1
TASKSHEET: The narrative conventions of diaries –
AnneFrank, the Diary of a Young Girl
Instruction:
Read the extract from Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girland then answer the questions below.
Extract fromAnne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl
Saturday 20 June 1942
Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve
never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor
anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Oh well, it
doesn’t matter. I feel like writing, and I have an even greater need to get all kinds of things
off my chest.
“Paper has more patience than people.” I thought of this saying on one of those days
when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands,
bored and listless, wondering whether to stay in or go out. I finally stayed where I was,
brooding. Yes, paper does have more patience, and since I’m not planning to let anyone else
read this stiff-backed notebook grandly referred to as a ‘diary’, unless I should ever find a real
friend, it probably won’t make a bit of difference.
Now I’m back to the point that prompted me to keep a diary in the first place: I don’t have
a friend.
To enhance the image of this long-awaited friend in my imagination, I don’t want to jot
down the facts in this diary the way most people would do, but I want the diary to be my
friend, and I’m going to call this friendKitty.
Questions:
1How do you know the diary is private and not for a large audience?
2Looking at the extract above, would you agree that diaries are usually written by ordinary people? How does the narrator see herself? How do you see her?
3What is the narrator’s reason for keeping a diary?
4Describe the style of writing and narrative voice.
5Do you agree that diaries “record the everyday”? Find out more about Anne Frank’s diary, and decide whether she does more than this.
6Millions of readers have been fascinated by Anne’s diary. Based on the above extract, why do you think this is so?
7Diaries are narratives of the self. But does the self exist in isolation? What else does Anne Frank write about?
8When we read a diary, there is usually a contrast between what the writer knows at the time of writing, and what we as readers know happened. How does this impact on our reading of Anne Frank’s diary?
9Group project: Research the life and times of Anne Frank, and write your own biography of her life. Include a bibliography of four to six sources of information that you used for your research.
© Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd 2013. From Oxford Practical Teaching English Literature: How to teach Grades 8–12. You may modify, print and photocopy this document solely for use in your classes.