Anne Frank’s Diary
七屆五班, 沈安琪, 張詩穎, 陳安慈, 楊岱陵, 蔡佳穎
The Mental Change
Schoolwork, boys and friends were the most significant elements that
matter to Anne Frank’s life, before she and her family hid in the Secret Annex.
Just like the other teenage girls, Anne’s world was filled with doubt about
herself, a strong feeling which against her mother, and she thought herself to
be inferior to her sister, Margot. What changed this young lady was the
disastrous Holocaust. The horrifying fact led her into another level of pondering:
what could I do for this world?
People like we high school students usually look forward to something for
fun, and we don’t really care if the activities are helpful to our future.
Anne Frank was forced to face the reality, and she must to. Because the
starvation would put her to death, the Nazi Army would put her to death, and
what she saw through the window—the person who was being dragged out of
the house could possibly be her. As for Anne, her family and the people in this
small space had little choice, they only got two choices: move on or give in.
A concept, in a Jewish Museum which represents a glimpse of hope,
made people overcame the toughest time, removed the tears and the pain,
and so many struggles in those tragic moments. Anne held a hope though the
chances were so little.
In spite of the cruelty of the time, she could transform her horizon into gratitude,
and she also showed her courage to take the reality. Anne Frank was only 14
almost 15, but the compression on her mind definitely strengthened her will to
live and kept herself optimistic. Even though Anne died just before the
liberation, I believe what on her mind was the good of the humanity but not just
the dark side of one’s life.
The Physical Change
When Anne kept her diary, she was a thirteen years old girl, who was at
the period of entering the puberty. Teenagers at this age are mostly receiving
complicated changes both on their body and mentality. In this period of time,
teenagers attempt to explore the change of their bodies and start to have
interest in the opposite sex, they also begin to get interested in sexual
information; moreover, they make immature judgments hastily.
In the beginning of Anne’s diary, she described how she fell in love with
Peter and how lots of boys in her class are keen on her. Enjoying the honor,
she finds it entertaining as well. Many teenagers in school are under the same
circumstances like Anne because they only concentrate on this kind of trivial
things such as love and friends. Thus, Anne always worries about that whether
Peter likes her or not. Her emotion goes up and down with Peter.
Teenagers have capricious minds. They do things against their parents in
order to catch their attraction. When Anne talks about sex, her mother warns
he not to speak with boys about that subject; however Anne refuses to listen to
her mother. As she is curious about sex, she still keeps talking about the
subject with others in an effort to know more. Obviously, hordes of teens try to
find this kind of forbidden information in books or in other ways by themselves
if they can’t get it from the seniors.
Teens easily judge other people by their immature judgment. Sometimes
they do not see things clearly and make the judgments rashly. They are too
bold to judge others but still think their estimation is right. Teenagers often
have the same mistake since they don’t have sufficient experiences. Anne and
Peter both think they lack a mother. Peter’s is too superficial, loves flirting and
doesn’t trouble much about what he thinks. Anne thinks her mother bothers
about her, but lacks sensitiveness, real motherliness.
The Conflicting Love
According to Anne’s diary, we know that Anne doesn’t like her mother, but
we don’t know why their relationship is not good.
In the diary, we know that Anne sometimes had arguments with her mother.
Maybe this is the reason why Anne doesn’t love her mother: she thinks that her
mother didn’t understand her and she didn’t understand her mother either. And
these are her words “Why did I feel so angry then? Why did I hate her so much?
It was true that she didn’t understand me. But I didn’t understand her either.”
As a thirteen years old child, she was in Rebel Period. She wanted
everyone to agree with her and also understand her without any scolding. It is
just like us that we always resist our parents, wanting them to follow our
opinions and never say no. If our parents scold us, we will hate them and
dislike them. It’s possible that a thirteen-year-old girl hates her mother. In one
of the diaries, Anne wrote about the night when Pim wasn’t ready to prey with
her. Her mother came as a substitute, but Anne rejected immediately although
she knew she might hurt her mother’s feeling.
As a daughter, I can identify with how Anne feels about her father, who
tends to play the role of intelligence and kindness. On the contrary, a mother
likes to chatter to her children. However, Anne felt ashamed when she saw
how badly she spoke of her mother in her former diaries. This implies that
deep down her heart; she loves her mother, but didn’t know how to express her
feeling. The love between parents and children is always complicated.
Anne’s mother definitely loved her daughter. When Anne said she didn’t
want to pray with her mother. She cried. Her mother didn’t want Anne to go
upstairs to be so close to Peter. She wanted to protect her daughter. After all,
Anne is a girl and Peter is a boy. As a mother, it’s her responsibility to teach her
daughter what the relationship between a woman and a man is suppose to be.
