Roar Post#3 [Pages 136-204]

SUMMARY

In this section of the story, Mr.Kleiman has to be hospitalized in order to get an operation on is stomach. In spite of his pan and suffering, he still remains the epitome of happiness, as Anne notes.

At one point of in the diary, Anne talks about a dream that she had. In her dream, Hanneli Goslar, a childhood friend, was seen dressed in rags, while also having a worn face. She seemed absolutely miserable, and Anne couldn’t do anything except watch and prolong her suffering. She represents everything that Anne would have been if she hadn’t gone into hiding. But although she is safe from the Nazis, life in the Annex still is torturous of its own accord. A few days later she writes that she longs to ride a bike, to dance, to whistle, and to just be able to look at the world. She writes that she wants people to understand her as simply a teenager that wants to have fun. This leads to Anne talking about missing having a mother that understands her. She wants a mom that doesn’t take offense to everything too quickly and understands people, but also has the capability to take Anne seriously at times. On another note however, Anne has definitely matured more in this section. When she looked back at her diary entries from last year, she was shocked at how openly she wrote of her feelings of hatred toward her mother. She admits that she was extremely moody at the time and that caused her to see things only from her own perspective without even considering the feelings of those that she had offended. She also goes on to say that all of these hateful writings in her diary are expressions of her immense anger on paper that she could’ve let out while locked in her room (if she didn’t have her diary). In addition, she mentions how although she is more wise and aware of her Mother’s nerves and they seem to be getting along better, she can’t love her mother with a devotion of a child anymore.

At this point, Anne is adequately aware of puberty and the changes going on inside of her body as well as outside. She says that whenever she gets her period, although it is although it is painful, discomforting, and messy, she enjoys it because it is like she is carrying a secret. In addition to this, Anne really longs for someone to talk to, and she chose to go to Peter van Daan. At night, she had a dream about Peter (a different Peter, (Peter Schiff)) and that made her realize that she was sill in love with him. Over the next few diary entries, she keeps on mentioning her love for him.

Anne’s attitude towards the van Daans has changed greatly, because she is more understanding of them. Before she always thought that it was always 100% the van Daans fault for starting arguments, but she realizes that her family deserves some blame as well.

Before Anne came to live at the Annex, the topic of sex was spoken in either a secretive or disgusting manner (at home or school). Now that she is here, when she talks about with Peter van Daan, she found out that he has none of those intentions. He was able to talk about a very awkward subject in a very normal voice. Anne is amazed because she is never able to even to talk to a girl about this subject in this way.

            On another note, Anne says that she extremely grateful of people like Bep, Miep, Mr.Kleiman, and Mr.Kuglar because they risk their lives to volunteer to help those in hiding. She says that while some show heroism on the battlefield, these people show it everyday through their good spirits and affections.

            Finally, one morning Anne sat in front of the window and looked outside at God and at the sky and just nature overall. And inside her a pure happiness was awakened.

QUOTE

 “Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again.”

(Frank 196).

REACTION

I first want to comment upon what she said on page 154. She said that sometimes she wonders if people will be able to overlook the fact that she is sometimes ungrateful or the fact that she is Jewish and look at her purely as a teenager. I’ll admit that it wasn’t until I read this that I began to sympathize more with her. I guess it was because she writes in such an adult style that sometimes I mistake her as being 18 or something. Sometimes it is tough to think of her as 14 or 15 because most 14 and 15 year olds that I know (including myself) do not write as elegant as she does. Upon saying this, this probably reinforces my statement about life in the 40’s. About how there was much emphasis on education. Once again, it is seems like learning and reading books isn’t even a chore for Anne. On the contrary, it seems like loads of fun.

On page 168, Anne says that before coming to the Annex, she didn’t think about things as much as she does now. A light bulb turned on in my head when I read this, and I immediately I made a connection to the autobiography “ A Hole in My Life” by Jack Gantos. In “ A Hole in My Life”, Jack is sentenced to prison, and during his prison life is when he is given so much leisure time that he is able to reflect on his life and write stories. Anne has a somewhat similar situation here, because excluding the reading, eating, and chores that she must do, there is really not much to do. When you are given leisure time like this, you think, and most of the time, that thinking can lead to very enlightening discoveries.

Finally, I want to comment more on Anne’s literary humor, as it still is present even this far into the diary (I would’ve expected conditions at the Annex to be very gloomy by now). On page 180, after saying that sometimes she wishes to be left alone she says, “ Who knows, perhaps the day will come when I’m left alone more than I’d like!”. It is a dark humor in a sense because she saying that when she is old she will not have a husband, children, or friends. It also comes full circle to what Anne said in the beginning of the diary about her not having a true friend to confide in. In addition, on page 191 Anne says that, “What happens in other people’s houses during the rest of the week happens here in the Annex on Sundays. While other people put on their best clothes and go strolling in the sun, we scrub, sweep, and do the laundry”. This was amusing because she is saying that their life is inversely different with other people. But then again, isn’t everyone in the same conditions as them? Because even Non-Jews must be impacted by the bombings and the war right?

