Anne Frank, the protagonist, is a 13-year-old Jewish girl living through the Holocaust. When the story begins, Anne is living with her family in Holland. At school, Anne is referred to as a “chatterbox” by her teacher (pg. 6). She is a very bright student, overall, getting “five for algebra, two sixes, and the rest were all sevens or eights.” (pg. 12) Anne starts writing in her diary because she has no genuine friends that she can talk to: “Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a girl of thirteen feels herself quite alone in the world, nor is it so…I know about thirty people whom one might call friends…but it’s the same with all my friends, just fun and joking, nothing more.” (pg. 3)
Anne has a mother and father and an older sister who is sixteen. While Anne says she lacks confidence, she is comfortable talking to boys her age and has a boyfriend named Harry, and can talk and joke with her teachers. Anne’s life changes when her family has to leave Holland to escape the Nazis. She packed sentimental items as, unlike the others, Anne fines “memories are more to [her] than dresses.” (pg. 14) As they start their new life in hiding in Amsterdam, we learn more about Anne’s relationship with her family. Like a typical 13-year-old girl, she often has disagreements with her mom and prefers her dad’s company. While it’s still early in their hiding, Anne has an upbeat and positive personality and tends to look at the bright side of things, even at the darkest points. For example, Anne decorates her room picture postcards and her film star collection. “It is lovely weather and in spite of everything we can make the most we can of it by lying on a camp bed in the attic, where the sun shines through an open window.” (pg. 24) Her diary documents her journey.
