The good old Anne Frank Diary. Brings me back to high school days when I was assigned to read it but was never actually reading it if you know what I mean. But as I’m re-reading it, I’m picking up the pedals of information my brain had not paid attention to. 

There are many important messages in this book, but the most important message is that all people have the right to live in freedom. Anne’s story shows us that just because people may be a different religion or race, doesn’t mean that they should be treated differently. The terrible treatment of Jewish people during the war has shown this. Her diary shows us things that people don’t think about now, for example how every day the people in hiding worry about being found and punished. Anne was an ordinary girl, growing up, and eventually dying, but she was an ordinary girl growing up in extraordinary times. She loved life and laughter, was interested in history and movie stars, Greek mythology, and cats, writing, and boys. 

I liked that Anne was a really happy and cheerful person even though she and her family were in an awful situation. Anne enjoyed writing and describing others. She was talkative and inquisitive and could be selfish. She was a typical teenage girl and she didn’t always understand how difficult life was for her mother and the other adults around her. She commented on the people who shared their hiding space. Sometimes this wasn’t very nice, but it shows how everybody’s life was challenging because they had to be quiet and not bring attention to themselves. When reading Anne Frank’s diary, it’s possible to feel both intrusive and honored at the same time. You are, after all, reading a girl’s diary, in which she has clearly entrusted all of her most private feelings and thoughts and that’s my writing strategy, a book in which keeps a daily record of events and experiences.