MEMORANDUM: Introducing diaries – Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl
Aim: To introduce key conventions and characteristics of ‘the diary’
Type: Group discussion, individual written work
Time: 30 minutes
(See book: p. 176)
Grade level: 8, 9
File section: Non-fiction
Instruction:
Read the information about Anne Frank, and then read the extract from her diary, Anne Frank, the
Diary of a Young Girl, before you answer the questions below.
Background information:
Anne Frank was thirteen when she wrote the words below. She was not famous or important at the
time of writing, and never suspected her diary would be published and read by millions. Her diary
was discovered after her death and published in Dutch in 1947. It became the most famous diary of
the twentieth century, precisely because it presents a young girl’s personal perspective on the
turbulent years of the Second World War and the Holocaust, from 1942 to 1944, when Anne was
transported to a concentration camp and died.
Extract from Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl
12 June 1942
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.
Sunday 14 June 1942
I’ll begin from the moment I got you, the moment I saw you lying on the table among my
other birthday presents. (I went along when you were bought, but that doesn’t count.)
On Friday, 12 June, I was awake at six o’ clock, which isn’t surprising, since it was
my birthday. But I’m not allowed to get up at that hour, so I had to control my curiosity
until quarter to seven. When I couldn’t wait any longer, I went to the dining-room, where
Moortje (the cat) welcomed me by rubbing against my legs.
A little after seven I went to Daddy and Mummy and then to the living-room to
open my presents, and you were the first thing I saw, maybe one of my nicest presents.
Questions:
Work in groups and discuss these questions:
1
How do you know this is a diary? Identify three or more characteristics.
Like most diaries, the one above has dates for every entry; there is a first-person narrator
and the narrative voice is intimate, personal and unselfconscious, which might suggest it
is written for the self, rather than a wider audience; the passages are concerned with
ordinary, everyday events; the style is simple and straightforward; reading the second
passage we realise that the speaker is addressing the diary directly (“you”). (Any three)
2
Explain why Anne decides to keep a diary.
In the first passage Anne confesses that she needs a confidante – someone to whom she
can confide her innermost thoughts. Confiding her feelings and thoughts in writing will be
“a great source of comfort and support”.
© Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd 2013. From Oxford Practical Teaching English Literature: How to teach Grades 8–12.
You may modify, print and photocopy this document solely for use in your classes.
Extract from Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl : The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank, edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler,
translated by Susan Massotty (Viking 1997) copyright © The Anne Frank-Fonds, Basle, Switzerland, 1991. English translation copyright ©
Doubleday a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group 1995.
3
Identify and explain the personification Anne uses in the extract.
[Personification is endowing an inanimate object with human characteristics.] Anne
personifies the diary by addressing it as “you”. Anne treats the diary as a friend and
confidante, in whom she can confide her innermost thoughts and feelings.
4
Describe the relationship between the narrator and her diary.
This is a very intimate, personal relationship – similar to that between close friends and
confidantes. We see this in the first passage, where Anne speaks directly to her diary and
says “I hope … to confide everything to you.”
5
In what ways is a diary different to an autobiography? What insights does a diary give us?
A diary is a form of private writing, a day-to-day record of ordinary, unremarkable
experiences and feelings. The style of writing is usually simple, informal and
unpretentious. On the other hand, an autobiography is written for publication and public
consumption, and is a carefully constructed and selective account of the writer’s life. Thus
an autobiography usually focuses on remarkable and engaging events in the life of the
speaker. Anyone may write a diary, but an autobiography is usually written by a person of
some renown, whose life would be of interest to a large audience of readers.
While an autobiography is carefully mediated and shaped to present a selective view of
the writer, diaries are written for an audience of one – the self – and as such they often
provide honest and “uncensored” insights into the everyday life or intimate thoughts of
the writer.
6
Why do you think this diary became so famous that it is still read by millions all over the
world?
Anne Frank’s diary is of personal and historical interest. It provides an intimate, detailed
account of what it was like to live in Nazi-occupied Europe. Unusually, it was written by a
young girl and is widely admired for its engaging and moving style and expression, as well
as its account of ordinary adolescent yearnings and conflicts in the face of overwhelming
historical forces. Few such diaries survived the horrors of WWII. Anne Frank was a
particularly gifted writer, and this makes her diary particularly readable and appealing.
Moreover, Anne’s personal history – the fact that she was eventually transported to a
concentration camp, where she died – means that her diary continues to be historically
interesting to millions all over the world.
© Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd 2013. From Oxford Practical Teaching English Literature: How to teach Grades 8–12.
You may modify, print and photocopy this document solely for use in your classes.
Extract from Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl : The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank, edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler,
translated by Susan Massotty (Viking 1997) copyright © The Anne Frank-Fonds, Basle, Switzerland, 1991. English translation copyright ©
Doubleday a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group 1995.