A Real Writer - The Diary of a Young Girl

"It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!”

- Anne Frank
(from the July 15th, 1944 entry)

Once when I was a teenager, I complied a list of all the great writers I knew at the time. I read it to a classmate who wanted to tell me which of the authors he liked. Most were of a common canon of classics (dead white males). Well, I didn’t know that cultural diversity could enrich any canon. There was an exception on that list though.

I said, “Anne Frank?”

He raised an eyebrow, “Can she even be considered a real writer?”

Immediately I replied, “She wrote one of the most important documents of WW2.”

Nothing more was said on the subject. I’m not sure if I changed his mine. Either way, I actually think we were BOTH missing the point.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. It is an important document of the War and the Holocaust! But I’m not gonna get into that today. I want to talk to you about the diary as a work of art from a real writer.

So for those of you who never read this diary, just a quick summary. Annelies Marie Frank, originally from Germany, was a Jewish girl who lived much her life in Holland. This book she wrote starts out as a gift for Anne’s 13th birthday. It continues to the summer of her 15th. In the course of those 2 years, she and 7 other people hide in an annex in Amsterdam during the Holocaust.

Now it’s important to understand that her diary is not Anne writing to herself, but to an imaginary friend named Kitty. And I really admire this creative and personal choice of hers. One, it gave her comfort to have true friend who could know her in the way that even her nearest and dearest didn’t. Two, for readers, we actually become Kitty - she’s talking to us in the second person. We are her her confidant of the soul.

So the entries of this girl are anxious and detailed of everyday life when she is considered illegally alive. I can’t imagine it on my own. It’s her sublime gift of words and incredibly hard work that gives readers such a clarity and honesty. Through Anne, I feel hope and horror.

For 6 years, I was a teacher at a small Arts and Sciences school along the Waccamaw River of South Carolina. I loved sharing, with a heavy heart, Anne Frank’s words each year. Most of my then students had never heard of her. And yet. Even though her diary was composed many years before I or any of my students were born, they end up reading her words like they’re in the now. I think that’s because brave Anne is always being her self and yet hiding herself - that’s something they long to be and yet need to do.  I remember one teenage boy picking up Anne’s dual soul. He said, “She’s a different girl with Kitty than with the people around her.” His classmates agreed, and they are often overwhelmed when her final entry explores this painful and beautiful of the two Anne’s (see her final entry, August 1st 1944 - too long to quote here).

I like her criticism too - of her own words as well as the world around her. Of course, I am careful about her intense (often unforgiving) judgment of others in the annex. If you’d like a more complex (even kind) view of those around her, I highly recommend Miep Gies’ Anne Frank Remembered (Miep was the courageous lead caretaker of the 8 in hiding). Still, I admire that Anne is no lamb. No hypocrite. Many young people are constantly criticized no matter what they do. It’s hard being a kid or teenager. They’re not usually allowed to answer back. Anne does answer back! She gives children and teens a voice. And more, I think. A friend.

Anyone growing up can relate to her or be taught to feel their most intense explorations and emotions. Each year I teach about her story, I see new generations bond with her words.

I love being a teacher. I feel, every year and every place, my students are wild and wonderful. I try to teach them awareness and acceptance of different cultures. And yet. I also have to teach them about the evil that comes from…a lack of common sense and compassion. When my students and I studied the destruction and survival of millions through the Shoah, we teared through Anne’s pages. I actually gave them diaries of their own. The students kept writing in them too. They shared all kinds of ways with Anne…

In the entries they shared, they show me ways of being thoughtful about God and humanity; enraged at boredom and hatred; loving between self and nature. And in the pages they covered, there were things they’d never tell anyone beyond their own diaries. For a young person reading Anne’s work of art, these are things they didn’t know were possible before.

Even though I’m an adult, I find myself looking up to Anne more and more. I wish I had read Anne’s diary when I was their age too. See when I replied to that old friend of mine, I knew of her importance, but not her actual words. I remember my own circumstances. I could of used a friend like Anne.

I know there are youth, many youth out there who know such danger, and it breaks my heart! Anne’s piece of art, creative writing, historical document…whatever you want to call it gives me hope. More importantly, it gives a young reader power. When my kids imagine bombs falling and the bad guys coming, they shine through tears and pain that is not far enough away. They may not know any of that except the news, but they have their own sufferings. And yet they carry life on like Anne did. They try to make things better. Not when they’re adults, but right away.

As Anne would write, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

I believe Anne was true artist. Her diary started out private, but in time she wanted to publish it. She wanted to be a real writer. My students and I would consider her one.

I hope when read this book to yourself or others, you will too.

Thank you.

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