Roar Post#2 [Pages 68-136]

SUMMARY

In this section of the book, we see that the Frank family and van Daan family

 (Dubbed the Annex family) have allowed for another person to join their hiding place because the Jews were being treated worst as the days go by and plus, they had enough room and food. His name is Alfred Dussel, a dentist, and he is known to be a quiet and refined man. When he got settled in, the Annex family gave him a set of typewritten rules and regulations for the Secret Annex. It was called “ Prospectus and Guide to the Secret Annex”, subtitled “ A Unique Facility for the Temporary Accommodation of Jews and Other Dispossessed Persons. This document was very thorough, going through everything a newcomer needed to know about the Annex life. It touched upon how the bathroom was structured, when to use the radio, the importance of observing each other’s rest hours (which seem to be crucial in case an emergency occurs and you need to wake an Annex member up), rules for entertainment, obligations and responsibilities, and even codes of conduct. During the first few days of Mr.Dussel’s stay, he has been providing them with information of the world outside of the Annex. Many news and stories were very troublesome. Anne says that despite all of the bad things that were happening, the family should still strive to be happy. However, sometimes she admits that she feels very guilty when she is cheerful, because there are hundreds of Jews being mistreated. Nevertheless, life goes on, with bad things and good things happening. They have been using too much electricity and now had it cut off for 14 days. But on the bright side, St.Nicholas Day (which I assume to be Christmas) went by splendidly, and it was the first time that the Frank family had celebrated this day. Going back to Mr.Dussel, he wasn’t all he was cracked out to be. In fact, he was rather strict and uptight. It is not long before Mr.Dussel develops a rivalry with Anne, since Anne encompasses a lot of the things that he dislikes. She is extremely talkative and opinionated, and Mr.Dussel does not like that.

            Anne is noting that the city outside of the Annex is absolutely horrible. She sees that poor and helpless people are being captured sporadically during the night and day (it doesn’t mention who though) and it is essentially destroying the families. It is pretty obvious at this point how much involved Holland is in the war now. People are mortified, because they know that they can die any minute. Once again, Anne states that the Annex family is quite fortunate to the other Jews suffering, and she feels as though they are so selfish about how they are talking about what to spend their money on after the war when they should really be using it to help people in need.

            Moving on to less broad problems, Anne is once again having quarrels with people in the Annex. She says that: when she talks, people mistake it as showing off. When she remains silent she is ridiculous, when she answers she is insolent, when she has a good idea, she is cunning (probably in a bad way), when she’s tired she’s lazy, when she eats a lot she is selfish and many more acts of prejudice on their part. This is not true, and Anne says that she does do her best to please everyone, but it is impossible for her to be happy one day and hostile the next.

            One day in the Annex, the Frank family was sitting together peacefully when all of a sudden, Peter came in and whispered to the Father that someone was fiddling with the door to the Annex. Everyone was extremely afraid that someone could find out about their hiding place, and if that were to happen, the consequences would be horrendous. Fortunately, nothing happened after that, and the Annex family assumed that burglars were in the building, but left when they heard footsteps in an otherwise quiet building. After that little incident, the Westertoren bells stopped chiming, so now they cannot tell the time anymore. More bad news for Annex family is the fact that their friend Bep has the flu, Mr.Kleiman has to stay in bed for at least three weeks due to gastrointestinal hemorrhaging, and Mr.Voskuijl is suspecting an ulcer and has to get surgery. In addition to that, the Annex family has been witnessing a number of dogfights between the English and German fighter planes and the bombings have been keeping the family wide awake for a number of nights. Talking about more happy events, it was recently Anne’s birthday, and she received a poem from her father, as well as a big book on Greek and Roman mythology and other lovely presents.

            Another break-in had occurred in the building where the Annex was located, and this time both he warehouse door was open and the street door was opened. What happened was that burglars broke in and they stole 2 cashboxes containing 40 guilders, blank checkbooks, and coupons for 330 pounds of sugar (a terrible loss). With all of these problems occurring around them, Anne longs for the war to be over so that she can go back to school.

            Anne has developed a new tactic for dealing with the Annex members. She has decided to talk to herself more during meals than to others. This serves the dual purpose of not annoying the others and also by making Anne not become annoyed by their opinions.

