THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL

Theme Analysis
Writing for Self-expression and Self-understanding
When Anne starts keeping a diary she is very clear in her mind about what her purpose is.
She wants to confide her deepest feelings about everything, and she hopes the diary will be a
source of comfort and support. In this she was not disappointed. She uses the diary as a tool for
self-expression and self-understanding, and comes to depend on it to keep her spirits buoyant.
As she writes, she examines her own personality, why she is the way she is, and how she
interacts with others. As she thinks about these topics, she decides that she really has a twofold
self. On the outside, there is the talkative, impudent, know-it-all self that all the others see. But
there is also a quieter, deeper, more thoughtful person that lies within, a girl who has noble
thoughts, is aware of her shortcomings, and is always trying to improve herself. The struggle
between this twofold self is apparent throughout the diary, but Anne gives considered expression
to it in her very last entry, on August 1, 1944.

Anne also uses the diary to understand herself as a growing woman, and figure out what her role
in life will be. She does not regard either her mother or Mrs. van Daan, neither of whom had
careers outside the home, as useful role models. She decides that for her, loving a husband and
raising children would not give her sufficient fulfillment; she wants to make a larger impact on the
world. One can see in her writings a distinct feminist consciousness ready to emerge. On June
13, 1944, she devotes considerable space to analyzing why women have been "thought to be so
inferior to men," which she considers a great injustice.

Love of Nature
Although Anne is confined to the annex and cannot go outdoors, she can see the changing
seasons through the window of the attic. Any glimpse of nature calms her. A good example
occurs in her entry for February 23, 1944. She and Peter are in the attic in the morning and look
out of the window "at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and
other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and
entranced that we couldn't speak." When the human world is chaotic and full of fear and danger,
nature is a restorative force. It gives her a feeling that everything is as it should be: "I firmly
believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer," she writes on February 23, 1944.

She writes again about nature on June 13, 1944, commenting that just looking at the sky, the
clouds, the moon and the stars makes her feel calm. There is no substitute for it.

Anne's reflections on nature sound sometimes like those of the poet William Wordsworth, but one
has to remember that Anne did not have the luxury of roaming England's beautiful Lake
District. Her view of nature came through a dirt-caked window and more often than not through a
curtain as well. But even with these obstacles, Anne shows that she is deeply responsive to the
natural world.

Faith in God
In the later parts of her diary, Anne's references to God and religion increase. As she matures,
she develops a religious faith to help her in the difficult situation she is in. This emerging faith is
not something that she is just echoing from her parents, since they do not appear to have been
especially religious; it is something she is developing from within herself. Her confinement has
forced her to consider life in a way that might not have developed until much later had she had a
normal childhood. Her religious faith helps her to have a stoic attitude to the situation, as she
writes on April 11, 1944: "We must put our feelings aside; we must be brave and strong, bear
discomfort without complaint, do whatever is in our power and trust in God." She thinks that being
able to believe in a higher power is a blessing for anyone; religion, she says, "keeps a person on
the right path" (July 6, 1944), although she is not interested in any particular religious doctrine.
The fact that her friend Peter lacks any religious faith is a cause of disappointment to her.
Major Themes

Coming of Age

A critical point about Anne Frank's diary is that it was written during the years of her
adolescence. She struggled with many typical teenage problems--yearning for her
own space away from adult meddling, burgeoning sexuality, and the quest for her
own identity--in an enclosed space with little privacy. Anne continually questions
herself and spends most of the diary trying to figure out what kind of person she is.
She berates herself for her selfishness, agonizes over the fate of her friends, and
tries and tries to be "good" in the way her parents would like her to be. Towards the
end of the diary, she comes to the crucial conclusion that though she may not be the
way others would like her to be, she is her own person and she respects herself.
These discoveries make "Diary" a bildungstroman in the tradition of great coming-of-
age novels like James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Mark Twain's
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Identity

Over and over again, Anne asks herself questions about the type of person she is:
How should I feel about those on the outside, who are suffering? Am I virtuous? Am
I too selfish and childish? What does it mean that Germans despise me simply
because I am a Jew? Although Anne finds no easy answers to these questions, she
uses them to define who she is and who she wants to be. Anne's quest for her
identity is and the coming-of-age theme are the most significant themes of the book.
Jewish Consciousness

This theme usually comes up tangentially, but the fact that it is not central to the
book has also provoked critical comment. For Anne, exposure to the question of
Jewish consciousness comes mostly through her discussions with young men. For
example, Harry Goldberg, Anne's boy friend at the beginnning of the book, is a
member of the Zionist Youth Movement, which celebrated the Jewish heritage. But
Peter Van Daan tells Anne that when the war is over, he intends to keep his Jewish
heritage a secret. Anne stands somewhere between these two polar opposites in that
she does not give a great deal of thought to her Jewish heritage. But her
ambivalence has prompted some Jewish critics to claim that the Diary would not be
such a classic if Anne had made her Jewish heritage a larger part of the book.

