Movie vs. Book Compare and Contrast

Hey, Alex here. I am here to start off our final blogpost, which will be a group one. The story behind it is after finally finishing the book, we watched the movie that aired on PBS in 2009. I honestly thought that it was better than the book, especially the end, but that isn’t important right now. Anyways, we kept track of similarities and differences between the two on a sheet of paper. After finishing the movie, the teachers asked us to blog about it, and here I am now. We are each doing a certain element of the story, like plot, setting, etc. Anyways, I’m going to be going back through my notes, and I will be back later.

Hey! Its Skyler and my group has one final blog post, but it is different because it is not individually, it is all together. So for this last post we have finished the book and the movie, we now have to explain the differences and similarities by comparing the two. Some things that we will be comparing is setting, characters, perspective, and the plot of each. Throughout the book there was one main setting that housed individuals such as Anne and her family, which was the Secret Annex. The annex has held Anne’s family for many years in each the movie and the book and it helps shape the personalities of the people. Throughout the book the reader only gets to see how Anne and her family lived in the annex but really there was the life she lived up till she went to the annex. Such as in the movie it shows the house she lived in and what she was like before she moved but in the book you don’t get to see that many perspectives from their life outside of the annex. Overall the setting was mostly the same in both but in the movie you get to see the life she lived before the annex because I feel like that was a huge deal for her to make that shift and it also shifted her perspective/personalities toward life.

This scene takes place shortly
after Dussel arrives at the Annex

I’m back! In case you didn’t read the intro, this is Alex, and I am going to be talking about the similarities and differences between the characters in the book and in the movie. While watching the movie, we compiled a list of characters that were in the movie, and then we went back and looked up ones in the book. I’m not going to include the Franks, Van Daans, or Dussel in this, because they are in both the movie and book, and without even just one of those, it would be a completely different story. For the book, we have Mr. Kraler, Mr. Koophuis, Meip, and Elli. For the movie, we got Miep, Mr. Kugler, and Mr. Kleiman. There’s obviously a few people missing in the movie that were in book, like Mr. Kraler, Mr. Koophuis, and Elli. In the movie, Miep seemed to take the role of Elli along with her own, as Elli brought the books to the Franks in the book, but Miep brought them in the movie. Elli also seemed to do most of the protecting and hiding in the book, but Meip did that in the movie. Mr. Kugler and Kleiman seemed to take the place of Mr. Kraler and Koophuis in the movie. Another thing I noticed is that Mummy and Mrs. Van Daan and the other characters aren’t as villainous as Anne paints them out to be. For example, in the book, Anne makes it sound like she and Mum are constantly fighting because Mummy has nothing else to do, but in the movie, we see that Mum is constantly a nervous wreck, and only tries to tell her what to do to try and protect her. Anne makes Mrs. Van Daan sound like a hypocritical jerk who tries to fix other people’s kids. But in the movie, we see that she still tries to correct others’ kids, but she seems like such a jerk because her husband kinda abuses her. So that is a few things that I noticed about similarities and differences between the characters between the book and movie, and now Tyler’s up with differences in perspective.

It’s Tyler here. I am here to talk to you about the difference between the book and the movie of Anne Frank. One similarity from both is that you hear Anne’s perspective mainly from her diary. In both readers and watchers see others perspective but not to the full truth. One major difference is that you get to see everyone else’s perspective to the full potential. Anne is biased to the point where in the book we do not get everyone’s true perspective we only see how she depicts them in the diary. The setting has also had a big impact on everyone’s perspective. Everyone now lives in a much smaller more confined place which causes many fights to uproar. For example, in the movie Mr and Mrs Van Daan fight about the simplest of things such as their money or even their cigarette supply. One of the biggest conflicts in perspective are Mrs. Van Daan and Anne, their personality conflicts all together. One moment in the book Anne everyone is sitting at the table for dinner and Anne doesn't get many vegetables but a lot of potatoes to make up for it. Mrs Van Daan sees this and automatically jumps on Anne and declares she gets more vegetables even when she herself doesn't have that many vegetables. This discussion then turned into a heated debate on whether or not Anne was brought up proper and if she is to spoiled. All of these comments, argument, and more and causing everyone to be on edge which will cause them to snap. It also does not help the fact that Anne keeps all of her emotions inside of her all the time, Anne does not let anyone inside her little bubble maybe besides Peter. This has happened in both the movie and the book. Perspective is not the only subject with similarities and differences, the plot also has many similarities and differences

