The Diary of a Young Girl

“Considering how far we watch Anne travel within the confines of that claustrophobic space, considering her astonishing change from a little girl to a young woman, how could it have been possible that the little girl wrote almost exactly as the young woman did, so that Anne’s literary voice remained, in essence, the same? The answer is that during her final months in the attic, Anne herself revised and edited the sections she had written throughout her years in hiding.” 

This quote explains a very important point that anyone discussing The Diary of a Young Girl must keep in mind: Though it is a diary, the book is not a pure chronicle of Anne’s daily thoughts and experiences. It has been edited and rewritten, especially by Anne herself. The diary’s overall voice reflects the older, more mature Anne who lived in 1944, not the girl who first entered the Secret Annex.

“And it can only deepen our admiration to know that this book, which has been universally read and admired, this intensely personal memoir which over time has become emblematic of the sufferings of so many millions, is not simply the spontaneous, accidental outpourings of a young girl’s heart but rather a consciously crafted work of literature. Anne Frank’s diary is as expertly written, as beautiful, and as powerful as she must have intended, when, in the final months of a life that would so soon be cut short, she labored, like any artist, to fashion something solid and enduring from her dream of what she so urgently wanted her book to be.” 

Despite the revisions to The Diary of a Young Girl, Francine Post argues that it should be seen as a literary masterwork. Even with the revisions, it still captures Anne’s viewpoint. In fact, Post implies that the revisions make it even more of a literary classic, as they mean Anne took care in shaping the diary’s narrative, like any novelist or short story writer.

“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” 

The importance of this passage becomes clearer in later entries. Anne, who feels isolated even from her family, treats the diary as her sole confidant. She will indeed confide in this journal her feelings about her family, her personal philosophies and politics, and even her awareness of her sexuality.

“No, on the surface I seem to have everything, except my one true friend. All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, and that’s the problem. Maybe it’s my fault that we don’t confide in each other. In any case, that’s just how things are, and unfortunately they’re not liable to change. This is why I’ve started the diary.” 

Although Anne’s feelings of isolation are more pronounced in the Secret Annex, she feels isolated even in school. Anne later describes her personality at this time of her life as “superficial” (172).

“You couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do that, but life went on.” 

Restrictions are a recurring theme in The Diary of a Young Girl, beginning with the anti-Semitic laws that barred Jews from streetcars and cinemas. Despite those limitations, life continued on. Now in the Secret Annex, the residents deal with different restrictions that dictate when they can move or use the toilet. Even so, Anne and the others must strive for some semblance of normalcy while coping with the threat against their lives.

“I don’t think I’ll ever feel at home in this house, but that doesn’t mean I hate it. It’s more like being on vacation in some strange pension. Kind of an odd way to look at life in hiding, but that’s how things are.”

Anne copes with the situation by asserting that the Secret Annex is not home but something temporary. Anne has also come to view the situation as a necessary arrangement forced on them by circumstances.

“Not being able to go outside upsets me more than I can say, and I’m terrified our hiding place will be discovered and that we’ll be shot. That, of course, is a fairly dismal prospect.”

Anne is fully aware of the dangers facing her family and the consequences of being discovered. Even as a child, she knows what the Nazis intend and about the violence of the Holocaust.

“Mother and I had a so-called ‘discussion’ today, but the annoying part is that I burst into tears. I can’t help it. Daddy is always nice to me, and he also understands me much better. At moments like these I can’t stand Mother. It’s obvious that I’m a stranger to her; she doesn’t even know what I think about the most ordinary things.” 

One of the most recurring conflicts in Anne’s life, especially early in the diary, is her tense relationship with her mother. However, for Anne, the conflict extends beyond arguments, as Anne feels misunderstood by and isolated from her mother.

“They criticize everything, and I mean everything, about me: my behavior, my personality, my manners; every inch of me, from head to toe and back again, is the subject of gossip and debate. Harsh words and shouts are constantly being flung at my head, through I’m absolutely not used to it.” 

Anne does not just feel isolated from her mother. Especially early in her journal, she feels alienated from everyone else in the Secret Annex. This applies to her father, too, even though she relates to him better than anyone else in the Annex. Her sense of isolation does ease somewhat in later entries, as she becomes closer to Peter and Mrs. van Daan.

“I can imagine Mother dying someday, but Daddy’s death seems inconceivable. It’s very mean of me, but that’s how I feel. I hope Mother will never read this or anything I’ve written.”

This marks Anne’s harshest entry about her mother. While Anne’s relationship with her mother is strained throughout the journal, she is later surprised when revisiting this entry. She asks herself, “Anne, is that really you talking about hate? Oh, Anne, how could you?” (131). This reflection notes one of the most dramatic examples of Anne’s perspective changing over time.

“We’re so fortunate here, away from the turmoil. We wouldn’t have to give a moment’s thought to all this suffering if it weren’t for the fact that we’re so worried about those we hold dear, whom we can no longer help. I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed, while somewhere out there my dearest friends are dropping from exhaustion or being knocked to the ground.” 

Feelings of guilt haunt Anne throughout her time in the Secret Annex. Even though life in the Annex is far from ideal, she still worries for her Jewish acquaintances and friends whom she cannot contact. Her anxiety and guilt are exacerbated by news from the outside about the growing persecution and deportation of Jewish people.

“In bed at night, as I ponder my many sins and exaggerated shortcomings, I get so confused by the sheer amount of things I have to consider that I either laugh or cry, depending on my mood. Then I fall asleep with the strange feeling of wanting to be different than I am or being different than I want to be, or perhaps of behaving differently than I am or want to be.”

