At the same time, Anne begins to reflect on her place in the world, without yet beginning to develop answers to these questions: does she feel more Jewish or German? What sort of God does she believe in? What kind of life does she want to live? Through her questions and honesty, Anne builds a remarkable portrayal of a growing girl. She grows close to Peter van Daan, and through their relationship her ideas about love, sex, and friendship become more mature and sophisticated. "I wouldn't be able to write that kind of thing anymore," she observes. In one entry, she seems almost embarrassed by her younger self. This is clearly evidenced in Anne's predilection for going back and commenting on her earlier entries. As he looks around the farmyard, he sees the glory of the world around him and feels content, though his childhood and innocence are behind him forever. In spite of her extraordinary circumstances, Anne grapples with many normal problems of adolescence: feelings of isolation, rebellion, and alienation curiosity about adulthood shifting attitudes towards those she once loved and admired (she realizes that her mother will never live up to her expectations, for example) mood swings curiosity about sex and love etc.Īs Anne matures emotionally and physically (she gets her first period while living in the Annex), she begins to recognize her shift from childhood into adolescence her thinking becomes more nuanced and she begins to understand how limited her understanding was when she first began writing her diary. Even though he has suffered fear, loss, pain, rejection, and worry, he has come to see that on the other side of his tumultuous first year, there is peace, wisdom, and joy. Given that Anne's diary begins just as Anne hits adolescence, The Diary of a Young Girl is as much a story about growing up as it is a story of Jewish experience in World War II.
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