The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
In honor of Banned Book Week, I re-read my copy of The Diary of Anne Frank, but this is not my usual review. Where I deconstruct the book tell you my likes and dislikes, and render my opinion of what works and doesn’t. It’s more of a tribute to a great piece of literature that opens up a window into a shameful time in human history.
The near extermination of Jews in Europe while all this is going Annalise aka Anne is celebrating her 13th birthday. As a gift she given a diary she names” Kitty” through Kitty’s pages we get a glimpse of every day life for Franks. You would think an account of life in war time . Anne’s would be all bleak but there were moments, frightening, beautiful and the odd humor from time to time. The first time I read this book I was sixteen I remember thinking at the time I couldn’t do this and still be as pleasant as Anne was. For some one so young she exhibited such maturity beyond her years to write as eloquently about her every day, social issues, feminism. I felt immature fussing over trivial matters. It made realize how far we’ve come as far as race relations and how much further we needed to go.
In the first few entries she wrote about her life before the family went into hiding, We see what her life was like growing up in Holland in 1942. Anne went to school, had girl friends and boyfriends, went to parties and to ice-cream parlors, rode her bike, and was a notorious chatter. As a matter of fact it was so bad as a punishment for her talkativeness. Anne had to write several essays on the subject of “A Chatterbox.”
The diary of Anne Frank in many ways was a lesson in the strength of the human spirit under extreme circumstances, the preservation of one’s very life. Amusing, enlightening, and often moving account of the adolescence. What drew me to her story was she just like me—loved life and laughter. And like many young people she was interested in the lives of movie stars. Loved history Greek mythology, writing, and what girl didn’t like boys, these made more relatable. After her family was betrayed Anne died in the camps of the eight people in the secret annex only her father survived. Since the discovery and publication of Anne’s diary it has been a source of inspiration of the human spirit.
Rating: 4/5
- Title: The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
- Published: June 1, 1993 (original 1947)
- Publisher: Bantam
- Genre: Non-Fiction
- Rating: 4 / 5
- Source: Own Copy
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 283
- Buy: Amazon
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. 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.