The Diary of a Young Girl

Isolation appears in The Diary of a Young Girl in a couple of ways. First, Anne feels isolated from her classmates, her friends, and even her own family. Even early in her diary, she claims that she has no confidant and “can’t bring [her]self to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things” (13). Even her relationship with her father, whom she loves more than her mother, grows more distant and strained over time. After months of hiding in close quarters with others, Anne writes, “I’d like nothing better than to do without their company for a while, and they don’t understand that” (182). However, Anne’s relationship with her sister Margot does improve, and she finds a confidant in Peter van Daan.

Second, there is also the isolation the Secret Annex residents feel as Jews. Anne writes of her people as “the most oppressed, unfortunate and pitiable people in all the world” (245) who are subjected to bigotry from the anti-German resistance in the Netherlands. Anne is aware that her Jewish identity will always set her apart, writing, “We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well” (214). Still, she finds comfort in the fact that “we’ll want to be [Jews]” (214) even after the war.