Its Jessica here with the plot! ;)  All of the events in the movie, for the most part, happen in the book, except one. The biggest difference is that at the end of the movie they show Anne writing her final diary entry, when the soldiers come in the annex and take them away. In the book that part never happened because Anne had to leave her diary behind so and could not write about it. But overall the movie has few difference than the book. One major thing that the book and the movie both have is the romance between Peter and Anne. There are, for lack of a better word, insignificant things in the book that they left out of the movie. But all of the major events are in both the book and the movie.

To sum this all up, there are many similarities and differences between the 2009 PBS movie and The Diary Of Anne Frank. These similarities and differences include: setting, characters, perspective and the all around plot of both stories. All of these pieces are combined and glued together to form many similarities and differences. \

Once you have finished the book, determine what the theme of the book is and analyze it using textual evidence from the entire book. Remember theme is a general statement about life or people.

               

 Theme of Anne Franks Diary

       After reading Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl, I had many different topics that I thought could be the theme such as, stubbornness, negativity, love, brave, bold, mature, and internalizing. Throughout all those topics there could only be that I use as the theme of her book so I chose internalizing because I thought it fit the books overall perspective on Anne. 

            When I chose internalizing I knew that the author believed that it could further people from meeting other individuals and that internalizing can prevent people from letting out their feelings and opening up to others.

                One example of Anne internalizing herself by living in the annex is, "I have two things to confess with you today which will take a long time. But I must tell someone and you are the best one to tell, as I know that, come what may, you always keep a secret,"(128)

            While reading this text I realized that Anne always turned to her diary as a source she could use to keep all her secrets in because of all the people she lived with. Anne felt uncomfortable in the annex with so many things surrounding her that she doesn't trust many people.

              As I've said Anne couldn't and didn't reveal her feelings to many people because she didn't trust the people that were with her on a daily basis.

                Another example of Anne internalizing what she felt was when she begins to trust Peter and talks about how she can trust him more than she thought but still can't tell him all the important parts of her life. 

             "Peter hasn't enough character yet, not enough will power, too little courage and strength. He is still a child in his hearts of hearts," (219)

               This quote explains how she doesn't trust Peter because he doesn't have enough courage about himself, and she actually might be able to trust him with certain things but definitely not her deepest secrets as she can with Kitty.

              Finally Anne internalizes herself so much by just talking to her diary, when she has so many other people to talk to such as Margot and her mom but she doesn't.

          " After your letter yesterday I have the unpleasant feeling that you will have prickings of conscience when you visit Peter; but really there is no reason for this," (184).

               This text from the book explains how Anne doesn't feel comfortable talking to her sister in real life so they write letters, even                                                then she doesn't explain exactly what  she is feelings. 
                 
                  Overall through Anne's diary I noticed that she felt uncomfortable around people she knew but when it came to people she didn't know she felt brave and bold or inferior to them. I feel this is because she doesn't know them and then she actually believes that she can do more. Once I finished the book I could think more about what I just read and I noticed that Anne isn't a shy person but she does internalize herself from the world. What do you think Anne's personality was that pertained to her theme.

                 
               
          

              

Once you have finished the book, determine what the theme of the books is and analyze it using textual evidence from the book. Remember theme is a general statement about life or people

CHANGES IN ANNE’S PERSONALITY

Through the entire book there are constant themes, including loneliness, love, attitude, fear, family, and identity or perspective shifts. I think that the personality and perspective changes are the most prominent in the diary.

Anne’s entire perspective on life has changed majorly throughout the book. She has found little or even major things that give her joy at a time in her life where she is in constant danger. While she is trapped in the annexe she explores and discovers things about herself, why she acts the way that she does around certain people, and learned more about people that she now cares very deeply about. In the beginning of the book, I thought that Anne had a more negative perspective on life because she was new to the annexe and didn't really know what to make of the situation that they were in, or about how long it would last.

