Eleven-year-old orphan Pollyanna Whittier was raised in a vaguely defined place in the Western United States by her minister father and her mother Jennie, who originally hailed from Beldingsville, Vermont. Pollyanna, who was the only surviving child amongst many babies who died, grew up in relative poverty and was estranged from her mother’s wealthy family in the East.

Despite the difficulties in her early life, she followed her father’s example in playing the glad game and learned to make a habit out of finding the positive in every situation. Crucially, Pollyanna’s positivity couples an optimistic outlook with practical good deeds. Whereas in the decades following the book’s publication, this character acquires a reputation for irrational, sometimes passive positivity, in the book she actively intervenes to make life better. For example, she adopts stray animals and embarks on a tireless search to find the orphaned Jimmy Bean a home. When she moves to Beldingsville, her brand of optimism becomes contagious and she manages to convert those who are stuck in miserable lives into happy people with agency.

Physically, Pollyanna is a “slender little girl” with “two fat braids of flaxen hair hanging down her back” and “an eager, freckled little face” (16).