From the Diary of Anne Frank

 

FROM THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

 

Question 1: Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?

Answer: Even though she disliked doing so, Anne provides a brief sketch of her life since no one would understand a word of her musings if she were to jump right in.

 

Question 2: What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?

Answer: Anne’s grandmother had fallen ill and had to be operated upon. Therefore, Anne’s birthday passed with little celebration. Her grandmother died the next year. Anne wrote in her diary that no one knew how often she thought of her grandmother and still loved her.

 

Question 3: Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?

Answer: No, Anne was not right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen year old girl. Her diary was published under the name ‘The Diary of a young girl’. It was translated from its original Dutch into many languages and it became one of the world’s most widely read books. There have also been several films, television and theatrical productions, and even an opera based on the diary. It was described as the work of a mature and insightful mind. It provides an intimate examination of life under Nazi occupation. Anne Frank became one of the most renowned and discussed of the Holocaust victims.

 

Question 4: 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 dairy different?

Answer: Anne’s diary was originally written in Dutch. Her diary is different from the others in
many aspects. She had named her diary ‘Kitty’. She thought of it as her only true friend whom she could confide in. She treated it as another person who was listening to her daily accounts. She wrote all her stories in it. She started by writing ‘Dearest kitty’ and ended the account by writing, ‘Yours, Anne’. Her diary was a lot more personal than other diaries.

 

Question 5: Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch about her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as
an insider or an outsider?

Answer: Anne gave a brief sketch of her life since no one would understand a word of her stories to her diary if she were to plunge right in. She, therefore, wrote a brief sketch of her life, even though she disliked doing so. She treated Kitty as an insider because she called it her best friend and was ready to confide in it.

 

Question 6: How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing? What do these tell you about her?

Answer: Anne felt that her father was the most adorable father she had ever seen. Anne remembered her grandmother even after her death. She wrote in her diary that no one knew how often she thought of her grandmother and still loved her. In the sixth form at the Montessori nursery school, her teacher was Mrs Kuperus, who was also the headmistress. At the end of the year, they were both in tears as they said a heartbreaking farewell. Mr Keesing was her Maths teacher. He was annoyed with her because she talked too much. However, Anne was able to justify her talkative nature every time she was punished by Mr. Keesing. On each occasion he was impressed by the manner in which she presented her arguments. All these incidents show how lovable and smart Anne was. Everybody was attached to her, and even Mr Keesing could not help but laugh at her essays and acknowledge her smart mind.

 

 

 

Question 7: What does Anne write in her first essay?

Answer: In her first essay, titled ‘A Chatterbox’, Anne wanted to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking. She began thinking about the subject. She wrote three pages and was satisfied. She argued that talking was a student’s trait and that she would do her best to keep it under control. She further wrote that she would never be able to cure herself of the habit since her mother talked as much as she did. There was not much that one could do about inherited traits. Mr Keesing too had a good laugh reading her arguments.

 

Question 8: Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?

Answer: Anne felt that a quarter of her class was dumb, and should be kept back and not promoted to the next class. However, she also felt that teachers were the most unpredictable creatures on earth. Mr Keesing could be termed as unpredictable. The way Anne always talked while the class was going on, any teacher would lose his temper. However, after several warnings, all Mr Keesing did was to assign her extra homework. She had to write an essay on ‘A Chatterbox’. In this way, he tried to play a joke on her. Each time that he asked her to write such essays, she wrote very well. She kept countering his jokes. One could not have predicted that he would take all the jokes in the right spirit. Finally, he accepted her talkative nature and actually allowed her to talk in class. He did not even assign her any more extra homework. That is why it can be said that Mr Keesing was unpredictable.

 

Question 9: What do these statements tell you about Anne Frank as a person?

(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.

(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.
(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.

(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.

(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 taking.

Answer:
(i) These lines show that Anne had no true friend whom she could confide in. She even put the blame on herself that the fault might be hers.

(ii) This line shows that Anne really considered her diary as a friend whom she could trust and narrate all her stories to. She did not want just a diary in which she could write down the facts like others did. She considered it as her friend and named her Kitty.

(iii) This statement shows that Anne was a fun-loving person. She was witty and knew how to present things in a funny way. She narrated this incident with a lot of fun. The use of ‘plunked down’ shows her sense of humour.
(iv) This statement shows that she had an opinion on everything. She thought that a quarter of her class was full of dummies, signifying that she herself was intelligent enough to make it to the next class. She thought of teachers as the most unpredictable creatures on earth because nobody could say which students they would fail and which students would be passed on to the next class.

 (v) This statement shows that Anne knew a lot about writing. She was given the task of writing an essay as a punishment. She took it on with full vigour. She did not want to write it like others who merely left big spaces between the words to make the essay look voluminous. She knew that the trick was to come up with a convincing argument to prove the necessity of talking. She was different in her approach from everybody else.

 

 

Short Answer Type Questions [3 Marks]

Question 1.  Describe Anne’s Feelings about having a diary.

Answer: Anne feels it is silly for a 13 years old teenager to have a diary as it would seem she has many friends and other people to talk to, but in reality, she states she feels very lonely in the world. She wishes her diary to become her friend.

 

Question 2. Why does Anne Frank think that ‘paper’ has more patience than ‘people’?

Answer: Anne believes that paper has more patience than people because it listens to her more patiently and silently it does not react like other people and also because she can confide in her diary all her secrets.

 

Question 3. What does Anne Frank tell about her family in her diary?

Answer: Anne Frank tells that she has very lovely and caring family. Her parents and her elder sister love her a lot. There are about thirty people near by her whom she can call friends. She has loving aunts and a good home but she wants to have a true friend with whom she can share her feelings and thoughts.

