Niki's Three Connections: Text to Text & Self

In The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne describes the hopeless feeling she gets from hearing the stories about many of her friends that were dragged off by the Gestapo, and most likely to their death. She is forced to stay in hiding with no way of helping them even though she wishes she could. This reminds me of the movie Prom Night. Donna, the main character, is forced to hide under a bed while a crazed murderer brutally slaughters her mom in front of her own eyes. Donna has no way of helping her mom because even just one slight shift or noise would alert the attacker of her location and would result in her own death too. Both girls experience deep regret for the fact that they are still alive while those they love are not.

The people living in the “Secret Annex” are forced to eat the same foods for long periods of time and Anne finds herself sick of these foods. On page 70, Anne proclaims, “We have eaten so many kidney beans and haricot beans that I can’t bear the sight of them any more. The mere thought of them makes me feel quite sick.” This quote clearly expresses Anne’s new-found hatred for these beans form excessive consumption. From living in South Florida, I have endured several hurricanes such as Ivan, Jeanne, Francis, and Katrina. In preparation of these natural disasters we are forced to stock up on non-perishable items such as Campbell’s soup and Chef Boyardee. When the lights go out, we are forced to eat these foods for as long as we have no power to cook food or until the restaurants are reopened. After only 3 days of eating these foods I became sick of them and did not want to eat another bite. I can relate to Anne because even though eating those foods was much more long-term for her, I still know what it is like to grow sick of something after extreme amounts of it.

Life in the “Secret Annex” follows a continual pattern that has hardly any variation. Anne uses three of her diary entries to describe the morning, mid-day, and night routines of the household. It is often easy to find comfort in these schedules because they become familiar and soon an easy way to do things everyday. Anne’s description of this routine reminded me of a part of the book Everlost by Neil Shusterman. In this story, Nick and Allie fall into a cycle that becomes almost unbreakable and nearly impossible to end. Once they began a cycle that they found enjoyable, they kept at it for a period of several months before realizing the time that had slipped by. Although Anne’s routine is not an unhealthy one like Nick and Allie’s, it is one that if kept from month to month. At the first few weeks for in hididng, the families create this cycle, but end up utilizing it for the next 21 months. Nick and Allie develop theirs in a few days and maintain it for about 4 months. This shows that once humans acquire a monotonous life, it is easy to sustain. Thank you, Niki Lewis