Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl 457hope in Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
In the classic picture of Anne Frank, a set of dark,
penetrating eyes peer out of a radiant face. Across
her lips lurks a contented smile, a sign of a happier
time than her famous record, Anne Frank: The Diary
of a Young Girl, chronicles. Yet despite the tragedies
and grave ordeals Anne confided in her diary, she
still maintained a sense of hope that her photo-
graphs often exude.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Anne’s first entry, writ-
ten on her birthday, is permeated with the kind of
hope familiar to most 13-year-old girls. She is eager
about birthday gifts: books, flowers, and food. What
puzzles the mind is that the later entries, written in
Anne’s second and third years in hiding in a secret
annex, are still hopeful, still seeking light amid so
much darkness.
Anne acknowledges that while most people can
find happiness while surrounded by nature, she can
no longer afford that luxury. Once she could ride
her bike down Amsterdam streets. Later her only
access to nature is a view of it out of a window in
the secret annex, in the attic of her father’s business.
Sitting in front of that window Anne contemplates
the freedom she once had, and her desire to breath
fresh air again. Rather than bemoan her fate, Anne
concludes that what she does have, a pureness of
heart and happiness that can only be temporar-
ily smote, is plenty of restitution for what she has
suffered, and she hopes that God will bring her
comfort. “As long as this exists,” Anne says, “I can-
not be unhappy.”
At the same time, Anne believes that God is
to blame for the torment she and other Jews have
suffered, but she also believes that he will redeem
the many fallen at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi
Party. Like most adolescents, she wavers between
extremes, at times preoccupied by an impassioned
frustration and later dominated by a zealous faith
in God and mankind. In comparing herself to
her mother, Anne cannot comprehend how Mrs.
Frank can focus on the misery that exists in the
world when Anne is so preoccupied by the love and
beauty that persists around her. “On the contrary,
I’ve found that there is always some beauty left,”
confides Anne. While Mrs. Frank would cheer one
up by comparing their plight with those who are
worse off, Anne prefers to revel in the existence of a
benevolent God, the beauty and sunshine in nature,
and the loveliness that abides within every human
spirit. In effect, Anne’s position is one that she
must take in order to survive: Losing hope would
be capitulation to misery.
Anne’s ability to hope amid despair, to see beauty
and love in one of the darkest periods of history,
has much to do with her budding relationship with
Peter Van Daan, the teenage son of the family that
shares the annex with the Franks. Her tender rela-
tionship with Peter, which includes the first throes
of romance and physical titillation, marks a new
phase for her sexually and developmentally. Anne’s
emotional attachment to Peter and her burgeoning
sexuality are fresh and exciting in an environment
where all else is stagnant. Anne blooms with hope
and breathless anticipation as the intimacy of her
encounters with Peter deepen.
Even when Anne ponders more sober matters,
such as the crisis of the Jewish people, she hopes
against all odds that when the war is over, her suf-
fering and the suffering of those worse off than
she will precipitate a universal education about
the atrocities committed against them. She hopes
that the people of the world will learn goodness
by this vulgar scar on history. Instead of forsak-
ing her religion, Anne reminds Kitty, the name
she gives her diary’s persona, that God has never
deserted her people, and that “a solution will
come.” Although her faith and history were all
that she had to encourage such beliefs at the time,
she insists that the strong will not only survive but
prevail.
Anne is not irrationally hopeful throughout the
whole of her diary, however. In fact, she frequently
writes in despair. Nevertheless, given the loneliness,
the isolation, and the privations Anne endured, one
might expect her diary would be a tome of anguish.
In the true spirit of her character, Anne was hopeful
despite tremendous adversity. Anne assures Kitty,
“we still hope, hope about everything.” The soul-
ful eyes that stare back from her photos reflect her
withstanding spirit and a reservoir of something
essential to her constitution: hope.
Jeana Hrepich