Here is a summary of the chapter ‘From the Diary of Anne Frank’ and answers to the related questions, based on the information in the provided sources 😊.
Summary of ‘From the Diary of Anne Frank’#
This chapter introduces Anneliese Marie ‘Anne’ Frank, a German-born Jewish girl who wrote while in hiding during World War II. Her family had moved to Amsterdam but became trapped when the Nazi occupation extended into the Netherlands. As persecution increased, the family and four friends went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in her father’s office building. After two years, they were betrayed and sent to concentration camps. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen. Her father, Otto Frank, was the only survivor from the group and had her diary published.
The diary itself was a gift for Anne’s thirteenth birthday and covers the period from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944. Anne finds writing in a diary a strange experience. She feels she needs to get things off her chest and wants the diary to be her friend because she feels she doesn’t have a true friend in whom she can confide personal things. She decides to name her diary ‘Kitty’.
To make her stories understandable, Anne provides a brief sketch of her life. She recounts moving from Frankfurt to Holland and staying with her grandmother. She expresses her love for her grandmother, who died in January 1942.
The chapter also includes an entry from Saturday, 20 June 1942, describing her class’s anxiety about promotion. Anne mentions getting along well with her teachers but being annoyed by her maths teacher, Mr Keesing, because she talked too much. As punishment, he assigned her essays on the topic of being a “chatterbox”. Anne creatively argued in her first essay that talking is a student’s trait and that she inherited it from her mother. Despite this, Mr Keesing assigned further essays, including one entitled ‘Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterbox’. With help from a friend, Anne wrote a poem for this essay about ducklings who were bitten to death for quacking too much. Mr Keesing appreciated the poem, read it to the class, and stopped giving Anne extra homework, even starting to make jokes himself.
Answers to the Questions#
Here are answers to the questions from the sources, presented with emojis and citing the relevant parts ✨:
From Oral Comprehension Check (Page 52):
- What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank? Anne finds writing in a diary strange because she has never written anything before. Also, she feels that neither she nor anyone else will be interested in her thoughts later on.
- Why does Anne want to keep a diary? Anne feels like writing and has a great need to get all kinds of things off her chest. She also wants to keep a diary because she doesn’t have a friend in whom she can confide.
- Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people? Anne has friends, but when she is with them, she can only talk about ordinary everyday things and feels they can’t get any closer. She cannot bring herself to talk about anything deeper with them. This leads her to feel she can confide more in her diary.
From Oral Comprehension Check (Page 54):
- Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life? Anne provides a brief sketch of her life because she feels that otherwise, no one would understand her stories to her diary, ‘Kitty’, if she were to just start writing.
- What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother? Anne states that her grandmother died in January 1942. She adds, “No one knows how often I think of her and still love her.”. This sentence clearly indicates her deep affection for her grandmother. ❤️👵
From Oral Comprehension Check (Page 60):
- Why was Mr Keesing annoyed with Anne? What did he ask her to do? Mr Keesing was annoyed with Anne because she talked so much in his class. After several warnings, he assigned her extra homework; specifically, an essay on the subject, ‘A Chatterbox’.
- How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay? Anne argued in her essay that talking is a student’s trait. She also stated that she would try her best to control it, but she couldn’t cure herself of the habit since her mother talked as much as she did, suggesting it was an inherited trait.
- Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher? Based on the sources, Mr Keesing initially seems strict as he repeatedly gives Anne extra homework in the form of essays for talking. However, his reaction to Anne’s final essay, written as a poem, shows a willingness to appreciate her creativity and humour. He took the joke the right way, read the poem to the class, and stopped assigning her extra homework, even starting to make jokes himself. This suggests that while he enforced rules, he was also adaptable and had a sense of humour, perhaps making him less strictly predictable than Anne initially suggested teachers were. 🤔📖
- What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class? After Anne wrote her third essay as a poem about ducklings bitten to death for quacking, Mr Keesing took the joke the right way. He read the poem to the class and after that, Anne was allowed to talk and wasn’t assigned any extra homework. The humorous and creative poem changed his approach. 😂✍️
From Thinking about the Text (Page 60-62):
These questions are designed to encourage deeper thought, analysis, and personal discussion. The provided sources offer information that can inform your answers, but the questions themselves go beyond simple recall and are suitable for discussion or written response based on your interpretation of the text and potentially your own experiences.
- Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl? The provided sources state that Anne’s diary became one of the world’s most widely read books after her father had it published. It has been translated into many languages and has inspired films, television, theatre, and even an opera. This evidence from the sources suggests that Anne was not right in her initial feeling that no one would be interested in her thoughts. 🌍📚🌟
- 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? The sources state that Anne Frank’s diary was originally written in Dutch. Comparing Anne’s entry with the examples provided in the “Before You Read” section: The examples include brief, factual notes with times and dates (like a log), or shorter personal reflections. Anne’s entry is addressed to her friend ‘Kitty’ (“Dearest Kitty”), is longer, more narrative, describes events in detail, expresses her feelings and opinions openly (like her thoughts on her classmates and teacher), and feels more like a letter or a conversation. This conversational and personal style, treating the diary as a friend, makes Anne’s diary different from the more formal or factual entries shown in the examples. 📝💬
- Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch about her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider? Anne needs to give a brief sketch of her life so that anyone reading her diary (represented by ‘Kitty’) can understand her stories. She treats ‘Kitty’ very much as an insider, her confidante and true friend. By explaining her background to Kitty, she is bringing her friend up to speed, treating the diary like a person who needs context to understand her life. 🤝👤
- How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing? What do these tell you about her? Anne describes her father as “the most adorable father I’ve ever seen”, showing deep affection. She “still love[s]” her grandmother very much and thinks of her often, even after she has passed away, indicating lasting love and memory. She says she “get[s] along pretty well with all” her teachers, including Mr Keesing. While initially annoyed with Mr Keesing for giving her extra homework, her writing about him, especially the poem, shows a level of engagement and a changing dynamic that ends positively. These feelings suggest that Anne is capable of forming strong, affectionate bonds (family), cherishes memories, and can navigate challenging relationships (teachers) with intelligence, humour, and a capacity for positive outcomes. ❤️👨👧👧👵📚
- What does Anne write in her first essay? Anne’s first essay was assigned on the subject ‘A Chatterbox’. In it, she argued that talking is a student’s trait and that she inherited the habit of talking from her mother.
- Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How? Anne states her belief that teachers are “the most unpredictable creatures on earth”. Mr Keesing could be seen as unpredictable based on his reaction to her talking. He goes from being annoyed and assigning punitive essays to eventually taking her humorous poem well, reading it to the class, stopping the extra homework, and making jokes himself. This significant shift in his attitude and actions might be considered unpredictable from a student’s perspective. 🤔🔄
- What do these statements tell you about Anne Frank as a person? Based on the statements provided in the sources: (i) “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.” -> This shows Anne is introspective and self-aware. She reflects on her relationships and is willing to consider that she might be part of the problem in not forming deeper connections. 🤔👤 (ii) “I don’t want to jot down the facts in this diary the way most people would, but I want the diary to be my friend.” -> This reveals Anne’s imaginative and creative nature. She doesn’t just want a factual record; she desires a close, personal connection, treating the diary as a friend. 📔✨ (iii) “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.” -> This shows Anne’s sense of humour and perhaps a playful perspective on significant life events. The informal phrase “plunked down” also suggests her conversational writing style. 😄🎁 (iv) “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.” -> This indicates Anne is opinionated and confident in her views. She is not afraid to make blunt judgments about her classmates and authority figures. 🗣️🤨 (v) “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.” -> This highlights Anne’s intelligence and ingenuity. She sees writing the essay not just as a punishment but as a challenge to use her mind and come up with persuasive arguments. 🧠💡
I hope this summary and these answers are clear and easy to understand! Let me know if you have any more questions 😊.