ption of her surroundings and the feelings she encountered throughout her ordeal. The novel displays the grief and frustration that is experienced throughout the time spent in hiding. The emotions of the situation are captured in the text and gives validity to the pain and frustration encountered. Despite the amusing and enlightening side of the diary, that documents the process of her adolescence, it also provides a vividly terrifying description of what it was like to be Jewish hiding during the time the Nazis sought to kill all the Jews in Europe. After two years of living in the "secret annex", behind a bookcase, and having to be extremely quite during the day so that the workers in the office and warehouse below could not hear them the family was captured. The betrayal of Anne and her family to the Nazis and their placement under arrest lead to their deportation to concentration camps. In an entry on August 1, 1944, Anne confides to her diary an analysis of her situation. She concludes that her behavior has been a front during her years in hiding to help her cope with the people surrounding her. Nine months after her arrest, Anne wrote that "if only there were no other people in the world (pg.331)." The writings give Anne's thought wishful pretense that if no one else were in the world, that the pain and suffering would end. Anne gives readers a sense of truth and honesty about her situation that allows the reader to experience her life as a stubborn, touchingly vulnerable teenager who one minute is in love with the world and the next detached. This book is an ...
