Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

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Anne Frank: Writing as a journey to self discovery The protagonist and author of The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank began writing her diary at the age of thirteen. She has many friends and admires at school; however, she confesses that she doesn’t have any close friend whom she able to open up fully about deeper things in her mind that she wants to share.

It makes her to feel lonely and misunderstood. Anne found a best friend in the diary she named “Kitty”. The diary gives her a private place to explore and develop her thoughts and ideas.

It comforts her in the extraordinary circumstances of the secret annex, where she was hiding with her family during Germany’s occupation of Holland. The diary helps her to write out her frustrations, feelings of isolation and express her thoughts without fear of being criticized or affecting anybody else in the annex.

The diary is important part of Anne’s life and it influences her self-development. Particularly, writing plays a significant part in Anne’s maturity and sense of self, since Anne was able to look back at the previous records in the diary and reflect on her experiences.

Besides, a constant diary-writing enables her to discover herself as potential writer and develop sense of self worth and self purpose. Anne began her diary as a playful, innocent teenager but her later entries reflected realization of coming of age.

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After two years of constant diary writing, she said: “Looking back, I realize that this period of my life has irrevocably come to close; my happy-go-quickly, carefree schooldays are gone forever… I’ve outgrown them. I can no longer just kid around, since my serious side is always there. ”(March 7, 1944).

Self Essay Example

As she matures, she constantly writes about her emotions, attitudes towards life and other people. A near to the end of the diary, Anne looks over her past diary entries about her mother and Van Daans, and realizes how biased she was towards other people. She realizes that sometimes she acted immature and self centered. Anne said: “I tried to understand the Anne of last year and make apologies for her. I was suffering then (and still do) from moods that kept my head under water and allowed me to see things only from my own perspective… (January 2, 1944). Also, she was ashamed about some past entries that she thought to be “childish innocence” (January 22, 1944). By looking at her past entries she realized how her girlish moods changes and immaturity affected her perceptions of others true intentions. Particularly Anne admits that she had been too harsh towards her mother and unfair towards Van Daans family, she thinks she has grown wiser since then. By criticizing her own past actions and thoughts, she showed her maturity and self perception as an adult responsible for own behaviour.

Besides, this reflective writing experience plays a significant role in her personality development and in establishing her future career goals. Throughout the diary Anne matures considerably and her entries reflect her desire to understand her own personality. In the diary she explains that she is different Anne with people at the Annex, but she opens up her another, sentimental side when she writes in her diary. By writing out her emotions in the diary, Anne comes to understand her behaviour and motives over the course of her diary writing.

Particularly, she discusses the ideas that are important reflection of Anne’s self perception and sense of self. “I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me,” Anne said about her writing. (April 5, 1944). For example, she argued about significance of nature in people life, a person’s will power, importance of self realization and the role of women in a society. Writing helped Anne to explore her past motivations and own personality, and see how much she changed during such short time.

It influenced her perception of self and she began to realize what kind of a person she wants to be in the future. As Anne became more self aware she began to think about the future and how she would realize herself after the war. She became engaged with her writing that she even decides to pursue it as a future career. She turns to be ambitious about it: “… to get on in life, to become a journalist, because that’s what I want! I know I can write” she said (April 5, 1944). She admits that she has a great potential and this self discovery gives her a sense of self worth and self purpose.

She realizes that her writing can have a big impact on the society and through hard work and dedication she can achieve more than any average woman of her times. She says: “I don’t want to live in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bringing enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! ” (April 5, 1944). She wants to be useful for the society through her talent and bring all her potential to life through her writing.

With these ideas in her mind she set her life goals and decides to publish her diary after the war; as a result, her later entries are more detail and reader oriented. For example, she adds more detail information about residents of the Annex, explaining their characters and adds detail comments about the War. Anne feels as she is doing something valuable for society and for herself. Therefore, Anne writing became a big part of her personality and self identity. Writing helped her not only to express herself and analyze herself; it also enriched her life with sense of fulfilment and helped to establish goals for the future.

The Diary of a Young Girl takes reader to a world of bright and intelligent young women who goes through coming of age and difficult war times. Anne Frank amuses reader with her brilliant mind and wise ideas at her early stage of life. She matured as diary progressed and writing played a big part in this process. Throughout writing Anne was able to write off her emotions and cope with difficult times. Most imported, writing helped Anne to find sense of purpose and develop a self image as a future writer and valuable member of society. If Anne lived, she would definitely become engaging and sophisticated writer.