Jimmy Glover

Jimmy Glover is a minor Avonlea schoolboy whose two brief appearances in the narrative serve as markers of the communal life of the Avonlea schoolchildren and of the town's absorption in the academic rivalry between Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. Though he never speaks a line of dialogue, his actions—shouting a warning from a tree and placing a bet—place him squarely within the chorus of ordinary children who populate the background of Anne's story, observing and participating in the small excitements that punctuate schoolyard routine.

Role in Schoolyard Life

Jimmy Glover's first and most vivid appearance comes during the episode of the gum-picking expedition in Mr. Bell's spruce grove. The Avonlea scholars regularly spent their noon hour in the grove, keeping watch on the house where the schoolmaster, Mr. Phillips, boarded. When they saw him emerging, they would race back to the schoolhouse, but the distance was three times longer than Mr. Wright's lane, so they often arrived breathless and late. On the day in question, Mr. Phillips had announced that anyone returning late would be punished. The boys and girls went to the grove as usual, intending only to "pick a chew," but the spruce groves were seductive and the yellow nuts of gum beguiling; they picked and loitered and strayed. The first thing that recalled them to a sense of the flight of time was Jimmy Glover shouting from the top of a patriarchal old spruce, "Master's coming." This cry set off a frantic scramble: the girls on the ground managed to reach the schoolhouse in time, but the boys, who had to wriggle hastily down from the trees, were later. Anne, who had been wandering happily in the far end of the grove, waist-deep among the bracken, singing softly to herself with a wreath of rice lilies on her hair, was latest of all. Jimmy Glover's shout thus functions as a plot trigger, setting in motion the chain of events that leads to Mr. Phillips singling out Anne for punishment—forcing her to sit with Gilbert Blythe—and ultimately to her refusal to return to school. In this moment, Jimmy is simply one of the crowd, a boy whose voice carries the collective anxiety of children trying to avoid a scolding.

The Bet on the Entrance Examinations

Jimmy Glover reappears in the narrative during the tense weeks following the Queen's Academy entrance examinations. Anne knew that all of Avonlea's junior population was wondering which of the two rivals would come out first; she even knew that Jimmy Glover and Ned Wright had a bet on the question. This detail, reported by the narrator, reveals how thoroughly the rivalry between Anne and Gilbert had become a matter of public speculation and even small-scale gambling among the schoolboys. The bet itself is never resolved in the text—the pass list shows Anne and Gilbert tied for first place—but the fact that Jimmy Glover and Ned Wright were willing to wager on the outcome underscores the intensity of local interest in the academic contest. Jimmy's name here stands in for the broader community of Avonlea children who watched, whispered, and took sides in the quiet war between the two brightest students.

Significance as a Minor Character

Jimmy Glover is a flat character in E. M. Forster's sense: he is built around a single idea—the typical Avonlea schoolboy—and is instantly recognizable as part of the collective. He has no individual psychology, no dialogue, and no arc. His function is purely instrumental: to mark the passage of time in the schoolyard, to trigger a plot event, and to embody the communal fascination with Anne and Gilbert's rivalry. In a novel that lavishes attention on the inner lives of its main characters, Jimmy Glover is one of the many unnamed or barely named children who populate the margins, their presence a reminder that Anne's story unfolds within a living, breathing community of ordinary people.