In the middle to end of the book, I think that her perspective on life is a lot more positive in the range of things that she can control. Some of the things that lightened her overall mood is that she found some new relationships such as the one with Peter. She also seems to know a lot about herself and what she likes. Teens in real life may not be sure what kind of person they want to be, or may not be sure how to get to be the person that they want to be in the end. Anne mentions throughout the book about her “dual personality.” “I’ve already told you before that I have, as it were, a dual personality. One half embodies my exuberant cheerfulness, making fun of everything, my high spiritedness, and above all the way I take everything lightly… This side is usually lying in wait and pushes away the other, which is much better, deeper and purer” (Frank 266). Anne has two sides to her and depending who she is with, a different personality may appear. Anne makes it sound like one of them is more dominant than the other one, and that she definitely likes one of them more than the other.

Her, along with most other people negatively affected by the war had a more pessimistic attitude toward the conflicts at the time. But I think that all of the positive things in her life outweigh all the negative things going on in the world at the time. To Anne, I think that finding herself is more important to her than the world problems, and that she is trying to get better. “I’m really not as conceited as so many people seen to think, I know my own faults and shortcomings better than anyone, but the difference is that I also know that I want to improve, shall improve, and have already improved a great deal” (Frank 248).

What are some of the ways Anne’s identity has changed from when we first meet her, before she goes into hiding? Are the changes ones that she chose or ones that were forced upon her?

Once you have finished the book, determine what the theme of the book is and analyze it using textual evidence from the entire book.

      Hey, Alex here, perhaps for the last time. We've finally finished Anne Frank (yeah!), and I'm personally wishing for a better ending than a historical afterword. But anyways, our teacher asked us, after finishing the book, to come up with a theme that you think best represents it. So I tossed around a few possible themes: love, freedom, independence, dependence, loneliness, freedom, etc, etc. After a bit of brainstorming, I finally settled on hope as the theme. More specifically, my theme was that hope can give someone the will to live during even the hardest of times. In the beginning few pages, you can't really get hope as a theme, but as soon as the family prepares to move to the Secret Annex, hope becomes a possible theme. They and the Van Daans and Dussel are constantly hoping that they aren't caught, that conditions improve, and the list continues on and on. So this blog will be to help explain why I think that hope, or my longer theme about it, is one of the many themes of Anne's diary.

 Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the
general who tried to assassinate Hitler.

      To begin with, Pim (Anne’s Dad) always seems to be hoping that the invasion will come very soon. I feel like half the time you read about Pim in the diary, it has something to do with his expecting the invasion. Before I give the text, keep in mind that was so stupid as to not mark interesting spots with sticky notes after page 160. One of the countless examples of this optimism of Pim’s is in Saturday, 27 February, 1943’s entry, where Anne writes, “Pim is expecting the invasion everyday now,” (Frank 67). He is hoping that the war will end quickly so that he and his family can get back to the way that they lived before the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Every time he seemed to be proved wrong, but he was always just as confident that the invasion would come. One time he even went to go so far as to bet some scarce food on it, and lost the bet, and D-day came shortly after that, almost as if to mock him. The constant thought that an invasion would come was him being hopeful, him trying to find something to help give him the will to live. And before continuing, please note that all of this text I will show you guys is war related, as that seems to be when hope is found the most in this book. People were constantly hoping that the war would end soon, as is shown on Friday, 31 March, 1944's entry, in which Anne wrote, "In general public feeling about the Russian front is optimistic," (Frank 193). She then goes on to explain why it is so optimistic, as they are about a country away from Germany at this point. To me, optimism is hope in this scenario, because the more optimistic you are in those times, the more hopeful you tend to be. If the whole public is feeling hopeful that Russia will break into Germany soon, that gives them another reason to keep on living, or more of a will to live. The final bit of text that will take a little more explaining is found in Friday, 21 July, 1944's entry, and it says, "An attempt has been made on Hitler's life, and not even by Jewish communists or English capitalists this time, but by a proud German general . . . ." (Frank 264). Fun fact, that general is Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (Have fun trying to say that!) At least for this instance, I see this as a high ranking German officer who is hoping for the war to end, and/or hoping to come to power through the assassination of the current leader. The news of this would help those against Hitler and his regime gain more hope of the war ending soon, giving them more of a will to live. As for those that liked Hitler, sorry, you're out of luck.

