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The Diary of a Young Girl

by Anne Frank

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Student Question

How does Anne describe her wishes during the bleak winter in her diary?

Expert Answers

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I wonder if you are refering to the entry that Anne Frank wrote on Christmas Eve of 1943. In this passage, she talks about her mounting sense of frustration about being trapped in their secret apartment and not able to leave and to enjoy the feeling of fresh, cold air, and the festivities that are going on around them. It really helps us understand the kind of claustraphobic atmostphere that must have existed in the appartment and the way that Anne would have been desperate for a chance to move out of those four walls. Note what she says:

Cycling, dancing, whistling, looking out into the world, feeling young, to know that I'm free--that's what I long for; still, I mustn't show it, because I sometimes think if all eight of us began to pity ourselves, or went around with discontented faces, where would it lead us? I sometimes ask myself, "Would anyone, either Jew or non-Jew, understand this about me, that I am simply a young girl badly in need of some rollicking fun?" I don't know, and I couldn't talk about it to anyone, because then I know I should cry.

Her wishes are therefore clearly to be able to get out from the apartment and enjoy the life and activities of a "normal" girl of her age, that have been taken away from her like so much else due to the need for her to remain hidden and secret.

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