Book Review #3

   In the emotionally overwhelming novel, "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" by: Anne Frank, a young girl's perspective of hiding and luckily living during a perilous time details approximately two years of experiences during World War II. It begins on her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, and ends shortly after her fifteenth. At the start of the diary, Anne describes fairly typical girlhood experiences, writing about her friendships with other girls, her crushes on boys, and her academic performance at school. Because anti-Semitic laws forced Jews into separate schools, Anne and her older sister, Margot, attended the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam. The Franks had moved to the Netherlands in the years leading to the World War II to escape persecution in Germany. After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, the Franks were forced in hiding. With another family, the van Daans, and an acquaintance, Mr. Dussel, they moved into a small secret annex above Otto Frank's office where they stockpiled food and supplies. The employees from Otto's firm help hide the Franks and kept them supplied with food, medicine, and information about the outside world. The residents of the annex pay close attention to every development of the war by listening to the radio. Some bits of the news catch Anne's attention and make their way into her diary. Anne had initially written about her friends, but as she matures, she starts detailing the news she gets about the war and the way the war is affecting them. She tells what they eat and what they talk about during their days in hiding, leading to profound thoughts of humanity and her own personal nature.
   Although Anne is strongly criticized by the adults in the annex, particularly her mother, who lacks love and affection, she builds relationships with everyone there. Especially Peter van Daan, the teenage boy in the annex who she slowly falls in love with. Mr. Frank doesn't approve of their relationship so it becomes difficult for Anne to establish an actual and real relationship with anyone. During the two years recorded in her diary, Anne deals with deprivation and many emotional obstacles, as well as the complicated issues growing up in the brutal circumstances of the Holocaust. Anne's diary ends without comment on August 1, 1944, the end of a seemingly normal day which becomes a page turner. However, the Frank family is betrayed to the Nazis and arrested on August 4, 1944. Anne's diary, the observations of an imaginative, friendly and somewhat normal teenage girl, comes to an abrupt and silent end. Genius qualities such as wisdom & joy is displayed through Anne's dialouge & actions by interacting with other characters. Anne's father also shows wisdom & an example of it is his business.
   Anne's diary entries are written to a fictitious girl named "Kitty" whom Anne treats as her best friend. I can somehow personally connect with the experiences Anne goes through because I know how it feels like to mature emotionally and mentally because of harsh times. To be apprehensive and valiant at the same time is something both Anne and I went through. Due to such events, we both gained virtues and became gallant. This novel or diary made me have a great insight on what struggles actually are and how I should be appreciative with the things I have in front of me and in my life.