So that there was some text to help explain how I came to the conclusion that one of the many themes of Anne Frank was that hope can give someone the will to live during the hardest of times. This will probably be the last you here of me, so I hope you learned something from the last blog post I that I post. To end this, I'd like to here what you guys think about my theme and what you thought some other themes could be.

Once you have finished the book, determine what the theme of the book is and analyze it using textual evidence from the entire book. Remember theme is a general statement about life or people.

What Is The Theme?

              Theme is debatable the most important part of the story, it tells readers what the entire story is about and can even teach a life lesson. An example of theme inside a story would be courage or bravery in the diary of Anne Frank. 

Bravery is one puzzle piece in a sea
of themes

               

              With courage you can tackle any obstacle that is thrown your way. One text that explains that is: "It is as if the whole word had turned upside down. But I am still alive" (Frank 13). This text perfectly explains how Anne's mood has changed into a more serious or courageous person, knowing that she must change because the world around her is changing.

                Another thing bravery can teach you is that you can never be stopped by a problem or a conflict and that if you put your mind to it you can take it down. One thing that Anne's dad tells her is: 

                ""Make the most of your carefree young life while you can." That was all. Oh, may the fulfillment of these somber words remain far distant years!" (Frank 13). 

                This sentence alone expresses how Anne's world and life will change and that she recognizes it and that those words will always be there for her. Anne powered through the tough years in the annex with courage. If she was scared the entire way she and everyone else would not have made it through.

Any one can have courage

                One final thing that the author knows is without bravery or courage a person could not take on the new challenges that arise throughout life. A final challenge that arose was: "It was a great shock to me, a call-up; everyone knows what that means. I picture concentration camps and lonely cells- should we allow him to be doomed to this?" (Frank 13). This can give the greatest obstacle that the Franks have ever faced as a family and that is having a member being ripped away from the rest of them.

                To summarize up the theme of Anne Frank is that if a person was bravery they can do anything they put their mind to. Even in real life you see courage everyday even if it is something as simple as answering a question in class to joining the armed forces. What do you think would have changed if Anne's family did not have courage? Do you think anyone else in the story had courage? What other themes did you find while reading Anne Frank?

After reading the 3rd chunk of Anne Frank, analyze two symbols in detail. Why are they important symbols in the diary and what do they symbolize?

Seeing Things in a Deeper Perspective

Throughout the entire book there are little things that mean so much in the grand scheme of things. As I continue reading the book I have noticed things that keep coming up over and over again that symbolize deeper meanings than the reader may have initially thought.

ANNE’S DIARY

Anne’s diary obviously is a key symbol that keeps coming up in the book. Her diary in my eyes represents trustworthiness, because I think Anne knows that she can write her feelings down and that no one ever needed to see them. She trusted her diary, I think more than any other person in the annexe. On Thursday, March 16, 1944 Anne wrote, “But, still the brightest spot of all is that at least I can write down my thoughts and feelings, otherwise I would be absolutely stifled!” (Frank 177). Anne wrote in her diary for a really long time, so she trusted that she could always go to it to express how she is feeling. Perhaps her diary was there for her and supported her more than any other individual person in the annexe.

I think that Anne thought of her diary as her best friend because she didn't really have anyone she could trust more with her thoughts than Kitty. Her diary also represents friendship. Anne can tell her diary anything and everything that goes on in her life and even things from the past, and I think they were such great friends because they could not judge each other the way that two people could. I think that her diary is treated as a member of the family and Anne wants to keep her safe just as much as any other person in the annexe. On January 7, 1944, She wrote “I am quite forgetting that I have never told you the history of myself and all of my boyfriends” (Frank 133). Anne talks to her diary the way that normal teenage girls typically did in that time period, and some today. She overall can vent all of her feelings to Kitty and know that she always can.

