Anne of Green Gables Narrator Point of View

Third Person (Omniscient)

We know that when it comes to the village of Avonlea, the Anne of Green Gables narrator is all-seeing because the story doesn't start with Anne…or even with the people who will become her family.

It starts with Mrs. Rachel Lynde, the town gossip, and a side character without a plotline of her own. The narration doesn't describe her objectively, either. It pokes fun at her, describing her all-seeing eye.

A bit like Mrs. Rachel Lynde, the narrator is an Avonlea insider, who knows every character in town. Proper names are dropped constantly, as if readers are supposed to know who they are (even if they haven't been mentioned before). This narrator plays favorites, too, usually describing Anne, Marilla, and Matthew with sympathy, but painting starker pictures of people like Ruby Gillis and Mr. Phillips.