THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRLTheme AnalysisWriting for Self-expression and Self-understandingWhen 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 GodIn 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 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.

advertisement

 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 DusselAlbert 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 FrankAnne 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 FrankEdith 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 FrankMargot 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 FrankOtto 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 GiesJan Gies is Miep's husband. He helps the Franks go into  hiding. Miep GiesMiep 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. HanneliHanneli 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. KleimanJohannes 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. KuglerVictor 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 SchiffPeter 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 DaanMr. 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 DaanMrs. 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 DaanPeter 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 MaarenMr. 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 VoskiujlBep 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 SymbolsIt 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.