Final Blog Post

The whole book was very good because I learned how she lived her life to the fullest and also how she was doing during the Holocaust. She was a good writer and always wrote about things she loved and things she observed while she was in hiding. Sometimes she wrote about things that she didn't like when she was in hiding, and her struggles with the people she was living with. Anne wrote about the person she loved, and how she would sometimes get in a fight with her mom because they wouldn’t agree on things that Anne would like to do. Anne wouldn't agree with things her mom thought were okay because she liked her dad more than her mom. Throughout the whole book I notice the theme “Hope” because in every diary entry Anne would always have a positive attitude toward everyone she would meet and would always be happy even though she was living in a very bad time during the Holocaust. The thing that I didn't like about the end of the book was when they found her in the hiding place and sent her off to a camp with her family and died there when the war was over. If Anne was still alive she would of been a good writer and made a lot of brand new stories up till now.

Throughout this whole unit I have learned about a lot of interesting things that occurred during the Holocaust and I really enjoyed learning about this unit. I learned about the Holocaust in 6th grade but my teacher didn't teach us that much stuff about things we have learned now that occurred during that time. I liked learning it more in 8th grade because both Miss. Tesmer and Mrs. Stansbury teached us  a lot of more stuff and everything they showed was more clear and I understood it more this year than when I was in 6th grade. I liked learning about this unit that happen during that period of time. I also like how teachers are doing everything they can to teach it to the next generations that are going to come into the 8th grade after me because everyone needs to learn about this time in history was the worst there ever were and that it can happen again if teachers wouldn’t teach this to students in school. The things that I learned about the blogging project is that if you blog about a specific time in history and post it on a blog page and people comment on your blog post, they would agree with the things you have to say but sometimes they would disagree. Because things like the Holocaust everyone has a voice to say what they want and do what they want because everyone in this world has a voice and with that voice you can change a lot of things, you just have to try. People back then couldn’t say what they wanted because either they were tortured or killed, that is why the blogging project is a great thing that we got to do in class.

Final Post

One theme that was showed throughout the whole book is Fear. Fear was one major theme in the novel because she lived in fear of getting caught while she was hiding, feared what was happening outside of The Secret Annex, not knowing when she’s going back home and back to living her life, etc. I liked this book because it was interesting hearing about someone going through the Holocaust and what they did to cope with their experience. The book was good although  I thought it would end a little differently.

Overall I liked the project. It was interesting to see what other people’s opinions were.   From reading the book I learned that the Holocaust had different effects on people and others coped differently with the whole situation. From doing the blogging project I learned that other people have different opinions and I learned to be open minded. I  think that teenagers should be a part of this because it teaches you about history around the world. Also that fact that teenagers are going to be the ones that influence our generation can know what's right and wrong, and know what the consequences of some things may be. Things like the Holocaust can happen again if people let the wrong things happen and don’t stop them. Another reason teenagers should be a part of this is because it teaches you how to not be a bystander, but an upstander because if you don’t stand up for what’s right and wrong then things can happen.

The War Is Changing Everyone

“Relations between us here are getting worse all the time. At mealtimes no one dares to open their mouths (except to allow a mouthful of food to slip in) because whatever is said you either annoy someone or it is misunderstood. I swallow Valerin pills every day against worry and depression, but it doesn't prevent me from being even more miserable the next day.” - Anne, page 109, The Diary Of A Young Girl

During the Holocaust Jewish people during 1943 started to change their personality, emotions, and their physical appearance because how they were being treated and also because how they are being tortured  in camps or in the ghetto with a lot of people who are different from them. Another reason why they change themselves is because how the Nazis be treating the Jews, especially when they kill them. When the Jews are seeing this they change themselves because they don't want to be caught up or be in the killing that the Nazis did to the people. I think what Anne is trying to say is that she is living with people that each day are getting worse because they are tired of hiding and they are starving to death.They want everything to go back to normal and they want to come out of hiding and just want the war to be over.

I can see the situation Anne and the people that she is living with are all changing because of the war. I think before the war, and before Hitler took over. Everyone were happy and they didn't have to worry about anything but because of the war all the Jewish people and the other people that were in ghettos or in a camp they changed. Because they were living a terrifying time period in a bad place, where people were being killed and forced to work.Their emotions had change to a good person who before the war was always happy and kind but because the war was going on and they saw everyday a person being killed or shot to death or a dead person laying down in the streets they turned into a sad, depressed, and a emotionless person.

