From the Diary of Anne Frank

Writing in a diary was a strange experience for Anne for two reasons. First, she had never written anything before. Second, she felt that later on, neither she nor anyone else would be interested in the “musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl”.

Anne wanted to keep a diary because she felt she had no “real friend” to confide in. She believed that “paper has more patience than people”, meaning she could pour out her heart in the diary without fear of judgement or interruption, unlike when talking to people.

Anne provides a brief sketch of her life because she believes that no one would understand her stories to “Kitty” (her diary) if she plunged right in without context. She wanted to give a proper background of her family and early life.

Mr. Keesing was annoyed because Anne talked too much in class. As punishment, he asked her to write an essay on “A Chatterbox.” Anne justified her talkative nature by arguing that:

• Talking is a student’s trait.
• It was an inherited trait from her mother, who also talked a lot, so there wasn’t much she could do to cure it.

After several punishments, Anne wrote her final assignment as a poem about a father swan biting his three baby ducklings to death because they quacked too much. Mr. Keesing took the joke in the right spirit. He was so impressed by her wit that he allowed her to talk in class and stopped giving her extra homework.

Amanda is likely a school-going girl aged around 9-10 years (or early teens). We know this because she is being scolded for things typical of that age, such as biting nails, slouching, cleaning her room, finishing homework, and having acne.

These stanzas represent Amanda’s inner thoughts or daydreams. They are placed in parentheses to separate them from the external reality (her parent’s constant nagging). While her parent speaks in stanzas 1, 3, and 5, Amanda escapes into her own world of imagination in the bracketed stanzas.

Amanda yearns for freedom, silence, and peace. She feels suffocated by the constant instructions and lack of privacy. The poem shows she is an imaginative girl who uses fantasy (Mermaid, Orphan, Rapunzel) as an escape mechanism to deal with her controlling environment.