Anti-Semitism

When Anne does comment on her Jewish heritage, it is to lambast the anti-Semitism
and hatred that has forced her family to go into hiding. Although Anne does not
express a full view of the historical anti-Semitism that combined with contemporary
unemployment to make the Jews a pariah in Europe, that history is always lurking at
the back of this book. It is important to remember that the main reason why Anne's
diary is considered so important is because it stands as a testament against the
hatred and anti-Semitism that caused her death.
Virtue
Anne struggles with the question of "virtue" throughout the book. Her parents want
her to emulate her sister Margot's virtue, which mostly consists of being quiet and
self-effacing. Anne admires her father, who does not let anyone step on him, but
sticks to his principles and demands that others do the same. It is important that
Anne's feelings for Peter Van Daan cool when she decides to emulate her father's
idea of virtue; she does not feel that her friendship with Peter is more important than
the love and respect of her father.
War

Though Anne claims to despise politics, she cannot help but become caught up in the
war. It is the war, after all, that is responsible for her family's living situation. The
adults in the annex, by contrast, speak constantly about the war and their prospects
after the war. Throughout the diary, the phrase "after the war..." hangs over the
book, an unfulfilled wish of every annex resident. Towards the end of the diary, when
the Allies begin making great progress against Germany, Anne's diary entries
document every battle and every landing--a great mirror into her excitement about
the prospect of leaving the annex for good.
Duty

All of the annex members struggle with the concept of duty: duty to one's country,
to one's friends, and, most importantly, one's fellow annex residents. Life in the
annex is a series of petty quarrels, and many of them have to do with conflicting
feelings of duty towards each other. For her part, Anne struggles to be a dutiful child
and to get along with everyone in the annex.
Suffering

Just as the phrase "after the war" hangs unspoken over everyone in the annex, so
does the phrase "the Jews outside." All of the annex residents struggle with feelings
of guilt for those they have left behind to suffer under Nazi persecution. Some of
them, like Mrs. Van Daan, choose to ignore it. Others, like Anne, feel bad but insist
on trying to remain cheerful. The question of how the annex residents deal with their
feelings about the suffering outside is intimately linked to their own feelings of fear
about being captured by the Germans.

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Loneliness of Adolescence

Anne Frank’s perpetual feeling of being lonely and misunderstood provides the impetus for her
dedicated diary writing and colors many of the experiences she recounts. Even in her early diary
entries, in which she writes about her many friends and her lively social life, Anne expresses gratitude
that the diary can act as a confidant with whom she can share her innermost thoughts. This might
seem an odd sentiment from such a playful, amusing, and social young girl, but Anne explains that she
is never comfortable discussing her inner emotions, even around close friends. Despite her excitement
over developing into a woman, and despite the specter of war surrounding her, Anne nonetheless
finds that she and her friends talk only about trivial topics.
We learn later in the diary that neither Mrs. Frank nor Margot offers much to Anne in the way of
emotional support. Though Anne feels very connected to her father and derives strength and
encouragement from him, he is not a fitting confidant for a thirteen-year-old girl. Near the end of her
diary, Anne shares a quotation she once read with which she strongly agrees: “Deep down, the young
are lonelier than the old.” Because young people are less able than adults to define or express their
needs clearly, they are more likely to feel lonely, isolated, and misunderstood. Living as a Jew in an
increasingly anti-Jewish society, in cramped and deprived circumstances, heightens the isolation Anne
feels and complicates her struggle for identity.

Anne occasionally turns to the cats that live in the annex for affection. Noticing that Peter van Daan
also plays with the cats, Anne speculates that he must also suffer from a lack of affection. Anne’s
observation softens her view of Peter, whom she once considered obnoxious and lazy, and these
thoughts cause her to think that they might have something in common. Their ensuing friendship and
budding romance stave off their feelings of loneliness. Margot, who like the other members of the
annex witnesses the changing nature of Anne and Peter’s relationship, expresses her jealousy that
Anne has found a confidant. Evidently, Anne is not the only one in the annex suffering from the
deprivation of friends.

Feelings of loneliness and isolation also play out in the larger scheme of the annex. All the inhabitants
feel anxious, fearful, and stressed because of their circumstances, yet no one wants to burden the
others with such depressing feelings. As a result, the residents become impatient with one another
over trivial matters and never address their deeper fears or worries. This constant masking and
repression of serious emotions creates isolation and misunderstanding between all the residents of the
annex.

The Inward versus the Outward Self

Anne frequently expresses her conviction that there are “two Annes”: the lively, jovial, public Anne
whom people find amusing or exasperating; and the sentimental, private Anne whom only she truly
knows. As she comes to understand her actions and motivations better over the course of her writing,
Anne continually refers to this aggravating split between her inward and outward character.

Anne is aware of this dichotomy from a young age. In her early diary entries she explains that though
she has many friends and acquaintances, she feels she does not have one person to whom she can
really open up. She regrets that she does not share her true self with her friends or family. Anne
expresses frustration that she does not know how to share her feelings with others, and she fears that
she is vulnerable to attacks on her character. When her relationship with Peter begins, Anne wonders
whether he will be the first one to see through the outer, public Anne and find her true self beneath.

Anne struggles with her two selves throughout the diary, trying to be honest and genuine, while at the
same time striving to fit in with the rest of the group and not create too much friction. On January 22,
1944, Anne asks a question—“Can you tell me why people go to such lengths to hide their real
selves?”—that suggests she realizes she is not alone in hiding her true feelings and fears. With this
realization, Anne starts to read into other people’s behavior more deeply and starts to think about their
true but hidden motivations.

In her final diary entry, on August 1, 1944, Anne continues to grapple with the difference between her
self-perception and how she presents herself to others. She arrives at a greater resolve to be true to
herself and not to fold her heart inside out so only the bad parts show.

