange with Americans from the New England states rather than their Canadian countrymen. Moreover, Canada hadn’t even been a unified country for very long at the time of the story, roughly 1880.