“But the bright little girl soon enough recognizes that the cultivated inner life can be a much more powerful and dangerous weapon with which to repel intruders than any baseball bat. It may be in her diary that she discovers how to keep part of herself back, and to take revenge on those who have wounded what part of her has been exposed. She learns about herself faster than her brother”. This quote was written by Thomas Mallon in 1984. The quote refers to Anne Frank being the “little girl”. I think that Thomas Mallon thought the confessional diary that Anne Frank kept was very powerful. Anne Frank did not need any weapons to fight off her enemies because she had the powers of words. The diary Anne kept did not only disparage her enemies. A lot of the time she would criticize herself and talk about her flaws. The diary was not all bad things either. Anne talked about how she understood her relationship with others. She talks about her personal growth and the development of her private and public self. Anne’s diary was published and soon everyone in the world knew of her secrets. The idea that Anne’s words are more powerful that a bat are supported by all of Anne’s writings, which is as simple as it sounds.
“I have – a dual personality.” (719) Anne is one to say this because she acts a certain way, but feels a different way. Anne will go along with the crowd and seem normal but when she writes in her diary it is different. Anne talks about being smarter and deeper. She interprets herself as being more connected with herself. Her dual personalities are deeper than, let’s say, a person who is bi-polar. Anne is afraid. She is afraid of what people might think if she shows her deeper side. She has a good reason to be scared, “I’m awfully scared that everyone who knows me as I always am will discover
That I have another side, a finer and better side. I’m afraid they’ll laugh at me.” (720) Anne is scared of what other people will think about her if they find out about her other personality. This quote shows that Anne’s self worth is like a fetus, not matured at all. If Anne is afraid of what people think then she is not ready for what they will actually think. She will not look at the lighter side of showing her other personality, but she will look at the darker side of showing her personality. Being pessimistic is evidence that she has not developed her private and public self. If she were to be more optimistic and not think of all the bad things her personality offers she might be able to mature more into the person and personality she deeply wants to. More evidence that shows Anne is undeveloped is her wimpy will to fight off the personality she doesn’t like and show everyone the personality she wants to. “Sometimes, if I really compel the good Anne to take stage for a quarter of an hour, she simply shrivels up as soon as she has to speak, and lets Anne no. 1 take over” (720) Anne writes that she can’t push out her deep personality because it will shrivel up as soon as it creeps its little head out. Why will it shrivel up? Because Anne doesn’t have any willpower. She lives her life taking no action but what is given to her. The personality that makes Anne acceptable to public is a personality that other people around Anne originally formed. Anne didn’t have a personality and others formed a materialistic one for her, she took it and morphed it into her own so she could live with it. Deep down inside Annes real personality is, I wish I could say bubbling up ready to explode out, but its not. It is just sitting inside her being pushed deeper and deeper down farther away where she can ignore it. I think that if Anne had more willpower to fight and get her personality out it would be a lot easier for her because she would not care as much what people thought or how they reacted to her deep personality. Even though Anne can’t bring her deep personality out she still has a great understanding of her relationships with others. She understands other people better then they understand themselves. Anne observes more, I think when she is in her materialistic mode rather then her real mode. When she observes she goes deep into peoples feelings to write down what she thinks is going on in their head. “Father accepts Mother as she is, is often annoyed, but says as little as possible, because he knows the sacrifices Mother has had to make.” (503) Anne has observed her parents so long; she has come to the conclusion that they are in fact not in love. They are only together to sustain a family. With these words you could say that Anne has definably personally grown more and understands things better. The reason Anne has had such personal growth is because all she can do is observe. If her deep personality peeked its head out she would be very nervous and anxious because she has no self esteem. Anne would crumble if she tried to observe with her deep personality. She is too scared and does not have enough self esteem to bring the deep personality out. Her ideals are uneducated. “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” (716) If she thinks that all people are good at heart then she is still thinking that one day she will be able to bring out her deep personality because everybody are good people and she won’t have to change because everyone else is going to change. That is ignorant. Even though she might have
Grown personally, I think she will never learn that she has to force herself to push out the deep personality and be who she really is.
The Diary of Anne Frank was a great autobiography, because it showed the deep thoughts of the writer not just what was happening in their life, like most other autobiographies. Without knowing Anne took autobiographies to a new level. She showed us what it was like to live with two personalities. Out of all the autobiographies I have read, I think that hers is the best, because she goes in depth. Not all auto biographies are the same. Some are more interesting than others. Some have more lies then others. But when you analyze a single biography, you become one with the writer. You go so deep into their writing you feel like you know them; this is what happened when I read Anne Franks Diaries. To be in her head was an adventure all of its own.