Anne’s inner struggle mirrors the larger circumstances of the war. Both the residents of the annex and
the Dutch people who help them are forced to hide themselves from the public. They must take on a
different identity in public to protect their livelihood because their true identities and actions would
make them targets of persecution. This is yet another manifestation of the hypocrisy of identity that
Anne is trying to come to terms with in her diary.

Generosity and Greed in Wartime

Anne’s diary demonstrates that war brings out both the best and the worst traits in people. Two
characteristics in particular become prominent defining poles of character in the annex—generosity
and greed. The group’s livelihood depends on the serious and continual risks taken by their Dutch
keepers, who are generous with food, money, and any other resources they can share.

Although the annex is hardly luxurious, the Franks and van Daans feel their situation is better than that
of the thousands of Jews who are in mortal danger outside. As a result, they extend Mr. Dussel an
invitation to join them and to share their limited resources—an act of true generosity. The fact that Mr.
Dussel accepts the others’ offer but never makes any attempt to acknowledge or reciprocate their
generosity might be attributed to the extreme circumstances. More likely, however, is that Mr. Dussel is
the kind of person in whom hardship brings out the qualities of greed and selfishness. Indeed, the two
people Anne most reviles, Mr. Dussel and Mrs. van Daan, share the tendency to look out for
themselves far more than to look out for others.

Generosity and greed also come to bear on Anne’s feelings of guilt about being in hiding. Although by
the end of their time in the annex the residents have practically run out of food, Anne feels lucky to
have escaped the fate of her friends who were sent to concentration camps. She struggles with the
idea that perhaps she and her family could have been more generous and could have shared their
resources with more people. While Mr. Dussel and Mrs. van Daan feel that greed is the only way to
protect themselves from the horrors of war, these same circumstances of hardship inspire Anne to feel
even more generous.

Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the
text’s major themes.

Becoming a Woman
Anne is thirteen years old when she first goes into hiding in the annex, and she turns fifteen shortly
before the family’s arrest. Thus, her diary is a powerful firsthand record of the experience of a young
girl as she matures. Although Anne faces the challenges of puberty under unusual circumstances, the
issues she struggles with are universal. She frequently contemplates the changes in her body and her
psychology. Because Anne does not readily confide in her mother or her sister, she turns to her diary
to understand the changes she perceives and to question issues about sexuality and maturity. In later
entries, as Anne begins to see herself as an independent woman, she compares herself to her mother
and to other women of her mother’s generation, imagining what she will be like in the future. She often
thinks about what it means to be a woman and a mother, typically using her mother as an example of
the type of woman she does not want to become. Instead, Anne seeks to overcome the obstacles of
gender bias and prejudice, just as she hopes to escape the persecution faced by the Jewish people.

Fear

The Franks and the van Daans are fortunate enough to have made advance plans to go into hiding
should the need arise, but they still know they are not completely safe from the Nazis. Their security
depends on the cooperation of many different people outside the annex, as well as a good amount of
luck and hope. Their fear grows each time the doorbell rings, there is a knock on their door, or they
hear that there is a break-in at the office building. They hear reports from the outside world about their
friends who are arrested and about non-Jews who are suffering from a lack of food. As the war rages
on around them, all people—Jews and non-Jews—suffer. Anne knows that her family’s situation is
precarious, and she spends much of her time trying to distract herself from this frightening reality.
However, each scare does color her diary entries. She knows what would happen to her and her
family if they were discovered, and this fear that permeates life in the annex likewise permeates the
tone of Anne’s diary.

Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Hanneli

Hanneli is one of Anne’s close friends who appears in Anne’s dreams several times as a symbol of
guilt. Hanneli appears sad and dressed in rags, and she wishes that Anne could stop Hanneli’s
suffering. A young Jewish girl, Hanneli has presumably already been arrested and deported to a
concentration camp. For Anne, Hanneli represents the fate of her friends and companions and the
millions of Jews—many of whom were children like herself—who were tortured and murdered by the
Nazis. Anne questions why her friend has to suffer while she survives in hiding. Anne continually
struggles with the guilt that her friend is dead while she is still alive. Hanneli’s appearance in Anne’s
dreams makes Anne turn to God for answers and comfort, since there is no one else who can explain
why she lives while her friend does not.

Anne’s Grandmother
Anne’s grandmother appears to Anne in her dreams. To Anne, she symbolizes unconditional love and
support, as well as regret and nostalgia for the life Anne lived before being forced into hiding. Anne
wishes she could tell her grandmother how much they all love her, just as she wishes she had
appreciated her own life before she was confined in the annex. Anne misses living a life in which she
did not have to worry about her future. She imagines that her grandmother is her guardian angel and
will protect her, and she returns to this image to sustain her when she feels particularly afraid or
insecure.

Top Ten Quotes

1. "Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I'm actually
one of them!"
October 9, 1942

Anne expresses her contempt for Germans, after writing about how the Nazis
take hostages and kill them if they are unable to capture a saboteur.

2. "Who else but me is ever going to read these letters? Who else but me can I
turn to for comfort? I'm frequently in need of consolation, I often feel weak, and
more often than not, I fail to meet expectations. I know this, and every day I
resolved to do better."

November 7, 1942

Anne reveals the determination and desire to improve herself that marks her
character as revealed in the diary.

