Thursday 16 July 2020

From Diary of Anne Frank


From the Diary of Anne Frank
                                     By Anne Frank


Analysis: 


·       The chapter is an extract or a page from The Diary of A Young Girl written in diary format by Anne Frank. It is also celebrated as an autobiography of Anne Frank.
·       The chapter shares Anne’s views on friendship, relations, studies and teachers.
·       Discussing her habits she proudly accepts that she is a chatterbox and that too, an incorrigible one as she inherited this attribute from her mother. She feels that inherited attributes are difficult to change.
·       It also mentions about her love for books and interest for writing her emotions and experience. It reflects she had a knack for creative writing which stood her as a popular writer in the world with just one small diary.


About the Book ‘The Diary of A Young Girl’

The Diary of a Young Girl also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings in Dutch language by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages.
First published under the title ‘Het Achterhuis’ in Amsterdam in 1947, the diary received widespread critical and popular attention on the appearance of its English language translation ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’ in 1952. Its popularity inspired the 1955 play The Diary of Anne Frank which was later adapted for the screen for the 1959 movie version. The book is included in several lists of the top books of the 20th century.


Summary /  Synopsis

§  This chapter is a part of Anne Frank’s emotions and experiences compiled as a diary. Here, she tells us about the early days of her life. She decided to write a diary because she did not have any friend. Anne was born on the 12th of June. 1929. She had a sister three years older to her. She lived in Frankfurt until she was four. Her father immigrated to Holland in 1933.
§  Anne Frank went to the Montessori school. 
    When Anne was in the sixth form, her teacher was Mrs Kuperus, the headmistress. Both shared a good understanding and had a great love for each other.
§  Anne had no one who she could confide in and share the feelings of her heart. So she decided to make her diary her friend. She called it ‘Kitty’. On Saturday 20th June 1942, Anne Frank made her first entry in her diary. It was in the format of a letter and was addressed to her diary ‘Kitty’. Anne describes her experiences with her Mathematics teacher, Mr Keesing.
§  Anne writes that one day Mr Keesing punished her for talking too much in the class. He gave her extra homework. He asked her to write an essay on ‘A Chatterbox.’ Anne wrote it, but she again talked in the class. Now Mr Keesing asked her to write an essay on ‘An Incorrigible Chatterbox.’ Mr Keesing liked the essays written by Anne Frank.
§  But Anne could not give up the habit of talking in the class. Therefore, as a punishment, Mr Keesing asked her to write an essay on an unusual title. “‘Quack, Quack, Quack.’ said Mistress Chatterbox.” Anne wrote this essay in the form of a poem. It was about a mother duck and the father swan. The father bit the three ducklings to death because they quacked too much. It was a satire on Mr Keesing. But he took the joke in the right way. He read the poem to Anne’s class and other classes also. He allowed Anne to talk in the class and never again gave her extra homework.
                          

Video on Diary of Anne Frank


Historical Back ground

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne Frank received a blank diary as one of her presents on 12 June 1942, her 13th birthday. According to the Anne Frank House, the red, checkered autograph book which Anne used as her diary was actually chosen by her the day before with her father when browsing a bookstore near her home.
On 5 July 1942, Anne's older sister Margot received an official summons to report to a Nazi work camp in Germany, and on 6 July, they went in hiding with their parents Otto and Edith. They were later joined by Otto's business partner’s family. Their hiding place was in the sealed-off upper rooms of the annex at the back of Otto's company building in Amsterdam. In the published version, names were changed: The van Pelses are known as the Van Daans. With the assistance of a group of Otto Frank's trusted colleagues, they remained hidden for two years and one month.
In August 1944, they were discovered and deported to Nazi concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived the war. Anne was 15 years old when she died of a disease in concentration camp, a few weeks before the prisoners were liberated by British troops on 15 April 1945.

Important Question Answers


Q1. Was Anne right when she said, “ The world may not be interested in the musings of a 13 years old.”
Ans. No, Anne was not right when she said that the world might not be interested in the musings of a 13 years old girl as we all saw that the whole world gave a wonderful response to her diary. It was published in many languages, performed as play and even adapted as a film. Even now people are interested to buy and read the book. The book has been a best seller and even included in the curriculum across the globe.


Q2. How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs. Kuperus and Mr. Keesing? What do these tell about her?
Ans. To begin with her diary Anne Frank talks about her father, Mr. Otto Frank. It tells how much she loves her father. She writes that Otto Frank is the most adorable father she has ever seen.
She also shares special bond with her grandmother. When her parents moved to Holland and after some time her sister, Margot also joined them, Anne was with her grandmother. When she died, she created a void in Anne’s life. Anne thinks of her very often, misses her all the time and will always love her.
Mrs. Kuperus was her headmistress and taught her when she was studying in sixth form. They both shared a beautiful relationship and good understanding. We know this because at the time of her farewell, that was heart breaking, they both were in tears.
Mr. Keesing, the ‘old fogey’ as she called her was her Math teacher. He was annoyed with her for ages she used to talk so much during class. He used to give her extra homework but could not change her.
Her description of these people tells that Anne was an emotional and sensitive girl and that the relations value much in her life.

Q3. Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr. Keesing unpredictable? How?
Ans. Anne says ‘teachers are the most unpredictable creatures on earth’. She means to say that results are completely different from students’ expectations and predictions. The so called dummies in class also pass somehow. Mr. Keesing is the best example of such teachers as he used to scold her much and punish her with extra homework. At the end, he did the most unexpected thing. He laughed his heart out at her funny story and never scolded nor punished her. 

Video on Letter to God



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