LETTERS FROM MARGOT

Another symbol that showed up toward the middle to end of the book is the letters that Margot and Anne send back and forth regarding Peter. Those letters represent a way for the two of them to be honest with each other without having to face each other directly. I think when you're in a face to face conversation about a touchy topic, true feelings may not be expressed, so the letters give them a way to confide to each other. In one of the letters that they wrote, Margot said, “‘Anne, when I said yesterday that I was not jealous of you I was only fifty per cent honest’” (Frank 182). I think it is easier to be honest with someone when you cannot see their emotions and or they could not see yours.

In response to Margot’s letter, Anne wrote,“‘Also it’s easier to whisper out feelings rather than to trumpet them forth out loud”’ (Frank 183). When Anne wrote “to whisper out feelings” I think the was referring to writing the letters to each other, and “Trumpet them forth out loud” she meant a face to face conversation. When writing a letter to someone you would have time to think about what you wanted to say rather than blurting out the wrong thing in a face to face conversation.

CONCLUSION

There are so many little thing in Anne’s diary that mean so much more than just what meets the eye. Anne’s diary and the letters mean a lot more than I would have originally thought. I wonder if Anne explained what every little thing meant to her, how the readers perspective of the book would change?

After reading the 3rd chunk of Anne Frank, analyze two symbols in detail. Why are they important symbols in the diary and what do they symbolize?

What are some of the symbols in Anne Frank?

Front Cover of Anne Frank's actual diary

       Once again, Alex here. Yet again, our teacher asked us to do something while reading Anne Frank, and expected our posts to be shorter, which will be explained in a second. She asked us to think of two symbols and what they might mean to Anne, and maybe others in the Annex, because, you know, what else are you going to analyze while reading a diary. You know this should just be the basic protocol- give the symbol and what it symbolizes, provide some text, and explain that text. Well, I am sorry to say that this post is not short, but is actually 1056 words long, and you have 933 words left to read after this sentence, including the captions for the pictures. Have fun! Anyways, I've got two symbols, one that just came straight to my head when the teachers were explaining what we would be doing, and another that took a little more time to come up with. So, let us hop into this before I ramble on too much.

       The first symbol we'll talk about is the one that jumped to mind when the teachers were explaining what we'd be doing. It is her actual diary (pictured left, for all of you that haven't noticed). To Anne, it is something that she can tell all of her feelings and vent out into if things aren't going her way. This is seen multiple times throughout the diary, and one of them is shown in the entry for Saturday, 30 January, 1943, and it says, "I'm boiling with rage, yet I mustn't show it," (Frank 64). Without the diary that she so often puts her feelings into, her emotions and feelings would just bottle up until she would eventually explode at the tiniest thing that ticks her off. This makes the diary kind of like a true friend, except it won't yell at you or be disappointed in you for doing something weird or outrageous, and it will still stick with you no matter what. From what Anne says on Tuesday, 11 April, 1944's nine and a half page entry (she must have had a lot of free time that day), you can tell how attached to it she is, as she wrote, "'Then they will find Anne's diary,' added Daddy. 'Burn it then,' suggested the most terrified member of the party. This, and when the police rattled the cupboard door, were my worst moments. 'Not my diary; if my diary goes, I go with it!'" (Frank 203). She would rather be dead then not have her diary, kind of like how some really great friends would rather lay down their lives for their friend instead of having their friend die. In both cases, one cannot live without the other. So, to Anne, the diary symbolizes a true friend that will stick with her no matter what.

       

The attic window that Anne and Peter
often looked out of together.

