Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl
1. Write a summary of the book.
Anne Frank’s parents give her a diary as a present on her thirteenth birthday. Anne named her diary and even treated it as a human. She started to write about daily events, her thoughts, school, and boys, just like what today's teenage girls talk about. However, her life changed a month later. As the rise of Hitler and the things that Nazis had done to the Jews, the Frank family fears their lives.One day Anne’s sister, Margot, is called to meet the authorities, which means that they might found out that they were Jewish. Anne and her family went into hiding. They moved into a little section of Anne's father's office building that is walled off and hidden behind a bookshelf. The little section where the family hide is called the "Secret Annex". The Frank family lives in this Secret Annex for two whole years with Mr. and Mrs. van Daan and their son Peter. Later in the life living in the secret Annex, Mr. Dussel moves in, and Anne had to share her bedroom with him. As Anne’s teenage life is spent hidden in a secret room, tiptoeing everyday worrying about when her family will be discovered and killed, also becoming shell shock from the sounds of bombs and gunfire at night.
Things start to change when Anne start to hang out with Peter van Daan. She sometimes comes to see Peter Van Daan and find him as a sensitive and caring boy, but their relationship results in being best friends with each other. One of the major changes for Anne is the news that the war is going to end, she hears that personal belongings that hold records of war will be valuable to own , such as her diary. she becomes excited to edit and keep the diary going. Unfortunately, her happiness did not last that long, she start to feel that she's always being criticized. and the diary can not take on the role as a tool or 'friend' to escape reality anymore. Anne's diary ends on 1944 August. It was two months after Anne’s fifteenth birthday. On August 3, two days after her last diary entry, the Secret Annex is raided, all the members of the secret Annex are sent to various concentration camps. Anne's diary collection was never finished. Otto Frank, who was Anne's father was the only survivor.
2 Write an evaluation of the book's purpose. Why did the author write the book? Is the book historically important? Does it give the reader important information? What sort of reader does the book target? Do you think the author may have been biased by personal experience or other factors (explain your answer).
This book holds a very precious value because it's written by a girl who experienced World war II and recorded what it was like to live in an environment where bombs, and gunfire happens every night, deaths everyday and everywhere. This book is historically important since it can be served as a primary source in discovering the thoughts of a Jewish young girl living during war, and overlooking Holocaust from victim's perspective, however, this book is originally as a personal belonging therefore, there's no doubt that journal entries will contain bias
3 Your personal reaction to the book. This can include responding to the author's style, the information included in the book, or as a comparison to material you have studied on the book's topic
The diary of Anne Frank is an eye opening book to what it is like to live through war hiding in such a tiny place where she had to share her bedroom with a adult man. In her diary, her thoughts and views about what will happen to her family after the war ends and if they are discovered and send to concentration camps. comparing to the information learnt in Socials or History, I can learn and look more into humanity described in Anne's diaries, also teenagers' development and personal growth during war and experiences of shell shock from bombardment every day.
