Hope you all like her as much…
x Karen

One key factor that sets Anne Shirley and Betsy Ray apart for me is their class status. Betsy Ray is, as Ann commented, fortunate to have strong family support. She is also lucky to have seemingly generous financial resources to support her in her intellectual and social pursuits. Anne Shirley, however, is consistently fighting to get the support and resources she needs to achieve her goals. Again, Ann mentioned this in her comment. Although Anne has Marilla and Diana as a support system, they offer little in the way of financial capital that can help Anne along the way. It was tough for me (as a young reader) to picture myself doing some of the things that Betsy Ray did because they were so very far from my socio-economic experience, whereas Anne’s experiences seemed more like something that might happen to me. That does not make either character more or less feminist than the other – but for me as a reader, it did make Anne’s journey feel more compelling. It is a matter a personal preference.

However, I think if you look at what’s being said in this review, it is not suggesting that “feminist equals feisty female protagonist” – she’s taking a nuanced look at one aspect of the story. I think the books are feminist overall, and I also don’t think that the characters have to make feminist choices at every single moment for that to be true. I think that it’s an interesting idea to look at a feminist series from the perspective of the individual books, which might not lead up to the same narrative we’re imagining. If I were reviewing LM Montgomery’s series, for example, based solely on Anne’s House of Dreams? I don’t know that we would have named this blog after her. And it doesn’t negate how great the books are, nor does it invalidate criticisms we might have of one of them. Slatebreaking or non-Slatebreaking books and characters within series that are the opposite is a fascinating subject, that I’d like to explore more.