       The other symbol I chose is the attic window and the outdoors, since the two seem to go hand-in-hand. The outdoors represents freedom, and the window represents what is keeping her from that freedom. Before giving the usual text and explanation, I have one thing to point out: her story seems a whole heck of a lot like that of a prisoner in prison. She so longs to go outside, to be free of all of the hiding and bad times in the Annex, and she can see this through the window, but it is keeping her from that, and it represents the horrors that will come if she is caught or leaves the Secret Annex. The tale seems so much like that of a prisoner in jail that I couldn't help but to point that out. But now, back to your regularly scheduled text support. You can tell that she thinks as the outdoors as freedom and something that can help cure a lot of the bad parts in life from what she wrote in Wednesday, 23 February, 1944's entry, and it says, "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside . . . ." (Frank 158). Let's see (rustling of papers) afraid, yep, lonely, about 20 or so pages that she mentions that, and unhappy . . . ladies and gentlemen, we have a fit! After the break-ins, the families in the Secret  Annex are afraid of being caught. Anne wrote all the time about how she was so lonely before Peter, and now writes about how lonely she is when she is not in his presence. As for unhappy, the constant flow of arguments and lack of sufficient food should tell you something. So Anne longs to go outside, where she would be free from all of those emotions, which seems to explain her association with outdoors and freedom. And that would only happen when the Nazi's are gone, when they would truly be free. As for support for the fact that the window symbolizes her being trapped, you can kind of just guess that from the context clues. They always have curtains up on the windows that hide what is going on inside the Annex from the outside. In the Annex, they forbade her and Peter from looking out the window from time x to time y at night, out of fear of having even a sliver a light being seen through a gap in the curtains. The window is the barrier between the Secret Annex and the real world, and Anne wants to escape from the Annex and be free, but she has to stay in the house, and the window kind of taunts her with the fact that just outside them is freedom, but she can not go out and experience that.
So, there were a few examples of symbols that exist in Anne’s world: her diary being friendship, the outdoors, freedom, and the attic window representing her being trapped. They are kind of easy ones to point out, but with proper explaining, some new, less obvious ideas about them can be formulated. Which leads me to my questions: Do you guys have something else to add about any of the symbols? Or can you guys think of any other ideas about what any of the symbols I mentioned could possibly mean?

Blog Post #3- After reading the 3rd chunk of Anne Frank, analyze two symbols in detail. Why are they important symbols in the diary and what do they symbolize?

What Do The Symbols Mean

Anne felt calm looking through a
window into a different world

           Anne has used many symbols to help her understand and express her feelings, symbols can be any concrete object that you can touch or even feel. One symbol that Anne uses is the window in the attic of the annex. One piece of text to help explain this symbols would be: 

           ""As long as this exists," I thought, "And I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts. I cannot be unhappy"" (Frank 158).

           The object in this case would be the window, this could also mean the outside world or even her longings for the outside world. All of these could represent hope and happiness, it may show two different worlds, the annex world and the outside world, one last thing it could be is freedom. Knowing that whatever goes on in her world, this view will always make her feel that she has something to live for.      

            As well as the window in the attic another quote that symbolizes something is:

  

            "When I looked into the candle this evening I felt calm and happy. Oma seems to be in the candle and it is Oma too who shelters and protects me and who always makes me feel happy again" (Frank 164). 

Anne "found" Oma in a candle

            This quote helps the readers know that Anne has made a connection with a candle and the object that ties them together is her Grandma Oma. Anne now is starting to feel safe whenever she is by this candle. This candle and Oma  represent a couple of things, it can represent happiness, security, and it gives Anne something to help her cope with what is going on in the annex and the outside world. Oma's spirit can help Anne get through her daily life and if she needs someone she might go to Oma.

             Finally, to wrap up a few symbols is this quote from when Anne and Margot wrote letters to each other:

             "Reply: Dear Margot, Keep your courage up! Like I do. Although it's not always easy, your time may come sooner than you think. Yours, Anne" (Frank 185). 

Anne and Margot sent letters back and forth

         
              In this letter to Margot the symbol simply is the letters and how they send them back in forth between one another. This could mean that they are bonding together, this may even help them both cope with the conflicts in and out of the annex.

             

             To summarize this post about symbols, even simple items or ideas can help a person deal with an situation. This is why it is important to include them in a story, and important for the reader to dig deeper and search for those items and explain there meanings. How important do you think symbols mean to Anne? Do you think they have impacted her thoughts and feelings? What other symbols have you found throughout the story?