QUOTE

“ I’m terribly ungrateful, Kitty, I know, but when I’ve been scolded for the umpteenth time and have all these other woes to think about as well, my heads begins to reel!” (Frank 74).

REACTION

First of all, I want to talk about my overall thoughts after reading this section of the book. I truly admire her honesty because she doesn’t try to be someone she isn’t. If she is feeling grouchy one day and she comes into contact with an Annex member, she will still be grouchy. She is definitely not like her mother, who will virtually ignore Anne for two days if she is mad. Then one day she would forget about the entire thing and treat Anne normally again. I guess it isn’t entirely bad because as the saying goes, time heals all wounds, and no matter how small the wound is, sometimes we all need some amount of time to blow off some steam. Personally, for me, whenever I get mad at someone, I do ignore them like Anne’s mother does. I tend to sleep it off. When I wake up, I usually will not feel that angry anymore. Now I want to change topics and talk about the internal conflict that I noticed Anne battling an internal conflict in this section. I’ve noticed that she mentions this several times in this section. She doesn’t know whether to feel sad about her fellow Jews being persecuted or to feel happy whenever something in her life does bring her joy (like receiving new books). There are pros and cons of doing each. For example, by being sad you are showing sympathy and compassion for those who are suffering under the Nazi regime. However, you can see that being sad all the time probably isn’t that good for your health and it probably won’t be accomplishing anything besides the showing of compassion. On the other hand, when you are happy, obviously you are happy, which is a good thing. In times like this, when the world is at war, your life is in danger, and you are spending every second of life trapped in a secret building, you need a smile on your face to keep hope alive. However, there is a con of being happy in times like these as well, and Anne also ponders on this, and this is probably the main reason why Anne feels so conflicted. The con is that you are being selfish, because why should others like you suffer while you are happy and laugh your troubles away? Now, different people could interpret it different ways. If it were up to me, I would just be happy and grateful for the fortunate situation that I am in. But overall, I guess you should be both sad and glad at different times, and in moderation as well. I would just say you should never be indifferent, because that is really bad.

            Now let’s talk more about Anne’s writing style. It is still exceptionally good. Once again I am baffled by the fact that she has such a broad vocabulary. She has a very keen eye, noticing many minute details with exceptional detail. Also, something new that I have noticed is that she has a sense of humor. It is not a laugh out loud sense a humor, but rather, cleverness with writing that is funny as well. For example, on page 97, she writes, “ Dearest Kitty, I’m not really in the mood for pranks (see the date)” (Frank 97). When I looked at the date and saw that it said Thursday, April 1, 1943, I have to admit that I laughed, and found it to be a very clever type of writing. Another example of her literary sense of humor was when she talked about how the food at the Annex was bad and she said that this was the food to eat if you wanted to diet. Since we are on the topic of writing style I want to say that I noticed in some instances that Anne writes about herself in 3^rd person. Instead of saying I, she just says Anne, for example one time she writes, “Margot and Mother do the dishes, Mr. and Mrs. van D. head for the divan, Peter for the attic, Father for his divan, Dussel too, and Anne does her homework” (Frank 125). In my opinion, I think this works rather well, because it is a nice break from the usual I in diary writing.

Totally irrelevant here, but I just want to add it anyways because I noticed this. Anne mentions at one in her diary entries that the Westertoren bells have stopped chiming. What I got from that fact was a form of real life symbolism of doom or even foreshadowing that something bad and sinister was to come. Later on, as I continued reading, I found out that the Germans had removed the bells entirely in order to melt it for use in the war effort. So possibly the bells could have stopped chiming because of that reason.

Roar Post #1 [Pages1-68]

SUMMARY

Anne Frank seems to have everything that a girl would want. She has a few girlfriends, admirers who absolutely adore her, and a loving family. But deep inside, Anne is not happy, because she doesn’t have that one true friend who she can confide to and share her innermost feelings with. For that reason, she thinks of this diary as her friend. In addition to that, she creates a character known as Kitty to talk to (because saying Dear Diary is too plain). She starts off by writing about her life before the diary. She has an older sister named Margot who was born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1926. Anne herself was born on June 12, 1929. Her father, Otto Frank received a job that allowed him to immigrate to Holland in 1933, and her mother, Edith Hollander Frank followed. Margot and Anne stayed in Germany for a short while before joining their parents in Holland. Life was good for a while, but eventually Hitler’s anti Jewish laws found their way to Holland, and Anne and her family were caught in the midst (since they were Jewish as well). The restrictions were endless, ranging from being forbidden to ride cars and bicycles to being forbidden to attend theaters, movies or other kinds of entertainment. To make her life even more oppressive, she had to wear a yellow star to signify that she was Jewish.

