Anne Frank Diary Entry Essay

In her very last diary entry, Tuesday, August 1st, 1944, Anne writes about how she is a “little bundle of contradictions”. She believes there are two Annes trapped inside of her—one being the witty, cheeky Anne that is always shown to the public. The other Anne is deeper, more sensitive, and more mature. She feels as if she can only show the light-hearted side to everyone, for her deeper side cannot handle such events life throws at her, so she must suppress the Anne that is nicer and more genuine to people. Anne goes on to explain, “My lighter superficial side will always be too quick for the deeper side of me and that’s why it will always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve already tried to push this Anne away, to cripple her, to hide her, because after all, she’s only half of what’s called Anne: because it doesn’t work, and
Most of these entries speak about only mere quarrels between the two women, but some entries mention why Anne never got along well with her mother in the first place. For example, in her Wednesday, January 5th, 1944 entry, Anne describes how she has felt her mother has never felt like a real mother, just a friend. She states, “You know that I’ve grumbled a lot about Mummy, yet still tried to be nice to her again. Now it is suddenly clear to me what she lacks. Mummy herself has told us that she looks more upon us as her friends than her daughters. Now that is all very fine, but still, a friend cannot take a mother’s place. I need my mother as an example I can follow, I want to be able to respect her… I imagine a mother as a woman who, in the first place, shows great tact, especially towards her children when they reach our age, and who does not laugh at me when I cry about something--not pain, but other things-- like ‘Mums’ does.” (Frank 129). This is a character versus character type of conflict. Anne is the protagonist, and her mother is the