3. "I wander from room to room, climb up and down the stairs and feel like a
songbird whose wings have been ripped off and who keeps hurling itself against
the bars of its dark cage. 'Let me out, where there's fresh air and laughter!' a
voice within me cries."

October 29, 1943

Anne feels the stifling atmosphere, cooped up for over a year inside, with no
opportunity to go out.

4. "Jesus and Hanukkah don't exactly go together."

November 3, 1943

Anne reacts to her father's idea to give her a Bible for Hanukkah, so she can
learn something of the New Testament.

5. "I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know
that I'm free, and yet I can't let it show."

December 24, 1943

Anne reflects on having been in hiding for a year and a half.

6. "Why do people have so little trust in one another? I know there must be a
reason, but sometimes I think it's horrible that you can't ever confide in anyone,
not even those closest to you."

January 22, 1944

Anne shows her growing maturity as she considers questions about human
behavior.

7. "The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go
outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For
then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God
wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity."

February 23, 1944

Anne's thoughts after she looks out of the attic window one winter's day and
sees the cloudless sky, the trees and the birds.

8. "I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or
bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living
even after my death!"

April 5, 1944

Anne writes about her ambition to be a writer.

9. "There's a destructive urge in people, the urge to rage, murder and kill. And
until all of humanity, without exception, undergoes a metamorphosis, wars will
continue to be waged, and everything that has been carefully built up, cultivated
and grown will be cut down and destroyed, only to start all over again!"

May 3, 1944

Anne's thoughts on war and human nature.

10. "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."

July 15, 1944

Anne's thoughts less than three weeks before she and the others are
discovered and arrested.

Top Ten Quotes

1. "Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I'm actually one of
them!"
October 9, 1942

Anne expresses her contempt for Germans, after writing about how the Nazis
take hostages and kill them if they are unable to capture a saboteur.

2. "Who else but me is ever going to read these letters? Who else but me can I
turn to for comfort? I'm frequently in need of consolation, I often feel weak, and
more often than not, I fail to meet expectations. I know this, and every day I
resolved to do better."

November 7, 1942

Anne reveals the determination and desire to improve herself that marks her
character as revealed in the diary.

3. "I wander from room to room, climb up and down the stairs and feel like a
songbird whose wings have been ripped off and who keeps hurling itself against
the bars of its dark cage. 'Let me out, where there's fresh air and laughter!' a
voice within me cries."

October 29, 1943

Anne feels the stifling atmosphere, cooped up for over a year inside, with no
opportunity to go out.

4. "Jesus and Hanukkah don't exactly go together."

November 3, 1943

Anne reacts to her father's idea to give her a Bible for Hanukkah, so she can
learn something of the New Testament.

5. "I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know
that I'm free, and yet I can't let it show."

December 24, 1943

Anne reflects on having been in hiding for a year and a half.

6. "Why do people have so little trust in one another? I know there must be a
reason, but sometimes I think it's horrible that you can't ever confide in anyone,
not even those closest to you."

January 22, 1944

Anne shows her growing maturity as she considers questions about human
behavior.

7. "The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go
outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For
then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God
wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity."

February 23, 1944

Anne's thoughts after she looks out of the attic window one winter's day and
sees the cloudless sky, the trees and the birds.

8. "I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or
bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living
even after my death!"

April 5, 1944

Anne writes about her ambition to be a writer.

9. "There's a destructive urge in people, the urge to rage, murder and kill. And
until all of humanity, without exception, undergoes a metamorphosis, wars will
continue to be waged, and everything that has been carefully built up, cultivated
and grown will be cut down and destroyed, only to start all over again!"

May 3, 1944

Anne's thoughts on war and human nature.

10. "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."

July 15, 1944

Anne's thoughts less than three weeks before she and the others are
discovered and arrested.

Biography
Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. Her parents,
Otto and Edith Frank, were Jewish, and Anne was their second advertisement
daughter. Their first daughter, Margot, was born in 1926.

For Jews in Germany, this was a dangerous time. anti-Semitism was on the
rise, and in 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power. His National Socialist Party was
virulently anti-Semitic. Seeing the danger, Otto Frank moved his family to the
Netherlands, where Anne went to school and lived a relatively carefree early
childhood. However, World War II broke out in 1939, and in 1940, Holland was
occupied by the Germans. After this, life became progressively more difficult for
Holland's Jewish population. Many anti-Jewish decrees were passed, and
thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to labor camps both in Holland
and Germany. In order to avoid deportation and probable death, many Jews in
Holland went into hiding, as did the Frank family when they received news that
Margot had been called up to the work camp at Westerbork, in Holland.
Rather than allow Margot to go the camp, on July 6, 1942, the entire Frank
family went into hiding in the top two floors of the building which housed Otto
Frank's business. The van Pels, another Jewish family originally from Germany,
joined the Franks within a few days, and Fritz Pfeffer, a Jewish dentist, followed
soon after.

Anne Frank began writing her diary on her thirteenth birthday, in June 1942, a
few weeks before the family went into hiding. She continued to write, recording
the day-to-day life of the family and her own deepest thoughts and reflections,
until the eight residents of the building were arrested by the security police on
August 4, 1944. Someone had tipped off the authorities that there were Jews
hiding in the building.