            Despite all of these problems, life still goes on for Anne. In school, she is a very talkative girl, and usually gets in trouble for talking. At her graduation ceremony at the Jewish Lyceum, she received a D, a C- in algebra and all the rest were B-‘s, B’s, and B+’s. Her parents do not worry about report card grades, because to them, as long as she is healthy, happy, and doesn’t talk back too much , they are satisfied.

            But then more problems arise, because Margot receives a call up notice from the SS. Upon hearing this, Anne’s father decides the family has to go into hiding. When packing, Anne puts in her diary first, followed by curlers, letters and handkerchiefs rather than clothes. They left at five thirty in the morning, and Anne has to leave behind her beloved cat Moortje. The hiding place was decided to be in the father’s office building, since he had few workers there and they were all people they could trust. It had many sinple looking passageways and doors but really, is like amaze of sorts, and the Secret Annex was to be the Frank family’s living quarters. Life in the Annex is tiring at times, and the silence is horrible. The only visitors that they can have are Miep, her husband Jan, Bep Voskuijl, Mr.Voskuijl, Mr. Kugler, Mr.Kleiman and Mrs.Kleiman (friends & co-workers of Anne’s father). Although they are hiding and can never leave the Annex, Anne says that the Annex is the ideal place to hide and the family has done some minor decorating to make the Annex feel more like home. Nevertheless, they still can’t make too much noise because the workers downstairs might hear them.

            Anne notes that her parents seem to treat her more harshly then her sister Margot. She feels as though she doesn’t fit in with the rest of family (almost like a black sheep).

Eventually, Mr.van Daan and Mrs.van Daan and their son Peter arrived to live with the Frank family and there were now a total of 7 people living in the Secret Annex. However, the Frank family do have their fare share of disputes with the van Daan family.

            Life in the Annex can be boring, and a great source of comfort is reading books. However, Anne is not allowed to read adult books while her sister Margot can (she feels that this is unfair). As time progresses however, Anne is allowed to read more adult themed books.

QUOTE

“ It’s just that I’d like to feel that Father really loves me, not because I’m his child, but because I’m me, Anne” (Frank 63).

REACTION

I’ve got to admit, Anne Frank is an extremely good writer. She writes with such a style that is down to earth and truthful and easy to enjoy. Her knowledge of words such as hypochondriac are amazing, since she started writing this diary at age thirteen, which is younger than me. I actually had to go and look up a lot of the words that Anne already knew. This is probably because Anne reads so many books. In fact, she even gets them for birthday presents. Can you believe that? I get rather disappointed when I receive a book as a present. This is one thing that I truly admire about Anne, her passion for reading and writing, as she does it on a daily basis.

Now I want to say that I connected with her in so many ways. To begin with, she mentions in page 17 that her parents are not strict about grades as many other parents do. They only care if Anne is healthy, happy, and doesn’t talk back too much. I can connect so much to what she says here, because my parents are very similar. If I bring home a test with a bad grade, then although they will be sad, they will not lash out at me and scold me for hours on end. Another connection that I had was when on pages 28 and 29, she mentions how she has noticed that she doesn’t fit in with the rest of her family. Sometimes, I do feel this way with my family as well. Don’t get me wrong, I do love them very much, just as Anne has tried to tell the reader. However, I think that Anne says it best when she says that  “ I love them, but only because they’re Mother and Margot. I don’t give a darn about them as people “(Frank 62). Although my feelings are not intense as hers, I feel there is truth to it, and maybe every teenager has felt this at least once in their life. The feeling that you get when no one in your family understands you, and for a few seconds, you just close your eyes and want to not be affiliated with your family in any way whatsoever. I also feel that Anne is probably writing right after an argument with her mother, because usually as humans, we tend to blurt out things that we don’t necessarily mean. But then again, since she does mention this conflict with her mother more than once in the diary, I can assume that maybe she isn’t as close to her mother as an average teenager would be.

This leads to the larger story as a whole. The quote mentioned above on page 63 is what I feel is the quote that best represents this first section of the book. I believe so because time and time again Anne talks about how she is closer to her father than her sister and mother. But another difficulty that exists is the fact that her father doesn’t blatantly express his love for Anne. He does show that he cares for her and her well being, but Anne wants her father’s love on a deeper level. She feels that her father is too reserved to open up his feelings. In addition to this, she is hurt by the fact that he treats her sister differently than her because he tends to take Margot’s side in an argument or dispute. On the plus side, he is the only one in the family who understands her. Therefore, as you can see, there are ups and downs in their relationship, and Anne wants their relationship to be 100% up.