The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
This was probably my third read through of Anne Frank's diary. While it is still an intriguing read, I read it through the eyes of an adult, not the eyes of a girl the same age that related to the problems with her parents.
The Diary of a Young Girl is nonfiction; it is the actual diary of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl in hiding with her family and a few other member of the Jewish community during World War II. She started her diary shortly before going into hiding, and kept it until the Annex was found and everyone in hiding was taken to concentration camps. Along with Anne were both of her parents, Otto and Edith, her sister, Margot, the Van Daan family, Hermann, Petronella, and Peter, and a dentist, Albert Dussel. Otto Frank was the only survivor after they were captured. Otto had Anne's diary published, although there are different versions of it.
The Dutch wanted to share diaries and other works of its citizens, especially of those in hiding, during WW2, and Anne kept the diary with this in mind. It is a book commonly read in junior and high schools, and was on my list of scratch off books. The diary as a whole I will say is amazing. For a girl who is only 13 at the start of her diary to keep such detailed accounts of the quiet life of a person in hiding is no easy feat. She shares the daily tasks each person does a few times, and you can see how the routines change the longer in hiding they are. She talks about the food they eat, and how their rations changes. She talks about the birthday's celebrated and the gifts given. Despite being hidden, the occupants of the Annex (the English name given to the area where they hid) continued their schooling in many different subjects with hopes of one day returning to school. And towards the end, Anne details the break ins that happened in the building where they were hidden away.
There are a few different versions of the diary. There is Anne's original diary that she received as a gift on her 13th birthday. Then, there is the version where she made edits to her original diary. When she learned that the Dutch government wanted to publish the works of its people during this time, she went back and corrected spelling errors, made clarifications, etc,. Then there is the version that Otto Frank first put out where certain entries were removed. They were removed because of various reasons: they were topics that were not discussed, like sexuality; or, they spoke ill of members of the Annex who were no longer living. If I am correct in understanding, some of those entries have been re-entered, but the diary will never be the original.
I guess the part that I do not like is not really a "part," but Anne's attitude toward her parents. She speaks frequently of not loving her mother, and her mother not loving her. She includes a letter she wrote to her father telling her father to stop treating her like a little girl because she is a woman. She was 13 through 15, and while she went through things no one should have to go through, she was also a typical teenager going through the "no one understands me" stage. And having come through the other side of that stage and being beyond grateful for my parents, it was really hard for me to read some of the more disrespectful parts. But what is more frustrating is Anne was not allowed to grow out of that phase and love her parents for who they were and realize they were only trying to protect her while they still could, especially with the world they lived in.
That's part of reading a book again as an adult, because I know any other reading would have been while I was in school. Books read differently at different stages of life; different things mean more or less. Anne, her sister Margot, and Peter Van Daan never got to learn that.
Rating: 6/10
Author: Anne Frank
Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, History
Dates Read: February 13-20, 2019
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| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
The Dutch wanted to share diaries and other works of its citizens, especially of those in hiding, during WW2, and Anne kept the diary with this in mind. It is a book commonly read in junior and high schools, and was on my list of scratch off books. The diary as a whole I will say is amazing. For a girl who is only 13 at the start of her diary to keep such detailed accounts of the quiet life of a person in hiding is no easy feat. She shares the daily tasks each person does a few times, and you can see how the routines change the longer in hiding they are. She talks about the food they eat, and how their rations changes. She talks about the birthday's celebrated and the gifts given. Despite being hidden, the occupants of the Annex (the English name given to the area where they hid) continued their schooling in many different subjects with hopes of one day returning to school. And towards the end, Anne details the break ins that happened in the building where they were hidden away.
There are a few different versions of the diary. There is Anne's original diary that she received as a gift on her 13th birthday. Then, there is the version where she made edits to her original diary. When she learned that the Dutch government wanted to publish the works of its people during this time, she went back and corrected spelling errors, made clarifications, etc,. Then there is the version that Otto Frank first put out where certain entries were removed. They were removed because of various reasons: they were topics that were not discussed, like sexuality; or, they spoke ill of members of the Annex who were no longer living. If I am correct in understanding, some of those entries have been re-entered, but the diary will never be the original.
I guess the part that I do not like is not really a "part," but Anne's attitude toward her parents. She speaks frequently of not loving her mother, and her mother not loving her. She includes a letter she wrote to her father telling her father to stop treating her like a little girl because she is a woman. She was 13 through 15, and while she went through things no one should have to go through, she was also a typical teenager going through the "no one understands me" stage. And having come through the other side of that stage and being beyond grateful for my parents, it was really hard for me to read some of the more disrespectful parts. But what is more frustrating is Anne was not allowed to grow out of that phase and love her parents for who they were and realize they were only trying to protect her while they still could, especially with the world they lived in.
That's part of reading a book again as an adult, because I know any other reading would have been while I was in school. Books read differently at different stages of life; different things mean more or less. Anne, her sister Margot, and Peter Van Daan never got to learn that.
Rating: 6/10
Author: Anne Frank
Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, History
Dates Read: February 13-20, 2019
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