The Franks, van Pels and Pfeffer were first sent to the transit camp at
Westerbork. From there they were transported to Auschwitz, a concentration
camp in Poland. At Auschwitz, the men were separated from the women. While
Edith Frank, Anne's mother, remained at Auschwitz, dying from hunger and
exhaustion on January 6, 1945, Anne and Margot spent a month there before
being transported to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany.
Conditions there were appalling, and thousands died of disease and starvation.
Margot and Anne contracted typhus and died within a few days of each other, in
early March 1945, only a few weeks before British troops liberated the camp on
April 12, 1945.

Otto Frank survived Auschwitz and was liberated on January 27, 1945. He was
given Anne's diary by Miep Gies, a Dutchwoman who had helped the Franks
during the time they were in hiding. Gies had saved the diary, hoping to give it
back to Anne after the war. The first edition of Anne's diary was published in
Amsterdam in 1947. The first American edition appeared in 1952. The Diary of
Anne Frank became a best-seller and is one of the most moving and best-
known of literary works that depict the suffering of the Jews in World War II.

Essay Q&A
1. How much insight does Anne's diary give into the Holocaust?

The Holocaust is the name given to the murder of six million Jews by the
German Nazis in World War II. The full magnitude of the Holocaust was not
known until after the war ended, but Anne Frank was clearly aware of what was
happening to the Jews. The reason that her family had to go in hiding was a
direct result of what the Nazis called the "final solution" to the "Jewish question,"
which was the extermination of all the Jews. Anne knew what would await her if
they were discovered. On October 9, 1942, she reports on the harsh and
inhuman conditions in Westerbork, the labor camp in Holland to which Jews are
being sent. She also comments that in the German camps conditions must be
much worse. The Jews of Holland assume that the Jews are being murdered in
the camps, and they have heard (correctly) on the BBC radio that the method of
murder is by gas. On March 27, 1943, Anne reacts to an announcement by the
Germans that all Jews are to be deported from German-occupied territories.
She refers to the victims as poor people shipped off to slaughterhouses like sick
cattle. On March 31, 1944, she reacts to the news that Hungary has been
occupied by German troops. The million Jews in that country are "doomed," she
writes.
The reader therefore gets a glimpse of the Holocaust through the diary. But the
Holocaust is going on, so to speak, in the background, reported at a distance by
a young girl who is as much concerned with her own thoughts and feelings, her
family relationships, her first love (with Peter), and her day-to-day life in hiding
as she is with the war. Certainly, the diary serves as an introduction to the
Holocaust, but it gives no direct insight into the full horror of what was
happening, and which would happen to Anne herself in the last eight months of
her life. A fuller picture is given in Elie Wiesel's Night, first published in 1956.
Wiesel and his father were two of those one million Jews in Hungary who were
sent to Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald concentration camps in 1944 and
1945. Elie Wiesel survived to write this harrowing account of life in the camps;
his father did not. Reading Night complements the Diary of a Young Girl; what
hovers menacingly in the background in the Diary becomes the sole subject
of Night.

2. How does the stage version of Diary of a Young Girl compare to the
published text?

Anne Frank's diary was adapted for the stage in 1955 by Albert Hackett and
Frances Goodrich, in cooperation with Otto Frank. The play was very successful
and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1956, but critics have frequently noted that
the play stripped Anne's story of its specific Jewish elements in order to ensure
that it was a hit with the overwhelmingly non-Jewish American theater-going
public that had had no direct experience of the Holocaust. The aim was to
create audience identification with the characters, which meant presenting the
story not as one of European Jews exterminated along with millions of others in
the Holocaust but as an optimistic vision of the survival of hope and of
sympathy with persecuted people everywhere, whether Jewish or not.
Lawrence L. Langer argues that "The authors of the dramatic version . . . lacked
the artistic will-or the courage-to leave their audiences overwhelmed by the
feeling that Anne's bright spirit was extinguished, that Anne . . . was killed
simply because she was Jewish, and for no other reason" ("The
Americanization of the Holocaust on Stage and Screen," in Anne Frank:
Reflections on Her Life and Legacy, edited by Hyman Aaron Enzer and Sandra
Solotaroff-Enzer, University of Illinois Press, 2000, p. 201). But in this approach
to Anne's story, the playwrights had the support of Otto Frank, who said that he
did not consider Anne's diary a specifically Jewish book, even though the only
reason for its existence was the fact that Anne was a Jew. Otto wanted the play
to reach the widest possible audience, and he believed that what attracted
people to Anne's diary was not the war and the Holocaust, but the more
universal story of the hopes and experiences of a typical adolescent girl-her
conflicts with her mother, her first romance, her ambitions to be a writer. The
play therefore maintains an optimistic tone, ending with Anne's frequently
quoted remark that in spite of everything she believes that "people are truly
good at heart." This ignores other comments that show that Anne was also
aware of the dark side of human nature. However, the play matched the
atmosphere in America in the 1950s, in which the goal was not the assertion of
the differences of minorities but their incorporation into the cultural mainstream
of American life. Jewish assimilation was regarded as a way of ensuring that
anti-Semitism would not arise in the United States as it had in Germany
(although many of the Jews who died in the Holocaust has also considered
themselves assimilated, and this did not save them).

