TOW #28 – "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl"

In her personal diary, Anne Frank describes her life as a teenage girl hiding from the Nazis in Germany during WWII. Although her journal entries had a veil of occasionally ordinary language of a teenager, Anne Frank’s diary reflects the pain that was suffered by so many in WWII, giving a greater understanding of the horrible conditions. Although she did not write to any audience beside herself in order to clear her thoughts, Anne Frank’s diary tells her life story with the war developing often in the background. Explaining her interaction with the adults in her life, Anne Frank wrote, “Kitty, if only you knew I sometimes boil under so many gibes and jeers. And I don’t know how long I shall be able to stifle my rage. I shall just blow up one day” (Frank 30). Although many teenagers continue to have conflict with adults, readers of Anne Frank’s diary understand that she faced incredibly dangerous and hostile conditions. Thus, although she does not develop the diary for it to be read by an audience, Anne Frank produces an appeal to pathos by displaying the problems expected of a teenager beside the enormous troubles facing Jews during WWII. Likewise, she writes, “I must tell you more about my time-killing subjects (I call them such, because we have got nothing else to do but make the days go by as quickly as possible…)” (Frank 67), showing a hardship in hiding from the Nazis.  As she refers to her classes as “time-killing subjects,” the secluded and troubling life of hiding from the Nazis is apparent. Although Anne Frank did not write the diary for any purpose beyond organizing her thoughts on paper, her emotional story is remembered by millions. Beyond the stories often explained in a textbook, Anne Frank’s diary shows the emotional life story of a young girl hiding from the Nazis in WWII.

Works Cited

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York, NY, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1972.