Behavior

“I must tell you that I really am trying to be helpful, friendly, and good and to do everything I can so that the rain of rebukes dies down to a light summer drizzle.It is mighty difficult to be on such model behavior with people you cant bear,especially when you don't even mean a word of it.”-Anne, page 84, The Diary Of A Young Girl

I think what Anne is trying to say is that she is trying to be nice and respectful to the people that  is living with her because she is hiding with people. Anne probably might not like the people that she is living with, but she said that she is trying to be friendly and good to them because Anne has been mean to her mom lately, but Anne might not mean or show any of that in herself but she is trying deep in her heart to be more kind to her mom.

I can relate to this quote because at home I can be sometimes really mean to my parents and my brothers. My parents always tell me to behave myself if I get in a fight with my brothers or talk back. I try so hard not to talk back to my parents and my brothers but because I have been talking back often now it is a habit to try to keep my mouth shut and not say anything. Parents always wonder why do kids talk back - they think us as teens do it because we want to get them mad or because it is funny, but actually we talk back because we want to explain to our parents about the things they yell at us for - that it isn't true - that is why we talk back. I promised my parents that I will try to be a nice and a good person and that I will start behaving better even more than I am.

I Will Never Feel Really At Home In This House

"I  expect you will be interested to hear what it will feel like to ¨disappear¨; well ,all I can say is that I don't know myself yet. I don't think I shall ever feel really at home in this house,but that does not mean that I loathe it here ,it is more like being on vacation in a very peculiar boardinghouse. Rather a mad idea , perhaps, but that is how it strikes me". -Anne, pg 20, The Diary Of A Young Girl

I think what Anne meant was that she didn't want to go into hiding because she wouldn't have time to gather all her belongings on time and plus, she was going to leave some of her things behind because in the Holocaust when the Nazi police went into peoples houses they asked them to gather all their things that they can possibly bring with them. Some of them didn't want to go, but they had to because it was a choiceless choice for them to make because they had to go into one of the camps, even the rich people had to go because they thought that because they had a lot of money that they will bribe the Nazi police from getting what all the rest of the people were getting, tortured. They might have wanted to convince them to stay in their home but they still had to go to a camp. That is what Anne Frank was trying to say.

This reminds me when the time I had to move from my house when I was in 6th grade. I didn't want to move from my house because I loved living there, my family and I have lived in that house for 8 years even though how much I didn't want to pack and switch to another house I still had to move to my new house. I personally also felt like the people back then that lived during the Holocaust because they were comfortable in their homes and when the Nazi came to their door and told them that they had to move from their house they might of didn’t want to move because they loved living in their house that is how I can relate to how Anne and all those other people that lived during the Holocaust.

Living

“I expect you will be interested to hear what it feels like to ‘disappear’; well, all I can say is that I don’t know myself yet. I don’t think I shall ever feel really at home in this house.” -Anne, pg. 20, Anne Frank The Diary Of A Young Girl

Going into hiding in a place you don’t really know must be scary. You’d never expect it’d happen to you. But you have to go into hiding just to be keep safe. And I’m sure anyone who went into hiding felt the same way. This goes is protection, because everything Anne and her family are doing is to keep them safe and alive and that’s what they have to remind themselves.

This book goes back to the theme fear and loss. It relates to fear because Anne and her whole family were feeling fear because they have to live in a special place, and hiding from the Nazis. Knowing that they can’t leave the small space their in must be frightening. Not knowing when they’ll be able to go back home. And this relates to loss because they basically lost their whole normal lives, and they don’t know how long until they can go back home. This reminds me of orphans because they might not consider the orphanage a home, and they might feel fear because they don’t know when they’ll have a normal life with a real family and home.

Do you agree?

In her diary, Anne Frank wrote that she believed “most people are good.”  Do you agree with Anne?  If so, why, and if not, why not?   (Echoes and Reflections)

I agree with Anne because I believe everyone has good intentions but sometimes they don’t always show them.This reminds me of the saying “Bad decisions, good intentions”.  Everyone has some good qualities no matter what they do, and they have reason for what they do no matter how wonderful or horrible it is. You may not agree or understand on what they do but everyone has a bad side and are capable of doing bad things. Some people show their bad side more than others. Some people have done terrible things and they won't be considered a “good” person but you have to think that everyone has done at least one good thing in their life. For example, in the movie The Pianist the Jewish officers go against their own people but one officer saves a Jewish man from going into a camp. So this shows that people may do bad things to survive but they are still good deep down.