3. How does Anne mature during the period covered by the diary?
The diary begins in the last few weeks of Anne's "normal" life, before the family
is forced to go into hiding. Anne has just turned thirteen and is still a child. She
reveals herself as an innocent young girl who enjoys life. She writes about how
she gets into trouble at school for talking too much; her grades; and her friends,
boys as well as girls. She is just beginning a romantic although very innocent
friendship with a boy name Hello Silberberg. Anne seems in every way a typical
young teenager. But then her life changes dramatically when she and her family
go into hiding. She finds herself in a very restricted situation, living in cramped
quarters with seven other people and unable to go outside. Because of the
uncertainty of the their situation, she has to endure almost constant tension and
deprivation of all kinds, from inadequate food to interrupted sleep, lack of
exercise and fresh air, and poor quality, monotonous food. She has to learn
what it is like to live in peril in the world, dependent on the goodwill of others,
with no power to change her situation. It is because of this outer powerlessness
that Anne is forced to go within, to examine herself and develop an inner
strength that will enable her to endure her trying and frightening situation.

Two and a half years later, Anne has been through a period of tremendous
growth. She has learned to live with the fluctuating emotions of hope and
despair, courage and fear. She has ruthlessly examined her own personality
and behavior, as well as her relationships with her mother, father, and sister.
She has analyzed her parents' marriage and found it wanting; she has declared
her independence from her father in a letter that deeply upset him; she has
known the heady experience of being in love and thinking constantly of the
desired person, and the pain that comes with realizing that the person cannot
supply her with the emotional intimacy she desires. She has developed sexual
maturity and knows the pull of physical desire. She has meditated on religion,
on the redeeming power of nature, on the nature of the Jewish people and their
suffering; she has read widely and written in several different genres, including
diary, fables and even a novel. She has conceived a clear ambition to be a
writer and make a mark on the world. All this from a girl who by the time the
diary ended, was only a couple of months past her fifteenth birthday.

4. "It's not the fault of the Dutch that we Jews are having such a bad time"
(Anne Frank, June 24, 1942). Was Anne correct in this statement?

Anne Frank writes on more than one occasion that she loves the Dutch people;
she loves the country and the language and wants to become a Dutch citizen
after the war. She is grateful to the Dutch because they allowed her family to
immigrate in 1933, and she thinks the Dutch are fundamentally decent people.
Even when she hears that there has been a rise in anti-Semitism in Holland, "in
circles where once it would have been unthinkable" (May 22, 1944) she hopes
it is just a passing phase and that the Dutch will soon "show their true colors"
and adhere to justice.

Anne Frank was correct in believing that many Dutch people helped the Jews.
About 25,000 Jews in Holland went into hiding, and they could not have
survived without aid from non-Jewish Dutch citizens, who faced severe reprisals
if caught helping Jews. These non-Jews include, of course, those who helped
the Franks, heroes such as Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler.

However, historians point out that the historical reality is more complex. Of
140,000 Jews in Holland at the beginning of the Nazi occupation in 1940, only
35,000 survived, a proportion of survivors lower than in any other Western
European nation during the war. Historians of the Holocaust differ over the
reasons for this. Some point out that because of the location of Holland,
escape to England was not easy, and that the geography of the country does
not contain many natural hiding places. Other historians argue that the Dutch
were indifferent to the deportation of Jews from Holland and made little attempt
to stop it or mitigate it. It might be noted that the residents of the annex, even
though they were helped by Dutch people, were, in the end, betrayed,
presumably by a Dutch citizen, although who that might have been has never
been discovered.

5. Trace the oscillation between fear and courage in Anne's mind.

Daily life in the annex followed a well-organized routine created by Otto Frank.
Otto's purpose was to avoid the possibility that anyone would fall into apathy or
despair and become a burden to the other residents. Anne's day was therefore
filled with useful activities such as studying and writing. But in spite of this, the
note of fear was never far away in her diary entries. Fear was a constant
presence in the annex. Anne writes on October 29, 1943, that sometimes she
can only escape the "terrible fear" through sleep; a couple of weeks later she
reports that a simple thing like the doorbell ringing makes her stomach churn
and her heart beat wildly in fear. On May 26, 1944, after the arrest of Mr. van
Hoeven for hiding two Jews in his house, Anne's spirits sink to one of her lowest
points: "all the fear I've ever felt is looming before me in all its horror." It is
against this all-pervasive fear that Anne has to marshal her courage; she draws
on all her considerable inner resources to endure the situation, to face up to
what could happen to them, and yet still retain hope. This must have taken
considerable courage on her part, and yet as always, she is ruthlessly critical of
herself. After the incident of the fear created by the ring of the doorbell, she
reproaches herself (surely harshly, in the eyes of the reader) for being a
coward. And yet on at least one occasion-there must surely have been more,
unrecorded ones-she comforts the others. After the break-in that Anne reports
on April 11, 1944, she tells Mrs. van Daan, who appears to have been the most
frightened of them all, "We must behave like soldiers." It is clear that in addition
to the many other qualities and skills that Anne developed during her two and a
half years of confinement, courage to endure hardship, uncertainty and fear
ranks high on the list.

Character Profiles
Albert Dussel
Albert Dussel is a fifty-four-year-old Jewish dentist. The Franks and the van
Daans invite him to join them in the annex in November, 1942. He shares a
room with Anne, and she quickly grows tired of what she sees as his high-
handed manner. Anne's quarrels with Dussel are one of the main features of the
diary. Her satirical portrait of him is recorded in her diary entry for August 9,
1943: "Pants that come up to his chest, a red jacket, black patent-leather
slippers and horn-rimmed glasses-that's how he looks when he's at work at the
little table, always studying and never progressing." In Anne's eyes, Dussel is
pompous, petty and unreasonable.