 

Question4 Describe your views about Mr Keesing as a teacher.

Answer: Mr Keesing seems to be a strict teacher but he actually believes taking actions with good intention and for the development of children. He tries to control her bad habit of talking too much but as soon as he is convinced that her habit does not affect her studies, he overlooks her shortcoming.

 

Question 5. What does Anne write in her first essay to support her habit of talking so much?
Answer: Anne Frank supports her nature by stating that talking is a student’s trait and she will try to control it. But she also says that she has got it from her mother and such inherited traits cannot be curbed.

 

Question 6. What was Mr Keesing’s reaction after reading Anne’s poem on the third essay that he had given to her to write?

Answer: When Mr Keesing read Anne’s poem on the third essay that he had given her to write, he took the joke the right way. He understood the intention of Anne and felt it in good humour. After that he allowed her to talk and did not punish her by assigning her extra work.

 

Question 7.Why was Anne’s entire class anxious and nervous?

Answer: Anne’s class was anxious and nervous about the result. It was yet to be decided who would be promoted to the higher class or who would not because many deserved it.

 

Question 8.Describe Anne’s love for her grandmother. [CBSE2016]

Answer: When Anne’s grandmother died, she stated that no one could understand her intensity of her love for her grandma. She also said that no one could imagine how much she thought of her. Lighting up extra candle for her during her birthday showed her love for grandmother.

 

Question 9.Describe about Anne Frank’s early education.

Answer:Anne Frank got her early education at the Montessori Nursery School until she was six. She started in the first form and in the sixth form, she had developed such a good relation with her headmistress Mrs Kuperus that both of them were in tears on the farewell.

 

Question 10. Anne writes that it was fortunate that Mr Keesing took the joke the right way. Why does she feel so?

Answer: In the poem that Anne wrote, the father swan bit his three ducklings because they quacked too much. She was an allusion to Mr Keesing who did not approve of Anne’s talkative nature. Instead of teaching Anne a lesson, the poem turned the joke around on Mr Keesing. Mr Keesing could have been angered more by Anne’s defiance but he took the joke in the right spirit and did not punish Anne for it.

 

Question 11. Why did Mr Keesing call Anne an “incorrigible chatterbox”?

Answer: Anne was very talkative in class. She did not mend her ways despite being punished. Infact, in her essay which was supposed to be a punishment, she justified her over talkative behaviour. So, Mr Keesing called her an “incorrigible chatterbox”.

 

 

Long Answers

Question 1.Why did Anne think that she could confide more in her diary than in the people?

Answer: Anne Frank did not have a friend with whom she could share now. Although she had spent a good time with her friends but she was unable to share her views and thoughts with them. When she got her diary, she decided to share everything with it because she believed that nobody would be interested enough in her musings. So, she treated her diary as her best friend. It would keep her life a secret and would not react, ridicule or judge her like people. She confided everything in the diary; her family, her fear, her loneliness, her life and considered it her best friend.

 

Question 2.Who helped Anne in writing the essay and how?

Answer: Anne was fond of talking a lot. Mr Keesing punished her and gave her essays to write one after another as she didn’t stop talking in the class. When she was asked to write the essay on Ans. the topic ‘Quack, Quack, Quack said Mistress Chatterbox’ she decided to make it original. Her friend Sanne helped her as she was good at poetry and suggested her to write the entire essay in verse. Anne tried to play a joke on Mr Keesing with the essay. Mr Keesing took it in the right way and read it in the class. He understood that she was not a dull student, but talkative so he allowed her to talk and did not punish her again.

 

Question 3. Write the character sketch of Anne Frank.

Answer: Anne Frank was born on 12th June 1929 in Frankfurt Germany. She was four years old when her father went to Holland to find a better place for his family to live. She was very intelligent and always wanted to become a writer. She loved Peter even when she had to face opposition from her family in this regard.
She was a very good reader as well, she continued reading books, translated chapters, wrote down the vocabulary and worked hard on her skills. Like any child, she loved her parents but later grew a dislike towards her mother as she compared Anne to Margot. She was always jealous with her. She believed that time would come when the problems would be over. She felt alone although there were thirty people around her but she hardly could call anyone a true friend. Anne died of typhus in the concentration camp at Berger-Belsen in late February or early March of 1945.

 

Question 4.‘Paper has more patience than people’. Justify.

Answer: Anne believes that people are not interested in other’s life as they are stuck with their own problems so it is really hard to get someone who can give importance to her diary. People feel bored and become impatient when we talk about our problems. On the other hand when we write our feelings and thoughts on paper, we can write as long as we want without thinking of anyone, intention as it doesn’t react. We can share our feelings, both sad and happy. It never gets bored, never judges us, never ridicules us or stops us from writing. It behaves like a true friend who keeps your secret and listens to you patiently. So she thinks that paper has more patience than people.

 

Question 5.“From the diary of Anne Frank’ throws light on teacher-student relationship, class atmosphere and discipline. Write a paragraph oh the values of these aspects of school and how far these values are necessary for learning and life. [CBSE 2016]

Answer: “The Diary of Anne Frank” clearly describes the teacher-student relationship, class atmosphere and discipline. Anne who talks a lot in the class gets punished by Mr Keesing her Maths teacher. He asks her to write essays as punishment which is learning in disguise because he wanted her to focus on studies. He cannot be blamed for the punishment as he did it for the development of Anne. The teacher-student relationship is very respectful and sacred. It is about discipline and classroom manners which are essential for every student as well as teacher, otherwise both teaching or learning could hamper. This relationship is clearly shown in Mr Keesing and Anne Frank actions as they both try to joke on each other but in very humorous and healthy manner. So this healthy relationship is needed everywhere in the class for effective teaching and learning.