Vocabulary
This word means having a strong urge to write.
What is scripturient
What even causes the Frank family to go into hiding?
What is Margot receiving a call up notice from the authorities?
Who is Anne's romantic interest in the annex?
Peter
What object does Anne use to record her thoughts, fears, and hopes?
What is her diary?
This is the major theme describing how Anne changes from a playful, relatively carefree girl into someone who has experienced suffering and thinks deeply about humanity.
What is loss of innocence?
This word describes a person whose mood changes unpredictable.
What is mercurial?
Name the two helpers who bring supplies to the people in hiding?
Miep and Mr. Kraler
Which family member does Anne feel generally close to and understood by?
Who is her father
What major theme is reflected in Anne's that people are mostly good at heart?
What is hope and faith in humanity despite suffering?
Anne's statement, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart," most strongly demonstrates this theme.
What is hope in the face of despair?
This word means existing in an in-between or transitional state.
What is liminal?
Why must the residents of the annex be especially careful about making noise during the day?
What is that people working in the building could hear them and discover their hiding place.
How is Mr. Frank's leadership style different from Mr. Van Daan's
What is that Mr. Frank is usually calm and diplomatic while Mr. Van Dann is more volatile?
Why is silence both a practical necessity and a symbol in the play?
What is that silence helps prevent discovery but also represents fear, oppression and the loss of freedom?
Anne's diary is more than a record of what happened to her personally. It also reflects the experiences and attitudes of the larger historical period in which she lived.
What does this suggest about why Anne's diary is important as a historical document?
It captures the fear, persecution, uncertainty, resilience, and hopes of people living during the Holocaust, giving a personal perspective on a major historical event.
This word describes the defining spirit or mood of a historical period.
What is Zeitgeist?
What happen when Mr. Van Dann is confronted for stealing food?
What is that the confrontation turned into a big argument.
Describe one important inner struggle experienced by Anne?
What is that Anne struggles to reconcile her lively personality with living in hiding?
Explain why the annex can be described as a liminal space?
What is that it is an in-between space: the residents are sheltered from the outside but they are not truly free.
Anne's diary sometimes moves away from what is happening in the present and reflects on earlier experiences or memories. What literary technique does this resemble, and why is it effective?
Analepsis (flashback). It allows the audience to understand Anne's past experiences and inner life and gives greater context to her present circumstances.
This word describes something impossible to avoid or escape. It could describe the danger facing the residents of the annex.
What is ineluctable?
Describe the fate of the people living in the annex and explain why their story is remembered.
They are discovered and arrested. They all die in concentration camps except for Otto. Her diary preserves her personal experience of the Holocaust.
How does Anne and Peter's developing relationship reveal a change in the characters?
What is that their growing trust and relationship reveals that Anne has a deep desire for understanding and emotional connection while Peter becomes more open and willing to share his feelings.
Anne's belief in human goodness seems to conflict with the cruelty she experiences. Explain how this contradiction develops a major theme.
What is the contrast between persecution and hope as well as between her belief and her historical reality.
The diary allows the audience to experience Anne's private thoughts and reflections in a way that would not be possible simply by watching her interact with the other characters. Explain one effect this has on the audience.
Answer: It creates a more personal connection to Anne and helps the audience understand her thoughts, emotions, fears, dreams, and growth.