The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank (Discussion Director)

For this literature circles meeting my group, Nina, Claire, Arabella, and I have read 180 pages of the possible 283 from The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank.

Question 1:
Why do you think Anne Frank's first wish, when they were first allowed outside again, was for them, the Frank family, to have a house of their own and to have someone to help with her work - or in other words as she mentioned on page 90 paragraph 1 with school?

Answer 1:
I think she just wanted her life to be back to normal. Which after an extensive time in the annex is understandable.

Question 2:
Why do you think Anne held her "escape bag" whilst the shooting was happening, on page 91 paragraph 5?

Answer 2:
I feel as though she held on to her "escape bag " during the shooting, even though she knew there was no chance of an escape, for reassurance. Or perhaps to hold onto something other than the idea of escaping, for there was nowhere to go.

Question 3:
Mrs. Vaan Dan is referred to as the biggest coward of all during an air raid, for she stated "A terrible end is better than no end at all", do you agree with Anne for stating so? Why or why not?

Answer 3:
I personally do not, people have the right to fear, some although choose not to show it, even though fear is something not as terrible as we make it out to be most of the time. After all, everyone is ought to be afraid of something.

Question 4:
On page 130, Anne admits that she doesn't discuss some issues she is facing with those around her, but fells the need to write about them instead. Would you agree that this is a better way to work things out with yourself, personally, as well as get the chance to really think about somethings. Why or why not?

Answer 4:
I would have to agree, because when you write things down you can really think about them and if after you've written about something and still feel really strongly about it you can confront someone else with your resolved feelings instead of unresolved ones.

Question 5:
On page 144 of the book Anne mulled over the fact that Kitty, her diary, might have feelings as that of a cow constantly chewing over old pieces of news, and wishing that Anne would occasionally dig up something new. After which she told Kitty that even she, herself, knows its dull that kitty should put herself in Anne's shoes. Do you agree with Anne that before judging someone, and their constant bringing up of old news, you should put yourself in their shoes? Why or why not?

Answer 5:
I agree, for example one may think that someone has no reason for acting a certain way, but that is often not true. Sometimes we become to engulfed in our own emotions, that we forget to think about those of others. After which we tend to judge them harshly, on only their action instead of taking in account their intentions as well, which we do for ourselves.

In this blog post I was not able to contribute the opinions of the rest of my group, because we did not get the chance to meet due to the going away of so many people for MUN and Knowledge Bowl and so many other things.