When academic or scholarly conversation turns to life narratives, one cannot navigate the conversation from arguably the most influential (and definitely the most famous) life narrative of all time. ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’ is the story of a young girl who, through traumatic witnessing, describes the story of being pursued by Nazis during the Dutch takeover of The Netherlands.
Amazon summarises the book as follows: “In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.”
However, one must ask the question, ‘WHY is this the most well known and influential life narrative?’ One must only look at the patterns of consumption of life narratives. Life narratives of trauma are vividly consumed by audiences striving to live vicariously through the experiences of others. Anne Frank’s work (more of a diary) is the most extreme of these cases. Taking place during the most pivotal time period in the twenty first century causes the novel to carry the reader back into the past; and walking in Anne Frank’s shoes.
Many life narratives are written due to people’s natural exhibitionism, but Anne Frank was not aware that her work was going to be published. The work is candid, and a verifiable window into the soul and story of a young girl swept away and robbed of her youth. The vast majority of those able to read the work would not have gone through anything even near what Anne Frank went through. This feeling of guilt and fascination may have propelled the immense readership communities of this book.
Another aspect that can be examined is the value of this work as compared to it’s contemporary counterparts.Other notable works from the period that are in autobiographical forms are Beyond Band of Brothers or similar stories. Most of them are by soldiers, encompassing a completely different (albeit important) part of the Second World War experience. The childhood perspective (genuine seeing as it is not written with retrospect) and the completely different view from those fighting in the battlefields make the work more relatable to readers. Although one may empathise with the soldiers who fought and died in the trenches and in the great battles of the Pacific, Africa, and Europe; in the end of the day a story about a young girl hiding from forces beyond her control will hit closer to home in the average household of the developed world.
There is no doubt in my mind that the work will continue to hold a great significance in world literature; and that it will be an everlasting glimpse into one of the world most shaping and influential events for years to come.
One Comment
Hi Evan,
I like your analysis of Anne Frank, I never knew it was the most famous biography out there. I agree with you, it is important to question why certain life narratives get picked up and why some do not. You could argue that Anne Frank’s diary plays to western ideas of freedom and the innocence of children, or you could look at how the publication coincides when the world was recovering from WW2 and was just realizing the horrors of the holocaust. For a numerous reason this diary was picked up and I believe that it fulfils a interest, or obsession, that Miler and Shepherd outline in the lives of other humans. Anne Frank shows us this. However, it also important to be critical if the source we are getting as actually true. Because for a while Anne Frank’s story was censored as it was too “pornographic.”