36 It can be summarized that it did not matter if her mother always stood on
Margot’s side. On the contrary, it hurt her when her father stood on Margot’s side. Anne’s statements proved that deep inside her heart she felt jealous. “He doesn’t
realize that he treats Margot differently from me: Margot just happens to be the cleverest, the kindest, the prettiest and the best. But I have a right to be taken
seriously too” 181. That direct comment showed that Anne did not feel comfortable when her father treated Margot well. In other words, she felt jealous
to her sister as she wanted to be treated the same way by her father and all that she needed was her father’s attention.
d. More Introspective
Anne Frank learned how to build her self-knowledge. She regretted that she had written bad impressions about her mom. She wondered how she filled
with so much anger and hate to her mother. She tried to understand herself during last year and made apologies for her. Her bad moods allowed her to see things
only from her own perspective without considering what the others had hurt or offended.
I was suffering then and still do from moods that kept my head under water figuratively speaking and allowed me to see things only from my
own perspective, without calmly considering what the others – those whom I, with my mercurial temperament, had hurt or offended – had said,
and then behaving as they would have done. 203
Anne finally realized that the circumstances of the wartime and the difficulties of living in the hiding with some people which caused the nerves of
the Annexe’s residents including her mother. She felt guilty for did not consider this fact before she wrote those kind of rude words about her mother in her diary.
37 However, she had been passing through the growing process into a woman. She
finally had an intense desire for self-understanding.
e. Smart
Anne Frank was a smart girl who became the favorite students of the teachers in her school. Her teachers were amused and entertained by her clever
answers, witty remarks, smiling face and critical mind 265. Before her hiding, Anne always talked too much in her Math class. Mr.
Keesing, who taught Math, had given her several warnings. Since Anne still talked too much, he finally gave Anne extra homework. He wanted Anne to write
an essay on the subject ‘A Chatterbox’. At the beginning, she found it difficult to write about that subject. Suddenly the trick came up to her mind. She wrote a
convincing argument to prove the necessity of talking. She argued that talking was a female trait and that she would do her best to keep it under control, but that she
would never be able to cure herself since her mother talked as much as she did. Moreover, there was not much we can do about inherited traits.
Mr. Keesing had a good laugh at her arguments, but he assigned her the second essay when she proceeded to talk through the next lesson. This time it was
supposed to be on ‘An Incorrigible Chatterbox’. Mr. Keesing had nothing to complain when Anne summited her second essay. However, in the third lesson
Mr. Keesing finally gave her punishment for talking too much in class. She had to write an essay entitled ‘Quack, Quack, Quack,’ Said Mistress Chatterbox’ 19.
38 Anne felt tired on that subject then she thought she would be better to
come up with something else, something original. Finally, she made a poem about a joke for Mr. Keesing in that subject. It was about a mother duck and a father
swan with three baby ducklings that were bitten by the father because they quacked too much. Luckily, her teacher took the joke the right way. Since then
she had been allowed to talk and had not been assigned any extra homework. On the contrary, Mr. Keesing always made jokes after it 19-20.
Based on the above Anne’s experience, it can be concluded that Anne, a smart girl who was creative in expressing herself through writing convincing
argument about the necessity of talking. When Anne gave comment toward her mother fault in raising children, it
also showed the reader how smart and critical she was. Since, a little girl like her understood what was wrong with the way her mother treated her and Margot.
The first is about Mother... I’ve suddenly realized what’s wrong with her. Mother has said that she sees us more as friends than as daughters. That’s
all very nice, of course, except that a friend can’t take the place of mother. I need my mother to set a good example and be a person I can respect, but
in most matters she’s an example of what not to do. 205
Anne understood that a friend could not replace a mother’s role. She was also able to differentiate what was good to do and what was not good to do by taking her
mother’s attitudes as the example.
B. Anne Frank’s Responses to the Conflicts Appearing during her Hiding
