Anne Frank is a funny, optimistic, and confident and from what she says, pretty and mature young lady who loves her father very much. She also expresses her feelings towards other things and people very openly; “I hope only one thing, and that is that the hatred of the Jews will be a passing thin, that the Dutch will show what they are after all, and that is that they will never falter and lose their sense of right. For anti-Semitism is unjust!”
Anne is a typical teenager she worries when she is going to have her period, whether she is ugly or not and she seems to have a non-stop rivalry contest with her mother. “Also it says that Eva has a monthly period. Oh, I’m longing to have one to; it seems so important…”, “I asked Margot if she thought I was ugly. She said that I was quite attractive and that I had nice wyes. Rather vague don’t you think?” and “Just had a big bust up with mummy for the umpteenth time, we simply don’t get on together these days!”
Anne growingly falls more and more in love with Peter as she gets to know him; “Sometimes I have had the same feeling here with Peter, but never to such an extent, until yesterday, when we were, as usual, sitting on the divan, our arms wrapped around each other’s waists. Then suddenly the ordinary Anne slipped away and a second Anne took her place, a second Anne is not reckless and jocular, but the one that loves and wants to be gentle.” Peter also becomes more and more in love with Anne; “Peter loves me not as a lover but as a friend and grows more affectionate day by day.” . As she spends time with Peter there relationship is growlingly noticeable and she does love him. After more and more of Anne’s diary is read you begin to understand her more and more. Some of her habits, good and bad become less noticeable and she becomes more and more predictable. Her attitude towards boys has changed a lot as well, before she used to be very flirtatious and would have boys chasing her around; “I can remember a time where I would get excited over a boy kissing me on the cheek…”
“I can perfectly well remember that there was a time when a deep blue sky, the song of the birds, moonlight and flowers would have never kept me spellbound. That’s changed since I’ve been here.” Anne’s experience in the Secret Annex has changed her completely and makes her appreciate what she had once taken for granted. Her character has strengthened greatly.
Anne Frank has written this diary very maturely and as it is her diary it is written very personally and informally in the first person. Her writing is very effective, after some reading there is a needed feeling of empathizing with her character. The book has the affect of creating a minor bond with the reader. The language she uses is very grown up and her vocabulary is somewhat extended, this is due to the fact that she is a keen reader and her father teaches her all kinds of academic subjects daily. Anne uses many words that describe a person or a situation very well, words that someone else her age could not put there finger on and use quite as well as her.
To every story there is a heart, however this is a diary making it have possibly the biggest heart of all. As a reader I have grown to like, hate and empathize with Anne’s character, after all in the end she is still a teenager.
