My Thoughts

I read the Definitive Edition of THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL which included 30% more material that had been cut from the original edition. The extra entries depict Anne’s struggles with growing up, finding her own way and opinions, dealing with what she felt was horrid treatment by her mother and the others in the Secret Annex, her changing body, etc. I felt like the Definitive Edition showed Anne in the light of being a teenage schoolgirl living in unusual, horrible circumstances rather than a flawless symbol that so many people see her as.

I’m not sure what I expected to find in Anne’s diary, but it wasn’t what I read. I’ve seen the movie and I guess I expected something a little more along those lines. Of course, however, the movie couldn’t portray the feeling of the diary because it had to show everyone rather than just Anne and the world from her POV. As I started to read the diary, I realized that Anne was a teenage girl who just wrote about her innermost thoughts and feelings as any other teenager would. The only difference I saw was that she seemed more educated and her life experiences were more traumatic than most teenagers.

One of my favorite entries was written on Saturday, June 20, 1942. It was Anne’s fourth entry and wrote the following:

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.

I honestly think Anne was inspired to write so faithfully in her diary, to show the world what it was like to be a Jew living in hiding during World War II. Her style of writing was incredible for having been written by a “thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.” I can’t imagine any thirteen year old today writing as poignantly as she did, even if they were living in similar circumstances.

I thought Anne was very inspiring. Even though she was living in such horrible conditions, most of the time, she was strong and spunky. She dealt with bouts of depression and loneliness like anyone would in her situation, but she seemed to always realize and look for the good in things. She was always trying to improve herself. As far as her diary entries expressed, she never lost her faith in God, which was significant as a lot of people do in these types of situations. She was a great example of enduring to the end in the midst of horrible adversity.