Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

First published: 1913

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Sentimental

Time of plot: Early twentieth century

Locale: Beldingsville, Vermont

Principal characters

• Miss Polly Harrington, a stern unmarried woman
• Pollyanna Whittier, Miss Polly’s orphaned eleven-year-old niece
• Nancy, Miss Polly’s servant
• Old Tom, Miss Polly’s gardener
• Jimmy Bean, a ten-year-old orphan boy
• Mr. John Pendleton, a wealthy citizen of the town
• Dr. Chilton, a local physician

The Story:

As Miss Polly Harrington tells her servant Nancy to prepare an attic room for the arrival of her orphaned eleven-year-old niece, Pollyanna, it is clear that Miss Polly is not fond of children. Pollyanna’s mother—Miss Polly’s sister—died years ago, but Miss Polly still thinks disapprovingly of her sister’s marriage. Rejecting a proposal from a wealthy local man, Miss Polly’s sister instead fell in love with a humble young minister, married him, and moved west. Now, the minister, Pollyanna’s father, has died too, and Pollyanna is coming to live with dutiful Aunt Polly.

Good-hearted Nancy readies the room for Pollyanna and complains about Miss Polly’s prickly ways to Old Tom, the gardener. Old Tom reveals that Miss Polly’s sour demeanor began after an unhappy love affair, and the man she loved still lives in town. Nancy is eager to learn the man’s identity, but Old Tom refuses to give away the secret.

Miss Polly sends Nancy to the train station to meet Pollyanna instead of going herself. The attic room proves hot and uncomfortable, and Miss Polly punishes Pollyanna for climbing out the window. In each case, Pollyanna assumes the best motives of Miss Polly and finds a way to be glad about her situation.

Pollyanna then explains what she calls the “Glad Game” to Nancy. It began when her father asked for supplies for his missionary efforts, including a doll for Pollyanna. The churchwomen sending the supplies had no doll and sent a pair of crutches instead. Her father explained to the disappointed Pollyanna that the game involved always finding something to be glad about; the crutches could be a source of gladness for Pollyanna and her father because they could be glad that they did not need them. Nancy begins to play the Glad Game in her own life. Pollyanna is unable to tell Aunt Polly about the Glad Game, however, because Aunt Polly, still holding old grudges, refuses to let Pollyanna mention her father.

Pollyanna’s cheerful ways begin to win over the neighborhood. She delivers delicacies to the invalid Mrs. Snow, arranging her hair and inspiring her to take a renewed interest in life. Pollyanna even begins greeting a bad-tempered man she sees on the street. Nancy tells Pollyanna that the man is John Pendleton, a wealthy and reclusive gentleman.

Although Aunt Polly refuses to hear about the Glad Game, Pollyanna uses it to find ways to be glad about her poor attic room. Pollyanna’s innocent gladness shames Aunt Polly into giving her a more comfortable room downstairs. Pollyanna also innocently assumes that Aunt Polly will be glad to take in a forlorn kitten and a stray dog and persuades her to do so. Pollyanna then comes across the bedraggled orphan Jimmy Bean. Pollyanna is sure Aunt Polly will be glad to take him in as well, but Aunt Polly rejects him and loses her temper.

Pollyanna comes up with a new plan to help Jimmy Bean, appealing to the Ladies’ Aid society at the church. However, she finds that the society’s members are more interested in helping children in India than those in town because helping Indian children will earn them a prominent place in the society’s annual report.

Out for a walk, Pollyanna comes across John Pendleton, who has fallen and broken his leg. She runs to his house and phones for his doctor, Dr. Chilton. While they wait, she talks to Pendleton and says that she can see that he is not as gruff on the inside as he is outside. She stays to comfort him until Dr. Chilton and rescuers arrive.

That week, Pollyanna asks Aunt Polly if, instead of taking calf’s-foot jelly to Mrs. Snow, she can take it to another invalid. Aunt Polly agrees but grows angry when she learns that the recipient is John Pendleton. Finally, she relents on the condition that Pollyanna does not let Pendleton think that the jelly came from Aunt Polly. Pollyanna takes the jelly to Pendleton, who is startled to learn that she is Aunt Polly’s niece. Pollyanna is careful to tell Pendleton that Aunt Polly did not send the jelly, which causes amusement from him and later horror from Aunt Polly.