Anne gave pseudonyms to the other residents of the attic. In real life, Dussel
was Fritz Pfeffer. He died on December 20, 1944, in the Neuengamme
concentration camp.

Anne Frank
Anne Frank is the author of the diary. She was born in 1929, in Frankfurt. When
she was four years old, the family moved to Amsterdam, where Anne attended
a Montesorri school, and later, after Jewish children were expelled from their
schools, a Jewish lyceum. Anne was an attractive, popular, outgoing girl, the
center of attention at parties. Anne's life changed dramatically when the family
went into hiding. She was cut off from all her former pursuits and had to face
her adolescent years confined to an annex with seven other people, unable to
go outside even for a moment. Anne was given a diary for her thirteenth
birthday, and decided to record in it all her innermost thoughts and feelings,
which she felt she could not confide to anyone.

After the residents of the annex were arrested on August 4, 1944, Anne was
sent with her family to Westerbrok, a labor camp in Holland. On September 3,
1944, she along with the others was transported to Auschwitz concentration
camp, in Poland. At the end of October, Anne and Margot were sent to Bergen-
Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany . Conditions were unsanitary and
disease was rife. The prisoners were given almost no food or decent clothing.
There was an epidemic of typhus, and Anne and Margot both fell ill. They died
within days of each other, in February or March, 1945. Anne's body was
dumped in a mass grave.

Edith Frank
Edith Frank is Anne Frank's mother, a well educated woman from a well-to-do
family who married Otto Frank in 1925. Anne and her mother were never close,
and during the two and a half years in which she kept her diary, Anne maintains
a very critical attitude towards her, on many occasions rejecting her altogether.
Anne feels that her mother favors Margot, and she resents her mother's
criticisms. She thinks her mother does not understand her and treats her as a
child. In early 1944, however, Anne rethinks her attitude, realizing that she may
have been too harsh on her mother. She realizes that her own attitude put her
mother in a difficult position, and together with the stress of being in hiding, this
helped to make her nervous and irritable. But in spite of her effort to
understand, Anne still cannot give her mother the kind of love that a daughter
would normally feel.

Edith Frank died of hunger and exhaustion in Auschwitz concentration camp on

January 6, 1945.

Margot Frank
Margot Frank is Anne's sister. She is three years older than Anne. Margot is
beautiful and gifted and always excelled in school. Anne and Margot are not
close, and Anne feels that her parents favor Margot over her. It may be that
Anne is jealous of her sister, although she never openly admits this. She writes
in one entry that Margot gets on her nerves constantly. But later in their stay in
the annex, they reach an understanding and become more friendly, even
writing letters to each other in which they reveal their feelings.

Margot Frank died of typhus at the German concentration camp of Bergen-

Belsen sometime in March, 1945.

Otto Frank
Otto Frank is the husband of Edith Frank and the father of Margot and Anne.
Otto was born in Germany and served in the German Army in World War I,
attaining the rank of Lieutenant of the Reserves. When anti-Semitism arose in
Germany, he moved his family to Amsterdam in 1933. Otto was a businessman,
and in Amsterdam he set up an independent company called Opekta, which
made pectin, an ingredient used in jam. The company was successful and in
1938 expanded to include the production of spices. In Anne's diary, Otto
emerges as a tolerant, good-tempered man and loving father. He is also very
modest and does not talk much about himself. Anne calls him Pim and is
devoted to him. Otto tries in vain, however, to mediate in the quarrels between
Anne and her mother, and Anne sometimes complains that even he treats her
like a child.

Otto Frank was the only member of the eight residents of the annex to survive
the war. He was liberated from Auschwitz concentration camp by Russian
troops. After the war, Miep Gies gave him Anne's diary; he edited it and it was
published in 1947.

Jan Gies
Jan Gies is Miep's husband. He helps the Franks go into hiding.

Miep Gies
Miep Gies was born in Austria in 1909. In 1933 she began working as an office
assistant for Otto Frank. When he asked her in 1942 if she would take care of
them if they went into hiding, she unhesitatingly replied that she would. For over
two years she brought the residents of the annex food and whatever else they
needed, as well as news from the outside world. She knew that she was taking
a great personal risk in doing so. After the Franks were arrested, Miep rescued
Anne's diary and returned it to Otto Frank after the war. Miep has received
many international honors for her courage in sheltering the Franks. She is still
alive and lives in Holland. She says that every year on August 4, the day of the
arrest, she grieves for the friends she lost.

Hanneli
Hanneli is Anne's childhood friend. Anne does not know what has happened to
her and dreams of her. She prays that Hanneli may be safe. The two girls were
to meet again at the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in 1944. Hanneli
Goslar was sick with tuberculosis, but she survived the camp and emigrated to
Jerusalem in 1947.

Mr. Kleiman
Johannes Kleiman is a friend and business associate of Otto Frank. He works in
the building where the Franks and van Daans are in hiding and provides them
with all the help they need. Anne describes him as unfailingly cheerful and
extremely brave, since he is seriously ill with a stomach problem. Kleiman was
arrested along with the others in 1944 and sent to a work camp. But he was
later released because of his ill health.

