Reading a diary is essentially like reading a mind. So what better way to situate yourself in a time of war? Anne Frank Diary sets you in the writer’s feet, and as you read along, she writes to you, her best-friend, in a moment of time where she seeks comfort, confessed on paper. For the purpose of this blog, I am going to tackle how different perspectives have an effect on the reader’s content.
A thirteen years-old schoolgirl is not an angle we are accustomed to. We’re so often encountered on taking on problems from our perspective (an adults perspective) that we so easily forget on what being a child was. That time when you were sheltered from the outside world, struggling to understand the changes that are occurring around you. With what you do see is the present, but unaware of reality.
During the context of this story, Anne Frank list-out the problems associated with being a jew as if she was making a shopping list; acknowledging they were there, but without paying pay much attention to them. Rather, we see how she focusses on criteria that matters to her. Through the conversation of her diary, we start reading on who likes who, her warm critiques of her classmates, and conversation with certain boys.
July 1,1942, Anne Frank and Hello’s conversation is narrated as a diary entrance. Beginning with, “Until todayI honestly couldn’t find the time to write”. The beginning of the entry catches the readers attention, as if something important has happened. But when she unfolds, Anne draws her conclusion upon love; if he likes me or not, will he walk me home tomorrow, or maybe we will even get married some day. Despite the brutal problems to which Anne Frank is facing, her day to day extents very much in what every schoolboy and girl faces. Acceptance.
Controversial to her immaturity, she does write better than most adults. When we think about genre, a diary can be argued that for the most part, it was not meant to be read. Anne quotes, “I nor anyone else will be interested in the musing of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. It doesn’t matter”. So why is it that this diary has become so celebrated? While plot is evidential, and the context all familiarised, what stands out to the reader is the writers ingeniously. Outlining the success in this autobiography by reflecting upon a different point of view. Emphasising that age plays an important role in maturity, but not human values.
Maybe we remembered them more clearly before.
References
Biography.com Editors. “Anne Frank Biography” A&E Television Networks. January 8, 2016 <http://www.biography.com/people/anne-frank-9300892>
mental_floss, Stacy Conradt “10 Things to Know About Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl” June 8, 2012
<http://mentalfloss.com/article/51367/10-things-know-about-anne-franks-diary-young-girl>
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Bantam, 1993. Print.