From the Diary of Anne Frank

 Oral Comprehension Check Page 51

3. What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?

Writing in a diary was a strange experience for Anne Frank as she never had a diary. It was a gift on her 13th birthday. She considered it her best friend. She shared everything with it.

4. Why does Anne want to keep a diary?

Anne always feels lonely and distressed.  She wants to keep a diary to get off all the burden and pain. She finds a true friend in her diary as she has hardly any real friends.

5. Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?

Anne felt that paper had more patience than people to listen to her plight. So, it was easier for her to write all kind of thoughts. Her personal diary was not meant for anyone else to read.

6. Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?

By providing the brief sketch of her life, Anne wants to give an introduction of her family. This is to help the reader to develop a connection with the author.

7. What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?

Anne lived with her grandmother for some time while her parents moved to Holland. She was very close to her Grandmother. She writes in her diary. “No one knows how often I think of her and still love her”. On her 13th birthday by lightening up one candle for Grandmother, she shows her love for her.

Page 54

8. Why was Mr. Keesing annoyed with Anne? What did he ask her to do?

Mr. Keesing was annoyed with Anne because she was very talkative. He punished her by giving her extra homework to write essays. The topics were related to her nature.

9. How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?

Anne explained in her essay that her mother was very talkative and she had inherited the trait from her mother. She also wrote that talking is a right of a student. Thus she justified her being a chatterbox.

10. Do you think Mr. Keesing was a strict teacher?

No, Mr. Keesing was not a strict teacher. Any teacher would be annoyed if children keep on talking in the class. He had laughed at Anne’s funny arguments. At last he allowed her to herself in his class.

11. What made Mr. Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Anne’s last essay in the form of a poem showed Mr. Keesing the lighter side of a naughty child. He took it as a joke and laughed. From then onwards, he allowed Anne to talk in his class.

Thinking about the Text (Page 54)

1. Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a 13 year old girl?

Yes, Anne was right when she said so because most of the people don’t want to give importance to a child’s perspective toward the world. It is because they are too immature for the world. But Anne Frank has become one of the most discussed of all holocaust victims. Her ‘diary’ has been translated into many languages.

2. There are some examples of diary or journal entries in the ‘Before You Read’ section. Compare these with what Anne writes in her diary. What language was the diary originally written in? In what way is Anne’s diary different?

Anne’s diary was entirely different from most of the examples given before the text. It was somewhere closer to the memoir in which the name of Raj Kapoor has been mentioned. It was originally written in Dutch language. It has informal tone and it brings out the careful nature of a teenager.

3. Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch about her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider?

Anne gave an introduction of her family in the ‘diary’ because it was hard to make others realize that a 13 years old teenager could write about her loneliness. Kitty was an ‘outsider’ which was gifted by her parents on her 13th birthday but she considered it her best friend and treated it as an insider.

4. How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs. Kuperus and Mr. Keesing? What do these tell you about her?

Anne has fond of memories of her father, grandmother, Mrs. Kuperus and Mr. Keesing, who have left indelible impressions on her mind and affected her life a lot. The way she represents all of them in her diary reveals that Anne was very good at understanding people and at developing interpersonal relations.

5. What does Anne write in her first essay?

Mr. Keesing asked her to write an essay on the topic ‘A Chatterbox’ as punishment. In the essay, she accepted the drawbacks of being talkative but argued that it was in her genes as her mother was also very talkative. It was difficult to give up the habit and it was also a student’s trait.

6. Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr. Keesing unpredictable?

Initially, Mr. Keesing took Anne’s talkativeness seriously and gave her punishment. The punishment was to write an essay on a chatterbox. He laughs after reading the essay. His asked her to write another essay. When she wrote the essay in poetic form. He had taken it as a joke and he let her talk in her class.

7. What do these statements tell you about Anne Frank as a person?

1. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer and that’s the problem. Maybe it’s my fault that we don’t confide in each other.

2. I don’t want to write down the facts in this diary the way most people would, but I want the diary to be my friend.

3. Margot went to Holland in December and I followed in February, when I was plunked down on the table as a birthday present for Margot.

4. If you ask me, there are so many dummies that about a quarter of the class should be kept back, but teachers are the most unpredictable creatures on Earth.

5. Anyone could ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking.

1.A. Anne is reserved.

2.A. She is self-confident and inventive.

3.A. She is humorous as well.

4.A. Anne is intelligent.

5.A. She has a sense of propriety and convincing attitude.