Mr. Kugler
Victor Kugler is a business associate of Otto Frank. He is one of the people who
helps the Franks and van Daans when they are in hiding. He makes a point of
bringing Anne one of her favorite magazines, Cinema & Theater, every Monday,
which greatly pleases her. Kugler was arrested with the others in August, 1944.
In March, 1945, he was among six hundred prisoners being deported to
Germany when British troops attacked, and he managed to escape. In 1973,
he was awarded the Medal of the Righteous in Jerusalem for his efforts in
sheltering the Franks and the van Daans.

Peter Schiff
Peter Schiff is a childhood sweetheart of Anne Frank.

Hello Silberberg
Hello Silberberg is a boy with whom Anne forms a romantic friendship a short
while before she goes into hiding.

Mr. van Daan

Mr. van Daan, whose real name was Hermann van Pels, is a businessman and
friend of Otto Frank. Like the Franks, he is a Jewish German refugee. The
Franks invite him and his wife to go into hiding with them. Mr. van Daan and his
wife frequently quarrel, and make no attempt to disguise their feelings, but then
they make up affectionately. The Franks, who are more reserved, are
uncomfortable with this kind of behavior and increasingly distance themselves
from the van Daans. After the arrest in 1944, Hermann van Pels died in the gas
chambers at Auschwitz in October or November, 1944.

Mrs. van Daan

Mrs. van Daan, whose real name was Auguste van Pels, is presented in Anne's
diary as an emotional, quick-tempered woman. Anne takes a thorough dislike to
her. "Mrs. van Daan is always saying the most ridiculous things" (May 2, 1943),
is one of her milder comments, and she also uses words like pushy, vain,
egotistical and cunning to describe her. The hostile feelings appear to have
been mutual. After the arrest, Auguste van Pels was sent to Auschwitz
concentration camp and then moved to several other camps, including Bergen-
Belsen, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt. She did not survive, but the exact
date of her death is unknown.

Peter van Daan

Peter van Daan is the son of Mr. and Mrs. van Daan. Fifteen years old when he
first moves to the annex, he is a quiet, shy, rather awkward and nervous boy.
Anne thinks little of him at first, but later she befriends him and they have quite
an intense emotional and romantic relationship. Ultimately, Anne is
disappointed in Peter because they do not communicate as deeply as she
would like. Peter van Daan, whose real name was Peter van Pels, died on May
5, 1945, in Mauthausen in Austria, where he had been forced to march from the
concentration camp at Auschwitz. The march became known as the "death
march" because so many of the prisoners forced to take part in it died.

Mr. van Maaren

Mr. van Maaren is hired as warehouse foreman in 1943. The residents of the
annex feel uneasy about him because he is always snooping about, and they
fear he suspects that some Jews are in hiding in the building. It is possible that
van Maaren was the person who betrayed the Franks, but in an official inquiry
after the war, nothing was proven against him.

Bep Voskiujl
Bep Voskiujl is a twenty-three year-old typist who works in the office of Otto
Frank's company in the same building as the hideaways. She visits them during
the day and also, with Miep, brings supplies, including bringing them milk
without any of the warehouse workers noticing. She helps in other ways, too,
sending in Margot's shorthand lessons in under her own name. Anne
appreciates all the help she gives. When Bep copies a picture postcard of the
Dutch royal family and gives it to Anne, Anne comments, "It was incredibly nice
of Bep, don't you think?"

Metaphor Analysis
Metaphors, Similes and Symbols
It must be remembered that Anne is not self-consciously writing a literary
text; she is a young girl recording her life and struggling to deal with an
immensely difficult situation. However, she often uses images taken from nature
to illustrate her feelings. On October 29, 1943, for example, she writes that she
is miserable in the stifling atmosphere in the house. To make things worse,
outside there is not a single bird to be heard. This immediately leads her into
another thought, from which a simile emerges. Anne compares herself to a
songbird "whose wings have been ripped off and who keeps hurling itself
against the bars of its dark cage." Anne shows that she thinks like a writer,
receiving an impression from the outside world and then having it pop up in her
mind again in an image that illustrates something about her own life.

A few days later, she uses another image from nature to describe her situation.
She sees the eight people in the annex as if they are "a patch of blue sky
surrounded by menacing clouds." The clouds are moving in on them in a dark
mass, and above them is the peace and beauty of the blue sky. This is not the
only time Anne, who obviously has a deep appreciation of nature, uses the sky
as a symbol of peace and transcendence. On July 15, 1944, she writes that
whenever she looks up at the sky, she feels that everything will change for the
better, and that peace and tranquility will return. The sky thus becomes for her a
symbol of hope.

Finally, Anne mentions several times that from the attic window she can see a
chestnut tree. The chestnut tree becomes for her a measure of the seasons, a
sign of the passing of time and of nature's powers of renewal. She first mentions
the tree, its bare branches glistening with dew, on February 23, 1944. She
mentions it again on April 18, 1944: the chestnut tree is in leaf and is starting to
blossom. A few weeks later she refers to it for a third time; it is now in full bloom
and even more beautiful than the previous year. As a marker of the larger
passage of time, the chestnut tree is a contrast to the clock-time of day-to-day
life in the annex. This time is somewhat vague for the eight residents, since in
1943 the chiming bells of the town clock outside was removed, after which the
residents had no idea of the exact time, day or night.