Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl

What Anne Frank wrote in her diary has become symbolic of the strength of the human spirit. In Anne Frank's book, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, the reader is introduced to a young girl who could never have imagined that her words would become legendary and that her written experience of the Holocaust would be taught in schools. Anne Frank, undoubtedly, suffered greatly during the Holocaust but a large part of her suffering was watching others suffer so greatly. She said, "I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again" (Frank 264). It was this aspect of Frank's human spirit, her ability to stay optimistic and to have faith in God and humankind that that imbues her diary with such hope. In the face of all the atrocities she witnessed, Frank was somehow able to maintain her faith in the world. This paper will look into some of the ways in which Frank's faith was tested and how she was able to overcome the cruelest acts occurring all around her.

One of the ways in which Frank was able to maintain her optimism, hope and faith during those troubled times was by writing about what was going on around her. Frank created a friend by the name of Kitty to whom she addressed all of her diary entries. Frank's uses the diary she was given on her 13th birthday to recount to her dearest friend Kitty what is happening. Frank notes that she doesn't have any real friends and so creates a friend to whom she can share all her most personal experiences. It is this creation that is the first inkling the reader has of Frank's optimism. Frank doesn't just give up and retreat into her self (what many Jews at that time most likely wished to do). Frank doesn't let the fact that she feels alone and without any friends stop her from finding companionship -- even if it is in the form of a make-believe friend.

There is also the fact that Frank doesn't really have the opportunity to share with those around her. Before the war Frank certainly had friends, but still Frank notes that they weren't really the kind of friends that one could talk to. There is really no one but her father who Frank can really confide in -- and this isn't always possible. This is why Frank's creation of a friend Kitty is so important. The reader can see the ingenuity and survival instincts inside this young girl. She inherently knows that in order to survive she must make sense of the war going on around her. Writing to Kitty is the only way she can try to make sense of the cruelty, which, obviously, there was no sense to be made of the Holocaust -- but it helps her make sense in the sense that she can begin to understood that there is evil in the world, but everything, sooner or later will be set straight. This is one thing she has faith in.

The reader can tell from Frank's diary that there were many instances that brought Frank hope. There were times when Hitler's life was threatened, when it seemed to become clear that people weren't going to stand for what he was doing. Frank notes that there were even "lots of officers and generals who are sick of the war and would like to see Hitler descend into a bottomless pit" (Frank 264). Frank finds hope in the fact that there are people who are Jewish like she who are appalled and sickened by Hitler's actions. This is another example of Frank's spirit grabbing onto whatever hope she can find. For such a young girl she follows the war closely and though she never allows herself to get her hopes up too high ("I don't want to anticipate the glorious events too soon") (265), there is always a sense that she has a deep belief in the power of the human spirit, in general, and that people always come back to the good side.