Pollyanna persuades Aunt Polly to let her arrange her aunt’s hair and drape a pretty shawl over her shoulders, but Aunt Polly is furious when Dr. Chilton catches a glimpse of her. He has come to ask Pollyanna to help cheer up Pendleton. After she returns, Pollyanna mentions her conversation with Pendleton to Nancy: Pendleton told Pollyanna that she reminded him of something he wants to forget. Nancy, who has read many sensational romances, guesses that Pendleton was Aunt Polly’s tragic lover.

Pendleton is so inspired by Pollyanna that he asks her if he can adopt her. Pollyanna unwittingly assumes that he means to marry Aunt Polly and is overjoyed. Pendleton reveals, however, that he was never Aunt Polly’s suitor. He was in love with Pollyanna’s mother and was devastated when she married another man. Embittered, he has only started to recover after encountering Pollyanna’s bright spirits.

Learning that Aunt Polly has been worried about her, Pollyanna is happy to hear that she cares for her. She tells Pendleton that she cannot live with him but suggests he adopt Jimmy Bean. She also cheers up the town minister, the Reverend Paul Ford, who is discouraged by parish difficulties. She tells him that her father found eight hundred passages about rejoicing in the Bible, and the reverend decides to preach more positive sermons.

Dr. Chilton reveals to Pollyana that he has his own lost love. Later, crossing a road, Pollyanna is hit by a car. She is badly hurt, and the household is consumed with worry. Pendleton comes to visit her, which leads Old Tom to tell Nancy about Pendleton. After Pendleton had been rejected by Aunt Polly’s sister, town gossips spread the rumor that Aunt Polly was chasing after him. This rumor caused an estrangement that only Pollyanna has begun to heal. Pendleton reveals to Aunt Polly that he wanted to adopt Pollyanna and that Pollyanna chose to stay with Aunt Polly.

Pollyanna remains ill and unable to walk, and Aunt Polly insists on calling in a specialist rather than Dr. Chilton. Pollyanna overhears that she may never be able to walk again and is devastated. She laments that she finds it too hard to play the Glad Game now. Pendleton tells her that he has decided to adopt Jimmy Bean. A flood of others tell Aunt Polly how their lives have been changed by playing the Glad Game. Aunt Polly is puzzled, so finally Nancy describes the Glad Game to her. So many people testify that they have benefited from the Glad Game that Pollyanna begins to find things to be glad about again.

As the weeks pass and Pollyanna remains an invalid, Dr. Chilton tells Pendleton that he wishes he could see Pollyanna. He thinks he knows of a cure, but his relationship with Aunt Polly is too awkward for him to be consulted. It is actually Dr. Chilton who is Aunt Polly’s estranged lover. Jimmy Bean overhears the conversation and goes to Aunt Polly himself. When she hears that Dr. Chilton might have a cure, she sends for him immediately.

Pollyanna is sent to a hospital. She writes a letter to Aunt Polly and “Uncle Tom” Chilton, telling them that she has already been able to take her first steps. She is delighed that Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton were married at her bedside, and she is finding ways to be glad about losing the ability to walk for a while, because now she appreciates it so much more.

Bibliography

Griswold, Jerry. Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America’s Classic Children’s Books. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. A book for specialists, outlining a Freudian reading of Pollyanna. Analyzes the books in terms of Freud’s ideas of the stages of child development, concluding that Pollyanna is full of oedipal conflict and that Pollyanna herself is a manipulative character.

Levine, Murray. “Pollyanna and the Glad Game: A Potential Contribution to Positive Psychology.” Journal of Positive Psychology 2, no. 4 (2007): 219-227. Discusses the potential of the Glad Game to provide a model for psychological processes.

Mills, Alice. “Pollyanna and the Not So Glad Game.” Children’s Literature 27 (1999): 87-104. A psychotherapist examines the use and limitations of the Glad Game in Pollyanna and its many sequels, concluding that the Glad Game is not always the best choice of response.

Sanders, Joe Sutliff. “Spinning Sympathy: Orphan Girl Novels and the Sentimental Tradition.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 33, no. 1 (2008): 41-61. Situates Pollyanna among other classic girls’ books that focus on sympathy and sentiment.

Seelye, John. Jane Eyre’s American Daughters—From “The Wide, Wide World” to “Anne of Green Gables”: A Study of Marginalized Maidens and What They Mean. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005. Discusses classic girls’ novels; includes a chapter on Pollyanna and its debt to books such as Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy (serial, 1885; book, 1886).