Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl

Written Response: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl narrates the journey of adolescent Anne Frank during World War II. The diary provides insight into the changes Anne went through during the war after going into hiding to avoid persecution. Over the course of her time in hiding, she matured and used her diary to voice her innermost thoughts and desires. Anne’s diary shows how she came to terms with change, and how she herself changed and conventions such as point of view, characterization and voice enhance the themes and key ideas expressed through Anne’s journey.
Anne’s diary began on her thirteenth birthday. She had a typical life for a girl of her age, and valued the same things as any girl; she

loved being with her friends, enjoyed school and had already established a passion for writing, which she expressed through her diary. She first wrote “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support,” it is established that Anne, although a very social young girl, felt that she could not confide in her friends. She has many friends, but could only ever converse about “ordinary everyday things.”Her voice is used as a convention, the youthful, humorous tone with which she wrote and the trivial matters that she wrote about exemplified her young age and lack of maturity. Her tone was always filled with irony and her ‘musings’ were often written in the form of jokes. Anne lived an ironically ordinary life, disrupted by the Nazis. When the first signs of anti-Semitism started to show, signs of worry leaked through her writing, but she never wrote too deeply about it. The diary’s initial purpose was to discuss her thoughts and the happenings in her life, and she wrote “I’m not planning on letting anybody read this . . .’diary’”.
Anne’s family escaped the Nazis and anti-Semitism, and went into hiding in the Annex. Very suddenly she was forced to undergo the change from an ordinary life to a life of solitude with limited freedom. Her new environment differed immensely in contrast to the outside; she lived with her family and four other people, one being Peter, a boy not much older than her in a compact environment. During her time in hiding, she grew more introspective. She wrote, “Now that I’m rereading my diary after a year and a half, I’m surprised at my childish innocence. Deep down I know I could never be that innocent again, however much I’d like it to be,” showing how she understood how much she had changed in a short time, and utilized her diary for self-reflection. In her first year, she struggled to grow accustomed to the change. She was invariably afraid they would be discovered, and was dispirited by the atrocities happening to the Jews, but she was optimistic and abstained from thinking about what was happening outside and concentrated on her own life, “I could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I’d only make myself more miserable.” She was forced to live in the Annex to survive, but understood she was fortuitous to be alive and safe. “I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean . . . and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun,” Anne felt misunderstood in her environment, and wanted to have fun, but such a request was implausible. Readers learn she was a normal girl, she had the same problems other girls had; she was just living in abnormal circumstances.
Whilst living in the Annex, Anne expressed her innermost feelings in the diary, because she still felt she could not confide in anybody. However, she also realized that although she could confide to her diary, it did not offer the same comfort that people could, and craved human comfort and affection. She felt isolated and lonely, so she sought out Peter to appease this desire; he became her confidant. Young readers can relate to the confusion and isolation of growing up. The loneliness of adolescence is a key theme expressed through Anne’s perspective as she grew up in a limited environment, and as she underwent her menarche, questioning sexuality and love with limited means to answer her questions, and the tension between the inhabitants of the Annex. Reader diversity may lead to various interpretations. Adolescent readers will better grasp the growing up aspect of the story as Anne came to grips with growing up in her environment with limited knowledge. Older readers might focus on the theme of WWII and the suffering endured, as they have already matured and may no longer relate to that aspect of her struggle.
Nearer to the conclusion of her time in the Annex, Anne’s maturity had increased drastically as a result of the conditions she had grown up in. Her voice had developed; she wrote less about inconsequential matters and instead wrote about her innermost thoughts. Her tone had changed from a youthful one, to a mature one with a developed sense of cognizance and percipience, whilst retaining her characteristic irony. She wrote about her future: her dreams, values and aspirations. She wanted to become a writer or journalist, and began editing her diary. The style changed as she began writing for a reading audience, changing the purpose she initially intended for the diary. She came to terms with the perpetual fear that she might not make it to the end of the war through writing in her diary. Her diary was an invaluable distraction from the trepidation, thus, the diary was a key aspect to her coming to terms with change. She desired a future, and planned what she would accomplish when the war ended; readers can relate to her sanguinity. Her dreams and aspirations authenticate her as a real person and remind readers that despite her circumstances, she remained hopeful. “It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” This quote reflects how despite all the evil in the world (the Nazis, Hitler, etc.) Anne still holds onto her dreams and believes that humans are essentially good.
Another theme was explored as her awareness of human nature grew; her opinions of good and evil, greed and generosity were integrated in her writings as she tried to understand the people around her as well as herself.

Anne wrote about her inner self and outer self, referring to how she acted around others versus how she really felt. She discovered that as well as herself, everybody else also had an inner self, and she still intended to share her inner self with others but didn’t know how to. “I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if . . . if only there were no other people in the world.” Her final quote reflected her internal conflict regarding her separate selves. Her diary ended abruptly because the Annex was discovered, and there is no telling whether this internal conflict was resolved or not. Anne died in a concentration camp, but her diary was published, along with her dreams and aspirations. This brings a new level of reality for readers, because it reminds them that Anne was a real person, what she wrote were real experiences and evokes poignancy. The way the story is set up, as a diary, is the most powerful aspect of the story. Anne’s diary was written whilst the events happened, her voice reflected current events. The reader can see her changing through the course of the book and feel a sense of empathy for her

situation.
Anne Frank’s diary showed how she grew up in a new environment and how she came to terms with the changes brought upon her. Her diary not only helped her come to terms with change, but also allows readers deeper insight into her life and what life was like for Jews during World War II. Anne changed from a young girl to a young woman, and the diary shows her journey through the hardships she faced during her time in the Annex.