These examples all show that Anne’s mother loved her daughter deeply.
In a word, Anne and her mother love each other, but they don’t know how
to show their love. For most people, it is hard for us to show our love too. How
did Anne feel when her mother died in the labor camp? I know it really hurts
and she would regret that she never told her mother that she loved her. We
should cherish what we have. We should cherish our family and never regret.
Maybe we always quarrel with our parents. Maybe we don’t understand them.
But love is still there and it will never fade.
Anne’s Dream
While hiding safely in the Secret Annex, Anne gradually noticed the
miserable things that happened outside the world. In the evening, when she
was allowed to peep through a slit of a curtain, she often saw long lines of
innocent Jews walking on the streets, and they were probably walking to their
death. Moreover, air raids occurred at anytime. Thunderous noises of planes
and bombs were howling continuously; the sky was covered with the smock of
bomb, which looked like thick fog; the smell of the fire was so dense that it took
so long for it to disappear. And every street was empty and cold.
Anne, who hid in a safe place, often shook with terror, not to mention the
people who were outside with nowhere to hide. She then developed a great
sense of guilt, because she wasn’t able to lend a helping hand to her clansmen.
The guilt became even stronger when she thought about people who she loves,
who were still in danger. The guilt later became a part of her subconscious, so
she often dreamed about the people whom she felt guilty about, Granny and
Lies.
Even though she held back the guilty feeling, she couldn’t control her
subconscious. It was her dream that reflected her true self, and her remorse
for the past mistakes.
Her granny appeared in her dream as a guarding angel. We can know that
there was a intimate bond between them. To Anne, Granny was a lady of
toleration, benevolence, and confidence. When she was alive, she always took
care of the whole family, while she had to endure great pain from a severe
disease. Anne felt sad for Granny because few people understood her
sufferings. She was also regretful that she rarely told Granny her feelings,
which left Granny so lonely.
Anne has the deepest guilt for Lies not only because she was once her best
friend who she had misjudged, but also because she wasn’t able to save her.
Lies appeared as pale and helpless with big imploring eyes and thin face, as if
she had been interrogated for Anne’s desertion. Anne was deeply regretful for
her misunderstanding and discard of Lie. Her guilty feeling was just like a large
iceberg floating unsteadily. Sometimes she could feel the pain clearly, while
most of time she had almost forgotten it. Though she tried to hide away her
feeling, it still appeared in her dreams. Anne’s dream showed the reality,
pushing her to think more about her outside-world friend instead of focusing on
her trivial problems. All she could do was to face honestly her feeling, even
though it was quite unpleasant to recognize and accept it. Additionally, she
also could pray for all her friends and all Jews, hoping miracle would happen.
Connection
The situation in Anne Frank’s Diary, in some way, corresponds with the
one in an experiment that was conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo in the summer
of 1971 at Stanford University— also known as the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Simulating the situation of a real prison and having college students to
participate in it, Philip G. Zimbardo and his research team managed to
understand what will happen if a good person is put in an evil circumstance.
Surprisingly, their plane had to be called off immediately for only six days
because the students were already reacting extreme behaviors.
While browsing through the website of the study page by page, I noticed
that a feeling of horrification, which came from nowhere, had involuntarily
expanded in me— far before I actually get down to reading it. The experiment
itself, though, seemed attractive and interesting, but the further I get involved,
the more I trembled.
In this experiment, the prisoner’s were forced to stay in a small cell and
have to bear the humiliation and torture from the guards day and night. They
were only to be called by numbers instead of names, and a chain has to be
putted on their foot twenty- four hours a day. In fact, after the experiment had
ended, some students admitted that they actually felt hopeless at that time.
How frightening it is that humanity can be transformed so easily under such a
harsh condition after all the years of receiving well education; moreover, in
such a short period of time.
Thus I come think: did Anne and the Jews who lived in the Secret Annex
also suffer from the same transform? Living in such a narrowed place with
members who are not even from her family for approximately two years, Anne,
as well as other members, must have had some mental changes. Perhaps
their situation was better, there was nobody shouting at them or conducting
any physical torture like hitting or making them do exercises— but two years is
enough. Hiding like a cockroach in an old and shabby place, trying not make
any sound in the daytime as if they were a nest of rats. Every cruel factor
formed a barrier in their subconsciousness. As time flies by, a clear dividing
line emerged between the people living the Secret Annex and the German just
like the one between the prisoners and the guards. For two years, not only
Anne and the other members’ life but also their interior remained oppressed
and limited. Humanity, such an easy yet complicated word. It’s unbelievable
and undeniable how easily it can be shaped, transformed, and waned.