This story is a children's literature novel written in 1913 about a girl, Pollyanna who uses her extreme optimism for her life. In a fundamentally honest and straightforward way, the author brings out the trials of life such as poverty, loneliness, and illness in the story and tells us that a cheerful child's presence and encouragement can alleviate social and personal sadness. In the story, Pollyanna makes use of her optimism to help people see the positive side of life rather than the sad and negative one. In addition, this novel is also a solid adventure romance tale and it encourages readers to be optimistic towards life.

The positive vision taught by "Pollyanna" can be adopted into everyone’s life without age, race, geographical or any other difference. The author successfully uses Pollyanna to evoke the texture of life in small-town New England in the early 1900s. In the story, the author uses the country dialect and the rich regional flavor to mark the dialogue of such characters as Nancy and Old Tom. The author also skillfully employs imagery and symbolism such as Miss Polly's "tight hair" actually represents her tight and aloof personality. The characters show the different personalities of different characters and the changes of their personalities as the story moves on.

-Story Summary
This novel is about a eleven years old orphan girl, Pollyanna Whittier, who transforms the lives of the people around her with her extreme optimism towards her life. Being the main character of the story, Pollyanna was a young, innocent and kind girl. She liked to help one another and encourages people to be positive towards their life. At the introduction of the story, Pollyanna was said to have led a hard life since her mother passed away when she was still young and she has been impoverished her life. But her father brought her up and taught her many important values. When Pollyanna was a very young girl, she once hoped for a doll in the missionary barrel as Christmas present but she was very disappointed uopn seeing that it was only a pair of crutches in it. She was sobbing uncontrollably but her father who was a traveling minister then introduced the "Glad Game" to her to cheer her up since she was so disappointed. Her father also played the "Glad Game" and told her that they should be glad as they did not need it. It was actually a game to find something to be glad about in everything even if it is a bad thing. After learning to play the "Glad Game", Pollyanna eventually enjoyed playing it and this changed her life and others too. She then learnt to appreciate what she had.

But unfortunately, her father also passed away some time later when Pollyanna was still eleven years old. After her father's sudden death, Pollyanna was later sent to her maiden aunt, Aunt Polly's house to stay with her in Beldingsville, Vermon. Her aunt was a weathy but austere and humorless woman who always does her duty but not anything more. Her aunt then relegated Pollyanna to a hot, stuffy and small attic without carpets and pictures to live in as she hoped that Pollyanna would not disrupt her household routine. But luckily, Pollyanna remembered the "Glad Game" which was taught by her father and remained optimistic of she had been recieved from aunt even she was left with nothing as both her parents passed away. She played the "Glad Game" when she was living in Aunt Polly's house. When she was stuffed in a small, almost airless attic, she said that she should be glad as she actually had a high window to enjoy the beautiful view. When Aunt Polly punishes her for being late for dinner and gave her only a bread and milk to eat in the kitchen with her servant, Nancy, Pollyanna said that she was glad and loved to eat bread and milk and like Nancy to accompany her.

With her cheerful and optimistic personalities, Pollyanna eventually brought much gladness and transformed her aunt's dispirited New England Town to a pleasant place to live in. While living in her aunt's house, Pollyanna also met some Beldingsville's most troubled people such as Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton who was a miserly bachelor. She had also taught the people how to play the "Glad Game" and transformed their lifes. In addition, Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton had also showed a significant transformation of their characters. Pollyanna had taught them how to be glad for what they had as compared to those who experienced worse things. When Old Tom the gardener was bent over with arthritis, Pollyanna told him that he should be glad as since he was so close to the ground, he would not have to muster so much strength to stoop down to do his weeding. Aunt Polly was also taught by Pollyanna of the "Glad game" and she at first resisted the game but later she became another player. Pollyanna also could feel the love and care of Aunt Polly after teaching her to play the game. Althought Pollyanna had experienced poverty, deprivation and initial rejection of Aunt Polly, she still could be optimistic and never gave up.

But all these happy times soon past by and Pollyanna faced a huge problem. Her robust optimism was then tested when she was hit by a motorcar as she crossed the street. She was then severly injured and hospitalised. At first, she was not that sad as she did not really knew her situation but when she overheard the specialist saying that she might not be able to walk anymore, she was taken aback and was in great despair. She did not know what to be glad about it. At that time, her little thoughts become shaky and she was scared. But luckily, all others who experienced the encouragement from Pollyanna and played her "Glad Game" came and encourage her to be glad that she still had her legs. Pollyanna then regained her confidence and became optimsitic as before.

At the end of the story, it is said that Aunt Polly is getting married to her former lover and Pollyanna finally learnt to walk again after the treatments and appreciated the use of her legs more after the accident.

-My reflection
After reading this novel, I really impressed by Pollyanna's optimistic personalities. She was very positive towards life and never gave up. I really enjoyed reading this story. It is worth-reading and well-written. In addition, I am also amazed by the style of writing of the author as the whole story really captures my attention. A good book, absolutely.