Anne often writes of the adults in her life being overly critical. Still, on some level, she blames herself for not living up to other people’s expectations. Later in the journal, she writes of “having to adjust to the harsh world of grown-ups and rebukes” (194). The importance of self-improvement becomes a major part of Anne’s outlook and part of the reason why she cannot envision a future with Peter van Daan.

“Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their homes sealed, their families gone.” 

Anne’s awareness of what is happening outside the Secret Annex is broadened both by the news they receive from their helpers and from Anne’s own observations of what is happening on the street. This knowledge overshadows life in the Secret Annex.

“As for us, we’re quite fortunate. Luckier than millions of people. It’s quiet and safe here, and we’re using our money to buy food. We’re so selfish that we talk about ‘after the war’ and look forward to new clothes and shoes, when actually we should be saving every penny to help others when the war is over, to salvage whatever we can.” 

This is another example of Anne being aware of events that affect Jewish people. However, it also shows Anne developing her own views on the world outside the Secret Annex. As she becomes more independent and passionate about writing, she wants to “be useful and bring enjoyment to all people” (204).

“I felt sorry for mother—very, very sorry—because for the first time in my life I noticed she wasn’t indifferent to my coldness. I saw the sorrow in her face when she talked about not being able to make me love her. It’s hard to tell the truth, and yet the truth is that she’s the one who’s rejected me. She’s the one whose tactless comments and cruel jokes about matters I don’t think are funny have made me insensitive to any sign of love on her part. Just as my heart sinks every time I hear her harsh words, that’s how her heart sank when she realized there was no more love between us.” 

One of Anne’s steps toward maturity is becoming aware of her mother’s perspective. Although Anne’s feelings toward her mother and her mother’s treatment of her do not soften significantly, Anne does become aware of her mother’s feelings. This leads her to speculate about why her mother behaves the way she does, which inspires this revelation: “I’ve suddenly realized what’s wrong with her. Mother has said that she sees us more as friends than as daughters” (133).

“I model myself after Father, and there’s no one in the world I love more. He doesn’t realize that he treats Margot differently than he does me: Margot just happens to be the smartest, the kindest, the prettiest and the best. But I have a right to be taken seriously too.” 

Early in her diary, Anne idolizes her father. As she matures, she becomes more critical of Otto and her relationship with him. This critical reflection includes examining how Otto treats Margot differently than he treats Anne, and how he does not treat Anne like an individual.

“I’m the opposite of Mother, so of course we clash. I don’t mean to judge her; I don’t have that right. I’m simply looking at her as a mother. She’s not a mother to me—I have to mother myself. I’ve cut myself adrift from them. I’m charting my own course, and we’ll see where it leads me. I have no choice, because I can picture what a mother and a wife should be and can’t seem to find anything of the sort in the woman I’m supposed to call ‘Mother.’” 

Anne’s attitude toward her mother intersects with her desire for independence. She later writes in a letter to her father, “When I was having problems, everyone—and that includes you—closed their eyes and ears and didn’t help me…I’m independent in both body and mind” (230). Because of the circumstances of the Secret Annex, Anne feels that she had to raise herself and that she has matured past her age.

“I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. The perfectly round spot on which we’re standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us, and the ring between us and the approaching danger is being pulled tighter and tighter. We’re surrounded by darkness and danger, and in our desperate search for a way out we keep bumping into each other. We look at the fighting down below and the peace and beauty up above. In the meantime, we’ve been cut off by the dark mass of clouds, so that we can go neither up nor down. It looms before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, ‘Oh, ring, ring, open wide and let us out!’” 

Anne presents a metaphor describing the situation in the Secret Annex, in which the Annex residents are a patch of blue sky ringed by dark clouds. This image captures the precariousness of the situation, and it conveys the sense of isolation felt by the residents of the Secret Annex.

“Those violent outbursts on paper are simply expressions of anger that, in normal life, I could have worked off by locking myself in my room and stamping my foot a few times or calling Mother names behind her back.”

Anne reflects on how life in hiding has shaped her personality. In particular, she is aware of how her life has diverged from that of a normal teenager. She considers how her lack of privacy and the forced intimacy with her family may have heightened her problems with her mother.

“Oh, Petel, Petel, how am I ever going to free myself from your image? Wouldn’t anyone who took your place be a poor substitute? I love you, with a love so great that it couldn’t keep growing inside my heart, but had to leap out and reveal itself in all its magnitude.”

Anne’s awareness of her sexuality begins with her fantasies of an old childhood crush she calls Petel. Anne feels that she is even experiencing love. However, it is a love mixed with her desire to go outside and reunite with her friends and schoolmates.

“Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again.” 

Anne’s growing introspection leads her to develop her own philosophy on life and despair. She has devised her own solution to despair. Unlike her mother, who reflects on the misfortunes of others, Anne expresses her belief in searching for inner happiness and contemplating nature. She explains that the “best remedy […] is to go outside, somewhere [you] can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God” (163).

“I don’t have much in the way of money or worldly possessions. I’m not beautiful, intelligent or clever, but I’m happy, and I intend to stay that way! I was born happy, I love people, I have a trusting nature, and I’d like everyone else to be happy too.” 

Anne’s introspection includes an awareness of herself as what we might call an extrovert. Her interest in people and her sense of happiness are deeply intertwined with her keen desire to “see the world” (233).

“Seriously, though, ten years after the war people would find it very amusing to read how we lived, what we ate and what we talked about as Jews in hiding. Although I tell you a great deal about our lives, you still know very little about us.”

At this point Anne is considering publishing her journal, but she often wonders who would want to read it. She also considers her struggle to convey the sense of desperation felt by Jews during World War II. Anne can provide a snapshot of what it was like to be a Jew hiding from the Nazis, but this snapshot cannot impress true understanding upon an outside observer, nor can it account for the experiences of other Jews during the war.